How Heat overcame fourth-quarter fight, ejections to continue winning: ‘It’s that time of the year’

It took one sentence for Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra to sum up the team’s first game after the week-long All-Star break.

“It did not have the intensity of an All-Star Game, that’s for sure,” Spoelstra said with a smile.

It definitely did not, as the Heat’s first game after the break included a melee and ejections. It also included the Heat’s third straight win to improve to 31-25 this season, coming away with a 106-95 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night at Smoothie King Center to kick off its post-All-Star break schedule and a four-game trip.

But the headlines from the game had more to do with what transpired between the two teams early in the fourth quarter than the actual result.

That’s because there was an altercation that led to four players being ejected. Two Heat players (Jimmy Butler and Thomas Bryant) and two Pelicans players (Naji Marshall and Jose Alvarado) were ejected.

It began when Heat center Kevin Love committed a foul by wrapping up Pelicans forward Zion Williamson to prevent an easy layup with the Heat ahead by four points and 11:19 left in the fourth quarter. Even as Love tried to keep Williamson on his feet, Williamson fell hard to the court after the foul.

“It was just, I think, a misunderstanding on the play,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat now entering a two-day break before continuing its trip Monday against the Kings in Sacramento. “I honestly think Zion slipped on the play when K-Love grabbed him. And it looked a lot worse than what it was.”

Even Williamson said after the game that “K-Love, he actually protected me on my fall.”

“I think they interpreted that K-Love threw him down, which I think on K-Love’s best day, I don’t think he can throw him down,” Spoelstra added.

But that was enough to spark a scuffle, with Marshall rushing in to object to the way Williamson was fouled. That led to Butler and Marshall getting into a shoving match, as things escalated when they briefly grabbed each other by the neck.

“I put my hand around his neck, he put his hand around my neck and it took off the way it did,” Butler said.

An angry Butler then charged toward Marshall, as players, coaches and staff members from both teams converged on them near the scorer’s table in an attempt to break up the fight.

Officials eventually calmed the situation, separating the two teams. But then Bryant and Alvarado began fighting and appeared to exchange blows, as another scrum formed around them before officials took control and sent both teams to their benches.

“It’s one of those things where it happened, you try to protect your teammates,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “I feel like it was more over-exaggerated than what it really was. I’m just glad my teammates got out unscathed.”

Emotions were high in the stands, too, as a fan with a Pelicans jersey began throwing things at Heat players. A Heat fan was also escorted out after the incident.

Officials reviewed video of the scuffle for several minutes before deciding on the four ejections. Love was assessed a common foul.

“Butler and Marshall engaged in physical contact which escalates the altercation,” Crew Chief Curtis Blair said in an NBA officiating pool report after the game when asked to explain the four ejections. “Alvarado and Bryant engaged in a physical altercation that continued the altercation.”

After the ejections were announced, Butler walked slowly back to the locker room with a smile on his face while playfully interacting with the fans in New Orleans.

“I don’t want to get ejected, not because I’m not out there with my team,” said Butler, who finished Friday’s win with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, nine rebounds, six assists and three steals in 27 minutes before his ejection. “But I don’t like the fine I’m going to get. I don’t think I should have got thrown out of that game.”

But what happened after the incident is what decided the game. Forced to play without Butler for most of the fourth quarter, the Heat overcame his absence behind suffocating defense and an Adebayo takeover.

After the Pelicans took a two-point lead with 8:31 remaining to grab the momentum, the Heat responded by scoring 11 unanswered points to pull ahead by nine with 2:40 to play on its way to the road victory. With the Heat turning to its zone defense in the fourth quarter after using its man scheme for most of the first three quarters, the Pelicans did not score for more than six minutes of game clock before finally ending the drought on a dunk from Larry Nance Jr. with 2:22 remaining.

“Once [the incident] was all done, the response was appropriate — more discipline, physicality and force, but not going over the top,” Spoelstra said.

Adebayo stepped up to anchor the Heat’s offense and defense during this game-deciding stretch following Butler’s ejection. After scoring 12 points on 12 field-goal attempts through the first three quarters, Adebayo totaled 12 points on 11 field-goal attempts while playing the final 11:19 of the game.

“Teammates started finding me in my spots,” Adebayo said. “From there in the fourth, coach just kept calling my number.”

Adebayo ended the night with a team-high 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field to go with seven rebounds, one assist, one steal and three blocks.

“Bam made so many great defensive plays down the stretch,” Spoelstra said. “And it’s a sign of a good team that even with Jimmy out, other guys can step up and they wanted it. You could feel it that guys wanted to do it for Jimmy and just the context of everything – let’s just figure a way to finish this game and make sure it was a win.”

The next question is, will the melee result in suspensions? The league will make that decision and check to see if any players who weren’t in the game at the time of the scuffle left their respective bench, which can lead to an automatic suspension.

According to the NBA rule book, “During an altercation, all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. Violators will be subject to suspension, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $50,000.”

“We did not see them leave, but it is not our decision,” Blair said in a pool report when asked whether it was determined that Bryant and Alvarado left their respective benches during the fight. “It is up to the league office to determine if they left their respective benches.”

The Heat and Pelicans face off for the second and final time this regular season on March 22 in Miami. The Heat has won a franchise-record seven straight games against the Pelicans, which played Friday on the second night of a back-to-back without Brandon Ingram (non-COVID illness) and also lost CJ McCollum to an ankle injury in the second quarter.

“We’ll beat them the next time, too,” Butler said when asked about the Heat’s recent success against the Pelicans. “We’re just the better team. We’re not going to say that they’re not a good team. But I don’t think this really matters.

“I think that when we get them on out home court, it’s going to be a different game. I hope they’re healthy and it’s going to be the same outcome.”

That’s the confidence the Heat is playing with at the moment after dropping seven straight games last month and still entering Saturday in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. The Heat has won seven of its last nine games since that skid, posting the NBA’s top defensive rating during that span.

“I think our team is so ready for anything that anybody’s throwing at us,” Butler added, with the Heat looking to find its footing in time to make its third run to the NBA Finals in the last five seasons. “We’re so together, playing some incredible basketball. I don’t think it matters who we go up against right now. It’s that time of the year.”