Short-handed Miami Heat no match for Oklahoma City Thunder

Missing its two point guards, the Miami Heat team couldn’t find its groove against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It’s been a rough road trip for the Miami Heat, who were banged up by the time they got to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder Sunday.

Despite going into halftime within two points, the Heat got blown out in the second half. The Thunder came out and outscored the Heat 31-16 in the third quarter, and didn’t look back. The fourth quarter was mostly a formality.

Without Goran Dragic or Beno Udrih, the Heat had a hard time finding any consistency on offense.

The Heat played just three guards all game, with Dwyane Wade handling point guard duties for most of it. That limited Wade, who turned 34 Sunday, from going to his bag of tricks in the post as much as he would like.

Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson played key minutes, but don’t bring the creativity that Dragic brings or have the veteran savvy of someone like Udrih. Johnson did score, but is still learning how to best get his teammates involved and run an offense.

Miami’s offense was also killed by a lack of spacing, and Chris Bosh struggling with his shot only compounded the muck of the offense. Miami shot just 41.7 percent from the field, including making just four of 14 shots from beyond the arc. Overall, the Thunder didn’t do much better. However, OKC did shoot better than 50 percent in the second half.

The Heat just ran out of gas, and out of players.

Three stars

Happy birthday to Dwyane Wade, who turned 34 Sunday and scored 22 points in 29 minutes.

Hassan Whiteside had a double-double, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He also hit a few nice jumpers in the game, for better or worse.

Tyler Johnson finished with 16 points on 7-12 shooting, six rebounds and four assists. Give him credit, he hustled all game, diving for loose balls and fighting through traffic to get shots. He’s just not ready to run an offense just yet.

Highlights

Up next

The Miami Heat go back home for a game against the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday, before they hit the road again.