After three consecutive wins, the Miami Heat had their win streak ended in ugly fashion with a 109-98 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers Monday night at Intuit Dome. With Bam Adebayo out, Miami's defense was figured out in the second half, and no player outside of Tyler Herro could create their own shot, resulting in a high volume of 3-pointers that were mostly missed.
A major flaw was revealed in Los Angeles
Despite Adebayo's off year offensively, there is no denying that Adebayo's defense and screen setting is very valuable to the team. As displayed on Monday, whenever Herro was placed on the bench, the Heat could not generate any clean looks. Players such as Duncan Robinson get a lot of their shots off of Adebayo's dribble hand off leading to a bone crushing screen that sets them free.
To summarize how bad Miami's offense was tonight, the Heat scored 35 points in the first quarter in large part due to threes falling and Herro being great. In the next two quarters, the Heat managed to only score a dreadful 33 points, causing them to fall behind by double digits entering the fourth after having a lead as big as 13 in the first half.
In times where the offense struggles, Heat fans would be accustomed to seeing Jimmy Butler get the ball and either score on his own, get to the basket to draw an open look for a teammate or get to the foul line to score some easy points. Although Butler's suspension is set to come to an end on Friday, with skeletons starting to come out of the closet, I would be stunned if Butler returns to the team.
Terry Rozier was acquired last season for that sole reason and has been given multiple chances to prove he can be another creator. But unfortunately with Rozier's inconsistencies, that trade is on the verge of being a disaster, especially if Miami does not make the playoffs this season.
This might not be resolved at the trade deadline given the issues the Heat are having when it comes to trading Butler, but in a post-Butler world, Miami needs to pinpoint finding another creator at the right cost to bolster the offense.