13 thoughts on the Heat’s loss to the Knicks, including needing more from Bam Adebayo
By Wes Goldberg
With Jimmy Butler sidelined with a sprained right ankle, Miami Heat lost to the New York Knicks, 111-105, in Game 2 on Tuesday night. The series is tied 1-1.
1. This is what it looks like when one team has it’s closer, and the Heat do not.
2. The Heat got contributions from Caleb Martin (22 points), Gabe Vincent (21), Max Strus (17) and Bam Adebayo (16 points, eight rebounds and six assist), but struggled to close with their star player on the bench in Alo Yoga-branded street clothes.
3. Vincent and Martin combined to score Miami’s first 19 points of the fourth quarter, but the Heat got little else after that.
4. In fact, the Heat went scoreless for more than two minutes while the Knicks went on an 8-0 run.
5. Jalen Brunson scored 10 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer during New York’s run that gave the Knicks a permanent lead.
6. Meanwhile, Adebayo took just one shot, and scored two points, during the fourth quarter. The Heat needed more from him, particularly on a night when they were missing Butler. Adebayo is the only player who can tilt matchups with his physicality, and he was much too passive. He finished the game with 10 field goal attempts — not enough.
We got glimpses of Bam’s aggression. Plays in which he used his dexterity to score against the bigger Mitchell Robinson…
Or finished through contact in the pick-and-roll…
7. It wasn’t nearly enough. Adebayo was an important table-setter in this game, a central cog of Miami’s side-to-side ball movement that generated a playoff-high 49 3-point attempts (of which the Heat made 34.7%), but this game was begging for a Bam moment. A six-to-eight point run made up of midrange jumpers, dives to the basket and putbacks. Vincent had moments. Martin had moments. Strus had moments. The Adebayo moment never came.
8. Still, the Heat without Butler, Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo lost by just six to a full Knicks squad. They still managed to score at a rate of 119.3 points per 100 possessions.
9. The issue was the defense, which allowed the Knicks to score at a blistering rate of 127.6 points per 100 possessions. It could be argued that this is where Butler’s presence was missed the most.
10. Butler had been Miami’s go-to defender against Brunson late in the regular-season meetings and in Game 1. Brunson made tough shots, but they have to show more of a contest when Brunson comes off screens like this.
11. The Heat have already made several adjustments to their defense on Brunson. He figured them out. That’s what great players do. Credit to him. The Heat will have more adjustments.
12. Side note: The shot-clock violation the Heat were called for with 3:05 to go? Not eligible to be challenged, according to Spoelstra. Martin’s heave at the buzzer appeared to graze the rim, and Vincent rebounded the ball and scored. If the official would have seen it, the Heat would have but down one and gotten a chance to set up their half-court defense. Instead, Brunson scored on a transition layup to give the Knicks a five-point lead. Tough break.
13. Game 3 will played at Kaseya Center in Miami on Saturday, giving Butler five days off between games. The Heat hope he will be available. They’ll need him.