How the Heat blew a 16-point lead vs. Nets to fall to 1-4 and more takeaways, postgame reaction

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 109-105 loss to the Brooklyn Nets (2-2) on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to open a three-game homestand. The Heat (1-4) continues the homestand on Friday against the Washington Wizards in its first group play game of the in-season tournament:

After a winless three-game trip, coach Erik Spoelstra called this an “important week” for the Heat. Well, that week started with a bad loss to an injury-depleted Nets team to extend the Heat’s losing skid to four games.

“It’s a right now situation, you know what I’m saying,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said when asked about the Heat’s season of urgency amid its early-season struggles. “You don’t want to ever lose games at home or away. So we got to figure it out now. ... At the end of the day, we need to correct it and we will. But it’s all about right now, winning now.”

The Nets were without three starters for Wednesday’s game in Miami, missing starting center Nic Claxton (sprained left ankle), starting guard Spencer Dinwiddie (sprained left ankle)and starting forward Cameron Johnson (strained left calf).

The Heat looked to be in control, leading by as many as 16 points in the first half before entering halftime with a 56-46 advantage despite committing 13 first-half turnovers.

The Heat also pulled ahead by 15 points with 4:37 left in the third quarter.

But then things turned in the wrong direction for the Heat, as the short-handed Nets went on a big 37-15 run to rally and take a seven-point lead with 5:37 left in the fourth quarter behind a barrage of three-pointers.

Brooklyn made eight of its first 13 three-point attempts of the second half and shot 9 of 17 (52.9 percent) from three-point range in the final two quarters to complete the comeback. Forward Dorian Finney-Smith led the rally by scoring all 15 of his points Wednesday in the second half on 3-of-4 shooting from deep.

“I just think the ability to sustain is a skill and it’s a habit,” Spoelstra said following the loss. “That’s what we need to get to. There were a lot better things tonight, certainly from an activity standpoint and disruptiveness. You can see the speed. But there were key swing moments where that’s often times the deal. If you’re playing in a position of control and playing with a double-digit lead for most of the game, you have to treat that accordingly with respect.”

The Heat, which entered the fourth quarter with an eight-point lead, lost the final period 34-22.

The Heat shot just 9 of 24 (37.5 percent) from the field and 3 of 11 (27.3 percent) in the fourth quarter during its late-game collapse.

“There were better things I saw in this one. But we certainly have to sustain,” Spoelstra repeated. “We have to find a way to sustain it more consistently and better, and that’s what we’ll focus on.”

Heat guard Tyler Herro agreed, saying: “We got to put a full game together. I think all four losses, at point throughout the games you’ve seen flashes of what we are and what we can be. But sustain or consistency is the same thing. We have to do that. We’ll win some games, but we’re going to lose most of the games if we can’t come up with solutions and put a full 48 minutes together.”

Herro led the Heat with a game-high 30 points on 12-of-23 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 shooting on threes.

Also for the Heat, Bam Adebayo contributed 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and 14 rebounds. Butler totaled 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field, seven rebounds and three assists.

The problem is the rest of the Heat’s roster besides Adebayo, Butler and Herro combined for just 34 points on 12-of-40 (30 percent) shooting from the field.

Mikal Bridges finished with a team-high 21 points for the Nets, along with seven rebounds and five assists.

The Nets took advantage of a season-high 18 turnovers from the Heat to score 25 points off those mistakes. Miami’s turnovers also led to Brooklyn scoring 24 fast-break points.

The Heat’s sloppy play helped fuel the Nets’ transition offense, as Brooklyn won despite scoring just 84.3 points per 100 half-court possessions, according to Cleaning The Glass. That’s a half-court efficiency that would have ranked last in the NBA last regular season.

The Heat’s 1-4 start is its worst five-game start since opening the 2007-08 season at 0-5.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves at this point of the year,” Herro said. “It’s still early, obviously. But at some point, this has to matter to us. We can’t keep losing games and think it’s OK.”

Adebayo added: “We don’t want to dig this hole too deep. So that’s the concern because the season starts going like this, then obviously you get to the [trade] deadline and you don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the concern because we got a great group of guys, we just got to figure it out.”

The Heat has opened the season by missing multiple rotation players in each of its first five games.

In the opener, the Heat was without Josh Richardson and Haywood Highsmith because of injuries.

In the second game, the Heat was without Caleb Martin, Richardson and Highsmith because of injuries.

In the third game, the Heat was without Butler for rest purposes, and Kevin Love, Highsmith, Martin and Richardson because of injuries.

In the fourth game, the Heat was without Adebayo, Highsmith and Martin because of injuries.

And in the fifth game on Wednesday, the Heat played without Martin and Love. Martin missed his fourth straight game because of lingering left knee pain and Love missed his second game of the season because of a left shoulder contusion.

The Heat is hoping this season doesn’t turn into a repeat of last regular season, when Miami finished with the second-most missed games in the NBA (289) due to injury based on Spotrac’s injury tracker.

“I’m not going to talk about anybody’s injuries anymore,” Spoelstra said pregame Wednesday when asked about Butler’s right knee tendinitis that initially had him on the injury report before he played against the Nets. “If anybody is hurt, if they’re not available, all they have to do is focus on being available. That’s it. I’m not talking about any injuries or who’s in or who’s out. I know who’s playing tonight. That’s all I’m focused on.”

Rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. made his second NBA start for the short-handed Heat, but struggled to make shots.

With Love, the Heat’s usual starting forward, out because of a shoulder injury, the Heat inserted Jaquez into the starting unit alongside the four other usual Heat starters. This comes a few days after the 22-year-old made his first NBA start in Saturday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The first quarter was eventful for Jaquez, who scored zero points after shooting 0 of 5 from the field and 0 of 4 from three-point range in the period. But he made an impact on the other end with two steals and one block in the first quarter.

After an 0-of-7 shooting start, Jaquez scored his first points of the night on a put-back layup with 8:11 left in the third quarter.

Jaquez closed the loss with two points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting on threes.

“Jaime, I think he still did a bunch of winning things tonight,” Spoelstra said. “Of course, everybody will just look at the three-point shooting line. But his game isn’t defined just by that.”

Jaquez is shooting 10 of 27 (37 percent) from the field and 3 of 14 (21.4 percent) from three-point range through the first five games.

Meanwhile, second-year Heat forward Nikola Jovic remained out of the Heat’s rotation. He did not play despite being available, receiving his third DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in the first five games of the season.

The good news for the Heat is Highsmith was able to make his season debut after missing the first four games because of a knee injury.

Highsmith, who sat out the first week of the regular season due to a sprained left knee he suffered in the preseason, finished his season debut with nine points, four rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes off the bench while playing with a brace on his left knee.

“I wasn’t playing for a minute, so I’m trying to get back into the groove of things, trying to find my rhythm out there and the spots I’m supposed to be at defensively,” Highsmith said. “But it felt good to be out there.”

After shooting an ultra-efficient 9 of 15 (60 percent) on threes in the preseason, Highsmith shot 3 of 4 from deep in his first action of the regular season on Wednesday.

“It was great to have Haywood back,” Spoelstra said. “He was in a great rhythm in the preseason and training camp and in September, so it was just unfortunate that in that last [preseason] game he had such an odd mishap [with his knee]. But it didn’t affect his rhythm and he looked great again tonight.

“You can see the things that he does defensively and on the glass. He’s improved so much on his bust outs. It helps our pace and he didn’t look out of rhythm to me tonight at all.”

The rest of the Heat’s four-man bench rotation against the Nets included Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson and Thomas Bryant.

Despite the ugly loss, it was a meaningful day for Spoelstra.

Not only did Spoelstra turn 53 on Wednesday, but Wednesday’s loss also marked his 1,200th regular-season game as a head coach — all with the Heat.

Spoelstra is just the third coach in NBA history to coach 1,000 or more games with only one franchise for his entire career, joining Gregg Popovich (San Antonio Spurs) and Al Attles (Golden State Warriors).

Wednesday’s loss dropped Spoelstra’s record on his birthday to 5-3 and also snapped a four-game winning streak on his birthday.