The Miami Heat lost to the Utah Jazz tonight, 102-91, and fall to 2-6 on the season. With a trip to San Antonio on the docket, this season is going to get uglier before it gets better.
After a nice first half by Miami, which saw them go toe-to-toe against one of the better teams in the Western conference, the offense simply imploded in the third quarter. The Heat couldn’t get anything to fall; jumpers, layups, free throws, nothing would go down.
Credit should be given to the Utah Jazz who are one of the better defensive teams in the NBA. However, they were without their starting point guard George Hill, who is an avid defender and a 20 point-per-game scorer this season. Also, their starting power forward Derrick Favors, who is a force inside, played 5 minutes before tweaking his knee and missing the rest of the game.
It would’ve been nice to see Miami take advantage of those two major losses and make it interesting late, but they simply got manhandled in the second half. The third quarter saw the Heat shoot 26% from the field (6-of-23 to be exact), and allow their deficit to grow from 5 to an insurmountable 17. Utah held Miami to 12 points in the period, and they never looked back.
Goran Dragic did miss the game for Miami with a sprained left ankle, and there’s no doubt his presence would have been beneficial during the second half.
On the night, the Heat only made 5 threes (shooting 29% from deep) and missed 9 of their 19 free throw attempts. Those two statistics directly correlate with how teams lose basketball games.
The Heat are simply a mess on offense. Miami is a league-worst 51% at shots within 5-feet of the basket. The team also really struggles at getting to the foul line. When they do, they don’t convert their chances anyways: the team shoots FT’s at a 71% clip, which is the second worst percentage in the NBA.
It’s going to take a lot for Miami to turn this around and start scoring at a respectable clip. Most of their key players are young though, so there’s definitely a chance they start translating their easy opportunities into made baskets.
Gordan Hayward led the way for Utah, dominating whoever Miami put in front of him. He finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists. Rudy Gobert was a monster down low, finishing with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks. Defensively, he made life really difficult for Hassan Whiteside.
We look further into the Heat’s individual night’s here in the post-game grades:
Luke Babbitt was ineffective once again, going scoreless in 5 minutes of action, which led to Derrick Williams starting the second half. Williams played decently, finishing the night with 11 points and 4 rebounds. Rodney McGruder also had a respectable game; he defended pretty well and made 3 threes on his way to 14 points.
Next up for Miami is a trip to the AT&T Center to face the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night. Tip-off is at 8:30.