Heat closes five-game trip with loss to Suns. Takeaways and details

The Miami Heat’s season-long five-game West Coast trip that spanned 10 days on the road is finally over.

But it didn’t end the way the Heat wanted it to, falling 113-97 to the Phoenix Suns (19-16) on Friday night at Footprint Center. Instead of clinching a winning trip, the Heat (20-15) completed the five-game trip at 2-3 after Friday’s defeat.

Before the Suns blew the game open, the first half was a competitive one that included 14 lead changes and six ties.

The Suns eventually entered halftime with a 62-55 lead behind 23 first-half points from Grayson Allen. Phoenix outscored Miami 30-18 from three-point range over the first two quarters behind 10-of-21 (47.6 percent) shooting from behind the arc.

The Suns then took control of the game and never looked back, outscoring the Heat 32-20 in the third quarter to enter the final period with a commanding 19-point lead.

While the Suns shot 12-of-20 (60 percent) from the field in the third quarter, the Heat shot just 7 of 24 (29.2 percent) from the field and 2 of 12 (16.7 percent) on threes in the period despite getting a bunch of clean looks.

“I really liked the way we were playing,” Spoelstra said. “In all the huddles, I was just reiterating: ‘Play the right way offensively. Just trust it.’ If guys are open and you’re getting to your aggressive attack paint touches, we were making the right plays. A lot of those were wide open threes. It’s the right play. And I’m encouraged that we continued to do that even throughout the misses.”

The Heat was never to make a run to get back into the game, though, trailing the entire fourth quarter by double digits. The Suns led by as many as 21 points in the final period.

“I feel like it slipped away because we didn’t make shots,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “I feel like we were getting great shots, getting great looks. They just weren’t going in.”

Three Suns players finished with 20-plus points — Allen scored 31 points, Bradley Beal scored 25 points and Devin Booker scored 20 points. Allen shot 9 of 14 from three-point range, as his nine made threes set a new career-high and tied the Suns’ franchise record.

“We were just never able to really control the game defensively and get it in the mud,” Spoelstra said, “which that’s what would have been required to get this game.”

The Heat were led by Adebayo, who closed with 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 shooting from the foul line and 11 rebounds.

Kevin Love added 29 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and two assists off the Heat’s bench.

The Heat, which entered with the NBA’s second-best team three-point percentage this season at 38.8 percent, shot an inefficient 10 of 37 (27 percent) from three-point range in the loss. It marked Miami’s second-worst single-game three-point shooting percentage of the season.

The Heat dropped to 4-8 this season when shooting worse than 35 percent from three-point range.

The Heat now returns to Miami to begin a four-game homestand on Monday against the Houston Rockets.

Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the the Suns on Friday:

The Heat remained without a chunk of its rotation.

The Heat played without Jimmy Butler (right toe MP joint irritation), Haywood Highsmith (concussion protocol), Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain), Orlando Robinson (G League) and Dru Smith (right knee surgery) on Friday against the Suns.

That list includes three Heat rotation regulars — Butler, Highsmith and Martin.

It marked the third straight game that Butler and Highsmith have missed, and the fifth straight game that Martin has missed.

With Butler also missing four games recently with a strained left calf, Friday marked the seventh game that he has sat out in the last eight games. Butler’s injury is not considered to be a long-term one and he could return as soon as at some point during Miami’s upcoming homestand.

After Friday’s loss, the Heat fell to 5-2 in the last seven games it has played without Butler. All of those games have come in the last three weeks.

The Suns were also short-handed, playing without Kevin Durant (right hamstring strain), Eric Gordon (right knee soreness), Damion Lee (right meniscus surgery) and Nassir Little (left knee soreness) against the Heat.

Adebayo and Love were the Heat’s two best players on Friday.

With Adebayo opening the game by missing his first five field-goal attempts and picking up his second foul just 6:15 into the game, Love entered off the bench and turned in his highest-scoring quarter of the season.

Love made an immediate impact, scoring 15 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field, 3-of-3 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line while playing the final 5:45 of the first quarter.

Love’s 15 first-quarter points off the bench were the most by a Heat reserve since Wayne Ellington had 15 points in the first quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers on Dec. 13, 2017, according to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. Also, Love tied Cam Thomas for the most points by any reserve in a first quarter this season.

Love only scored one point in the second quarter, but that’s when Adebayo re-entered the game to carry the Heat’s offense.

Adebayo totaled 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line and two rebounds in the second quarter following a scoreless first quarter. That marked the most points that Adebayo has scored in any quarter this season.

“Bam was great tonight in every aspect,” Spoelstra said. “His competitive spirit, he was doing so many things defensively. We were trapping a lot there in the second half, he’s making those multiple efforts and he has to guard the rim for us and he has to rebound. And then offensively, basically we were running kind of every action through him.

“And then his leadership was really good, too. His voice was great throughout the course of the game. That’s something that we can take away from this game.”

Adebayo and Love combined for 33 of the Heat’s 55 points on 11-of-20 (55 percent) shooting from the field in the first half.

Adebayo and Love went on to combine for 48 points on 17-of-28 (60.7 percent) shooting from the field in the loss.

The problem was that the others around Adebayo and Love struggled to produce efficient offense.

Taking out the production of Adebayo and Love, the rest of the Heat’s roster combined for 49 points on 17-of-55 (30.9 percent) shooting from the field.

Herro finished with just nine points on 4-of-17 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 shooting from three-point range.

Robinson scored just four points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 shooting on threes.

Lowry closed with only six points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes.

Richardson recorded 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 shooting on threes.

The Heat’s last two first-round picks were both in the starting lineup for the second straight game.

Amid its ongoing injury issues, the Heat opened Friday’s game with the lineup of Lowry, Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic and Adebayo for the second straight game.

Jaquez, the Heat’s 2023 first-round pick, finished with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, two rebounds, one assist and two steals in his 11th NBA start.

Jovic, the Heat’s 2022 first-round pick, scored three points on 1-of-3 shooting from three-point range, four rebounds and one assist in his fourth start of the season and the 12th start of his NBA career.

But after this lineup outscored the Los Angeles Lakers by seven points in 14 minutes together in Wednesday’s win, this group was outscored by 14 points in 11 minutes together in Friday’s loss to the Suns.

The Heat now heads home to spend most of the next month in Miami.

Following this season-long five-game trip, the Heat returns to Miami to begin an 18-game stretch that includes 13 games at Kaseya Center.

The stretch opens with a four-game homestand that includes matchups against the Rockets on Monday, Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, Orlando Magic on Friday and Charlotte Hornets on Sunday.

But this string of games in Miami won’t necessarily be easy, considering nine of the next 13 games at home come against teams that currently hold a winning record.

This time at home is much-needed for the Heat, though. Up to this point, the Heat has played the second-most road games in the NBA (20) behind only the New York Knicks (21).

“We’ve been on this road for a long time,” Adebayo said. “Going home, it’s time to protect home court. We need to do that.”