Heat lives up to ‘We have enough’ mantra. Takeaways from impressive short-handed win over Kings

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 121-110 victory over the Sacramento Kings (33-24) on Monday night at Golden 1 Center to win its fourth straight game and improve to 2-0 on its four-game trip. The Heat (32-25) continues the trip on Tuesday against the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center (10 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) to complete the back-to-back set on the West Coast:

Amid suspensions and injuries, the Heat played without a chunk of its roster against a Kings team at full strength. The result was one of the Heat’s best wins of the season.

The Heat was without Thomas Bryant (league suspension), Jimmy Butler (league suspension), Tyler Herro (left knee hyperextension), Nikola Jovic (league suspension), Josh Richardson (right shoulder dislocation), Orlando Robinson (lower back spasms), Terry Rozier (right knee sprain) and Dru Smith (right knee surgery) on Monday.

That left the Heat with just 10 available players against the Kings. But the Heat’s “We have enough” mantra again proved to be true.

“We have guys that love competition and love these kinds of scenarios,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the win. “Look, these are our rotation guys, so don’t undersell them at all.”

How did the Heat manage to escape with the win?

The first half included two lead changes and six ties, as both teams made runs. The Heat led by as many seven points and the Kings led by as many as 10 points before Miami entered halftime ahead 65-62 after a high-scoring first half.

The Heat broke open the game with a dominant third quarter, outscoring the Kings 36-19 in the period to turn a three-point halftime lead into a 20-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

In that third quarter, Jaime Jaquez Jr. totaled 13 points and Kevin Love scored 10 points to fuel the Heat’s surge. Miami’s defense also limited Sacramento to just 40.9 percent shooting from the field and 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) shooting on threes in the quarter.

But despite that huge lead, the game still came down to the final minutes.

After the Heat again pulled ahead by 20 points with 10:30 to play, the Kings went on a huge 25-7 run to cut the deficit to just two with 3:41 remaining.

That’s the closest the Kings would get, though, as Jaquez delivered in the clutch with two straight jumpers to push the Heat’s lead back up to six, including a beautiful step-throw move to make a shot over Kings center Domantas Sabonis. Caleb Martin then threw down a high-flying dunk to extend the Heat’s lead to eight with 49.1 seconds left, closing the door on the Kings’ comeback attempt.

Starting with those six unanswered points, the Heat closed the game on an 11-2 run to pull away. The Kings scored just two points over the final 3:41 of the game.

“Our guys have a competitive edge just to get desperate to try to find a way to win,” Spoelstra said. “That’s what it was at the end.”

Six Heat players finished the win with double-digit points.

“We had contributions all throughout,” Spoelstra said.

Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo stepped into a bigger offensive role with Butler and Herro out, leading the charge on both ends of the court. Adebayo ended the night with 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field and 6-of-7 shooting from the foul line, 10 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and one block.

“Bam was sensational on both ends of the court tonight,” Spoelstra said. “And then he just gave us those huge buckets down the stretch and the free throws.”

Jaquez closed with 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field. It marked the first time he has scored more than 20 points in a game since Jan. 10.

“Jaime’s footwork, when he was able to maneuver and have some more balls come his way in that mid-post,” Spoelstra said. “It just shows you how advanced he is and fundamental when he gets to his spots. He can use his footwork to create advantages. He made some big plays.”

Love added 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 5-of-6 shooting from the foul line and seven rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.

“He’s so clever, physical, smart,” Spoelstra said of Love. “For short stretches, he’s every bit as good as he was and you saw that tonight. Those 15 minutes, it felt like 30 minutes with how impactful they were.”

Martin contributed 16 points with the help of 3-of-6 shooting from behind the arc, six rebounds, one assist and one steal.

“Caleb’s competitive spirit was felt throughout every second of his 40 minutes on both ends of the court,” Spoelstra said. “He is our ultimate X factor.”

Haywood Highsmith finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes, four rebounds, three steals and one block.

Sabonis earned his third straight triple-double with 14 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists for the Kings, but it wasn’t enough.

Since losing seven straight games and then going through a blunt but productive film session, the Heat has now won eight of its last 10 games to go from one game above .500 to seven games above .500.

The Heat enters Tuesday in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, percentage points ahead of the seventh-place Indiana Pacers and one-half game ahead of the eighth-place Orlando Magic. The Heat is also just one game behind the fifth-place Philadelphia 76ers.

“It’s a collective team spirit,” Jaquez said. “Everybody has that mentality. When guys are down, it’s an opportunity for guys to step up. I thought everyone played great tonight.”

With so many players unavailable, the Heat used another different starting lineup and it included newly-acquired guard Delon Wright.

The Heat used its 30th different starting unit in the 57th game of the season, opening Monday’s game with a lineup of Wright, Duncan Robinson, Jaquez, Martin and Adebayo.

Only the Memphis Grizzlies (33 starting lineups) and Dallas Mavericks (31 starting lineups) have used more different starting lineups than the Heat this seaosn.

On the other end of the spectrum: The Heat’s opponent on Monday, the Kings, have used an NBA-low five different starting groups this season.

But the Heat’s new make-shift starting lineup outscored the Kings by 10 points in 18 minutes together.

For Wright, it was an opportunity to play in his first game since joining the Heat during the All-Star break. He became available after agreeing to a buyout with the Washington Wizards.

While Wright received a DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in his first game in a Heat uniform on Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans, he started and played 35 minutes in his second game with the Heat on Monday.

Wright produced quality minutes in his Heat debut, finishing with 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field, 2-of-4 shooting on threes and 5-of-6 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block. He also didn’t commit a turnover.

“The player of the game for us in the locker room was Delon,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t think his stat line was spectacular by people probably on the outside. But, man, he plays winning basketball. He guards. Offensively, he just has a great knack for knowing how to make the right play. 35 minutes, didn’t turn the ball over and made some big plays.”

Wright has now totaled 88 assists to just 11 turnovers this season.

“I just wanted to come in and play how I know how to play,” Wright said. “Take care of the ball, play good defense, get deflections and then I knew the rest was going to take care of itself.”

The depleted Heat essentially went with a seven-man rotation on Monday.

The Heat’s bench rotation on Monday included Love, Highsmith, Cole Swider and Alondes Williams.

But Love and Highsmith were the only two Heat reserves who logged more than five minutes.

Swider and Williams, two of the Heat’s three two-way contract players, each played one stint in the first half and never re-entered the game.

Swider played five minutes in his 11th NBA appearance of the season.

Williams played three minutes in his second NBA appearance of the season after signing a two-way contract with the Heat on Feb. 9.

This led to five Heat players logging 35 or more minutes against the Kings — Martin at 40 minutes, Duncan Robinson at 39 minutes, Jaquez at 38 minutes, Adebayo at 36 minutes and Wright at 35 minutes.

The only available Heat player who didn’t get into Monday’s game was two-way contract forward Jamal Cain.

The Heat sent Cain and Swider back to the G League following Monday’s win.

Duncan Robinson struggled to make shots for the Heat, but he made an impact with his playmaking ability on Monday.

It was another sign of Robinson’s continued growth, as he finished with just four points on 1-of-11 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting from three-point range but still found a way to contribute with his improved ball-handling and passing.

Robinson set a new career-high with 11 assists in Monday’s win to finish with a team-best plus/minus of plus 25. That surpassed his previous career-high of nine assists, which he recorded in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals last season.

“So 1 for 11 [shooting] is nasty work, but just try to find a way to impact the game,” Robinson said. “A lot of it was guys making shots, as well, which a lot of guys stepped up.”

In previous seasons, Robinson’s impact depended on whether his three-point shots were going in.

But Robinson has added other layers to his game and they have been on full display this season. He entered Monday averaging a career-high 2.8 assists per game and with a career-high 57 makes from within the restricted area this season.

Robinson’s evolution again made an appearance Monday.

“His playmaking was really good and he’s proving that he can still impact the game without necessarily making threes,” Spoelstra said.

The Heat is right back at it on Tuesday to complete the West Coast back-to-back set.

Following Monday’s win in Sacramento, the Heat made the 90-minute flight to Portland for Tuesday night’s game against the Trail Blazers to complete its ninth of 13 back-to-backs this season. The Heat is 6-3 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 4-4 on the back-end of those back-to-backs.

The good news for the Heat is it will likely have more players available on Tuesday, with Butler and Jovic expected back after serving their one-game suspensions on Monday.

While Bryant will still be unavailable as he continues to serve his three-game suspension and Smith is out for the rest of the season, there’s a chance Herro, Orlando Robinson and/or Rozier could also return against the Trail Blazers. However, Richardson is expected to miss his fifth straight game on Tuesday with a dislocated right shoulder.

Whoever is available, even on the second night of a back-to-back set, the Heat will still likely be betting favorites on Tuesday against a Trail Blazers team that holds the second-worst record in the Western Conference at 15-41.

Portland will be short-handed against Miami, too, already ruling out Malcolm Brogdon, Moses Brown, Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Robert Williams III because of injuries.

The Heat is 18-8 this season in games against teams currently with a losing record.

“This group is starting to rally around each other and just pour into the team and pour into what’s necessary to put us in a position to win,” Spoelstra said. “We definitely can use Jimmy and Niko tomorrow night. But we have to enjoy this one until we get on the plane and then start figuring out how to get another one tomorrow in Portland.”