Grading Bam Adebayo, 2 more Heat performances in disappointing loss to Suns

The Miami Heat appeared to flip the script in the third quarter, building a 15-point lead on the road against the one-loss Phoenix Suns. But with three minutes left in the third, Phoenix cut the lead to two in the blink of an eye, and a scorching hot Kevin Durant and poor late-game execution highlighted by a disastrous final possession led to a 115-112 defeat against the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night at the Footprint Center.

Miami has been unable to put together a complete game against playoff-caliber teams in large part due to inconsistent performances. But before we get to that, let's hand out letter grades for the two best performances of the night.

Haywood Highsmith: A

The early portion of the season has been a roller coaster for Haywood Highsmith, as there have been instances where Highsmith would not even touch the court. But on Wednesday night, Highsmith checked into the game in the first quarter and put together arguably the best game of his career, finishing with 19 points on 7-for-8 shooting and had multiple clutch plays to keep Miami in it.

Highsmith was active on the defensive end and had a few possessions that resulted in a steal and a fastbreak score for Miami which was rare to see given how many easy layups Miami missed in this game.

In the fourth quarter, Highsmith had a fair share of clutch moments as Highsmith came up with an offensive rebound was fouled by Royce O'Neale on the layup attempt. Highsmith went to the line and made both free throws to tie the game at 101.

And with seconds left, Highsmith drove the ball to the rim and made Jusuf Nurkic fall for the pump fake, creating contact and finishing the and-1 opportunity to cut the Suns lead to two.

Highsmith unfortunately fell victim to Durant's tough shot making in the fouth, but when one of the greatest scorers of all time gets it going, there isn't anyone who is capable of stopping Durant one-on-one.

Erik Spoelstra decided to start Highsmith over Nikola Jovic in the second half, and with this performance, I expect Highsmith to either start going forward or be a part of the closing lineup.

Tyler Herro: A

Enough can't be said about how well Tyler Herro has played this season. In each game, Herro has come out of the gates guns blazing and has been a huge part as to why Miami has built leads going into the second half.

In Wednesday night's game, Herro was scoring early and often from three, with his first two-point field goal coming in the second half of the game. Herro's hot start from three set up his drives to the basket that finished in layups or assists with one of his dimes resulting in a lob to Bam Adebayo.

Overall, Herro finished as Miami's leading scorer with 28 points and five made threes. Herro also tied with Bam Adebayo for most assists in the game with six. Herro has been Miami's most consistent starter by far and hopefully the great play from Herro continues as so far Herro has been an elite floor spacer and a really good scorer.

Bam Adebayo: C-

Tonight was a very rough game from Bam Adebayo on the offensive side of the ball. Adebayo started the game 1-for-10 and a fair amount of looks Adebayo got were at point-blank range with one miss being a hook shot over the much smaller Bradley Beal.

On the few Adebayo scores, Adebayo was explosive going to the rim and either saw there was little to no size in the paint or used his speed to get by Nurkic as he did in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, that was not seen enough.

Adebayo still managed to have double-digit rebounds with 12 and had his fair share of defensive moments such as the block on Devin Booker. But Adebayo is capable of being a force on both ends of the court and has proved that on multiple occassions when the spotlight is at it's brightest.

Adebayo has two big challenges ahead of him with his next two matchups being Nikola Jokic and Rudy Gobert. Miami will need a much better version of Adebayo to win on the road at Denver and at Minnesota, two places that have been a house of horrors for the Heat.