Good, bad & beautiful from Heat's dominating win over 76ers

In what seemed to be another brutal home loss ensuing against a reeling Philadelphia 76ers team, a strong Jimmy Butler return and crisp rotations from coach Erik Spoelstra flipped the momentum in the Miami Heat's favor as they cruised to a 106-89 victory against the 76ers Monday night at the Kaseya Center.

It has been a struggle for the Heat to win at home this season and it was refreshing to see Miami put together one of their best outings of the year. Let's take a look at the highs and lows from Monday night's victory over the 76ers,

The bad: Heat's first half offense

With the return of Jimmy Butler and a new starting lineup with Duncan Robinson now being in the fold, the Heat's offense took a long time to find any sort of groove. Besides an early Jimmy Butler burst, the Heat were careless with the basketball and could not buy a three.

Tyler Herro, who has carried the Heat in the scoring category had one of his worst halves of the season, scoring only two points. The offensive woes played a large part into why the Heat fell down 19 points to a team with only two wins. Thankfully, the Heat managed to turn the game around with key bench contributions from Dru Smith and Alec Burks along with the offense finding a pulse in the second half.

The good: No third quarter issues

Entering Monday night's game, the Miami Heat were becoming infamous for being the worst third-quarter team in the league, with multiple instances of blowing leads or digging a double-digit hole.

But in this instance, the Heat shocked everyone by putting together their best third quarter of the season. They out-scored the 76ers 35-16 and blew the game open. The two main factors were the 3-pointers falling and Tyler Herro's 16-point burst in the third.

With only four 3-pointers made in the first half, four out of Miami's five opening makes in the third quarter came from beyond the arc with two apiece from Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson and one from Jimmy Butler. The barrage continued after with Haywood Highsmith and Kevin Love also sinking a three.

When it came to Herro's outburst, Herro did a great job of finishing at the rim either from attacking downhill on a fast break or getting by his defender after finding a favorable matchup.

Coupled with Miami's suffocating defense leading to tough shots and turnovers with multiple traps and recoveries whenever Joel Embiid, Jared McCain or Paul George were on the ball, the Heat managed to build a 14-point lead in the fourth and never looked back.

The Beautiful: Jimmy Butler's triumphant return

While it was fun to see Herro have explosive scoring outbursts and others stepping up in Butler's absence, it was clear that Butler's presence was missed. With Butler gone, the Heat could not exploit mismatches as often on offense and would have to rely on jump shots falling often.

Early in the matchup, Butler fully displayed his ability to draw fouls and get to the line, making a perfect 13-for-13 at the charity stripe. Butler's relentless effort on 50/50 balls also gave Miami extra possessions and at times resulted in Butler getting fouled and going to the line for points.

Defensively, Butler still has a great knack for anticipating passes and making teams pay for being careless. This was displayed early in the game as Butler stole a lazy entry pass from McCain and scored a quick two on the other end.

Overall, Butler finished with a season-high 30 points and 10 rebounds, despite only 12 shots attempted.

There has been a lot of back-and-forth amongst Heat Nation regarding whether Butler should be traded, but three things are clear. One is that there are no indications that the Heat want to move Butler as they want to contend. Second, the Heat are at their best when Butler is playing at the top of his game and will need consistent high-level play to be a true contender. And lastly, it's always a pleasure to see a masterclass performance from Butler and each one should be appreciated before his time is up in a Heat uniform.