Heat’s winning streak comes to an end in 18-point loss to Jazz. Takeaways from the defeat

The Miami Heat’s winning streak came to an end and the Utah Jazz’s winning streak continued.

Even on the second night of a back-to-back set, the Jazz cruised past the Heat 112-94 on Saturday at Vivint Arena to end Miami’s winning streak at four games.

The Jazz, which owns the NBA’s top record at 22-5, has won seven straight and 18 of its past 19 games.

The Heat (11-15) actually won the first quarter 21-18, but the Jazz won the game behind a dominant third quarter that it outscored Miami 31-15 in.

Star guard Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz with a game-high 26 points despite shooting just 3 of 12 on threes.

Next up for the Heat is a matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night at Staples Center. Miami is 1-1 on its seven-game trip.

Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Jazz:

The Jazz is one of the best teams in the NBA because it can win in a variety of ways. That was on full display against the Heat.

Utah entered averaging a league-high 16.9 three-point makes per game on the third-most efficient three-point shooting at 40.1 percent this season.

But the threes weren’t going in at that rate on Saturday, as the Jazz shot just 12 of 46 (26.1 percent) from deep against the Heat.

Instead, Utah controlled the paint and used its elite defense to defeat Miami.

The Jazz outscored the Heat 54-40 in the paint with the help of 19-of-22 shooting at the rim. That’s more points around the basket than Miami usually allows, with its defense giving up an average of 14 makes per game from inside the restricted area this season.

“It’s not as if you can just take away one thing, they do a lot of things well,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Jazz. “They move the ball extremely well, they can attack in the paint, which they did tonight. We did not handle those drives and early attacks the way we typically have the last few weeks. They were breaking us down off the dribble, off the pass.”

Utah’s duo of Rudy Gobert and Mitchell combined to score 24 paint points on 12-of-13 shooting.

The Jazz also limited the Heat’s offense to 94 points 40.7 percent shooting from the field and 12-of-36 shooting on threes.

Miami shot just 20 of 41 (48.8 percent) from inside the paint, with Gobert continuously altering shots around the basket with his length. That’s below average for the Heat, which have shot 58.9 percent from inside the paint this season.

According to Stathead, the Jazz’s victory on Saturday marked just the sixth time since the start of the 2010-11 season that an NBA team has won a game when shooting 27 percent or worse from three-point range on at least 45 attempts.

The Jazz, which has the NBA’s fourth-most efficient offense and second-most efficient defense, is the only team in the league with both a top-five offensive rating and top-five defensive rating this season.

Heat Check newsletter

Want to stay up-to-date on the Miami Heat? Get the latest news, game results, analysis and insider information in your inbox from Monday through Friday during the NBA season.

The Heat really struggled to generate efficient offense against the Jazz in the third quarter.

Miami’s worst stretch of the night came when it totaled just six points over a span of 13:53 of game clock that began with 7:45 remaining in the second quarter and carried over into the second half. The Jazz went on a 32-6 run during that stretch.

The Heat did not score its first points of the third quarter until guard Tyler Herro made a jumper with 5:51 remaining in the period.

Utah outscored Miami 31-15 in the third quarter to turn a five-point halftime lead into a 21-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

“They’re definitely unique,” Spoelstra said of Utah’s defense. “You don’t face a team like this on a nightly basis. You have to be very detailed. You have to get into your offense early. You have to have your spacing right and then you have to make the right decisions, as well, because they do a good job of taking away some of your normal open shots with Gobert clogging the paint. It allows them to play up on the perimeter a little bit more. So we were getting caught late in the clock too often, particularly those first six minutes of the third quarter.”

Not even Heat star Jimmy Butler could get on track, as he finished with 15 points on 3-of-10 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes. Butler shot 2 of 6 from inside the paint.

“We let out offense dictate our defense,” Butler said. “We started missing shots, not getting back, not rebounding. Then they started scoring. ... Whenever we miss, we just gotta be able to anchor down and guard somebody.”

The Heat’s other primary offensive option Bam Adebayo finished with 14 points on 7-of-17 shooting, 10 rebounds and six assists in 37 minutes.

Heat guard Kendrick Nunn finished with a team-high 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting on threes and three steals.

Herro was back in the Heat’s rotation after missing Thursday’s win over the Houston Rockets because of health and safety protocols.

Herro made his fourth consecutive appearance as a reserve after beginning the season as a starter. He finished Saturday’s loss with 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting and six assists in 33 minutes.

Herro did not play Thursday after his COVID-19 test returned positive just minutes before the start of the game. But it turned out to be a false positive, as subsequent negative tests allowed him to travel with the team to Salt Lake City and play Saturday night.

Despite Herro’s return to the Heat’s rotation, two-way contract forward Max Strus again received playing time after scoring a career-high 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting on threes in 25 minutes on Thursday. Strus followed up his impressive performance with another strong outing that included 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 shooting on threes in 20 minutes off the bench against the Jazz.

Both the Heat and Jazz were without important guards in Saturday’s matchup.

The Heat remained without guards Avery Bradley (right calf strain) and Goran Dragic (left ankle sprain), who have been consistent members of the rotation this season when available.

Bradley has missed five straight games with his calf injury, and he’s expected to miss about two to three more weeks of game action. Dragic has missed four straight games because of his ankle injury, but there’s some hope that he may able to rejoin the Heat at some point during its seven-game trip.

Meanwhile, the Jazz was without starting guard Mike Conley, who missed his fourth straight game because of right hamstring tightness.

Conley, who has averaged 16.5 points on 45 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent shooting on threes, has been important to Utah’s success. The 33-year-old veteran entered Saturday with an NBA-best plus/minus of plus-265 this season.

Along with missing Bradley and Dragic, the Heat was without Meyers Leonard (left shoulder surgery) and Chris Silva (left hip flexor strain) against the Jazz. Leonard is expected to miss the rest of the season.

What’s next for the Heat in the final five games of its long trip? More games against some of the league’s best teams.

On Saturday, it was a game against the Jazz — the team with the league’s top record this season.

On Monday, it’s a matchup against Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers — the team with the league’s third-best record.

This upcoming Saturday, it’s an NBA Finals rematch against Anthony Davis, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers — the team with the league’s second-best record.

This trip also includes games against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday and Sacramento Kings on Thursday before coming to an end on Feb. 22 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The seven-game stretch away from home is the Heat’s longest road trip since a seven-game trip in 2009, and it’s tied for the longest road trip in franchise history.

“That’s the No. 1 team in the NBA over there, so I feel like there were some times that we didn’t give multiple efforts like we should have,” Adebayo said of the Jazz. “It’s important for us to bounce back this next game. That’s what we gotta do. That’s what we got paid for, to collect wins. So we got to bounce back.”