No Butler, no Herro, no Martin, no problem. Takeaways from Heat’s short-handed win over Hawks

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 117-109 win over the Atlanta Hawks (5-4) on Saturday night at State Farm Arena to win its fourth straight game and move to 2-0 on its four-game trip. The Heat (5-4) continues the trip on Sunday against the Spurs in San Antonio (7 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) on the second night of a back-to-back:

Behind a scorching start and another dominant performance from center Bam Adebayo, the Heat earned a short-handed win despite missing some of its best players.

The Heat entered without Jimmy Butler (personal reasons), Tyler Herro (sprained right ankle) and Caleb Martin (left knee tendinosis). That left Miami playing without three rotation players and arguably three of its four best players.

Butler was not with the team after leaving Atlanta on Saturday morning to attend to a personal matter. Butler has not yet been ruled out for Sunday’s matchup against the Spurs, with the hope that he may be able to re-join the team for that contest.

Herro will miss at least the next two weeks after sustaining a Grade 2 ankle sprain in Wednesday’s win against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Martin missed his eighth game in a row because of his knee issue and there’s still no timetable for his return. Martin did travel with the Heat on this trip, though.

Despite all that, the Heat still found a way to earn a road win over a Hawks team that entered with a 5-3 record behind the NBA’s fifth-best offensive rating.

“This is what you want out of a group that you have a bunch of guys when I’m discussing in the pre-shootaround meeting that we have some guys out and we have to get guys stepping up, I have everybody leaning forward basically telling me with their body language: ‘That’s me,’” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

“And then doing it in an appropriate way. A lot of winning plays defensively. It’s not necessarily about trying to fill in Jimmy’s scoring or Tyler’s scoring. It wasn’t about that. It was about collectively coming together and trying to get a tough win on the road.”

The Heat started fast, opening the game with a 33-15 run to take an 18-point lead with 3:09 left in the first quarter on its way to a 41-point opening period. Miami shot 15 of 22 (68.2 percent) from the field, 4 of 9 (44.4 percent) from three-point range and 7 of 8 (87.5 percent) from the foul line while committing just one turnover in the high-scoring quarter.

The Heat’s lead eventually grew to as big as 21 points in the second quarter before going cold. After starting 5 of 10 on threes, Miami missed 13 of its final 14 three-point attempts of the first half as Atlanta cut the deficit to 11 entering halftime.

The two teams traded blows in the third quarter, with the Hawks trimming the Heat’s lead to seven midway through the period.

But that’s the closest the Hawks would get, as the Heat won the rest of the third quarter 19-15 to enter the final period ahead 93-82.

The Hawks never were able to put together a big run to threaten the Heat in the fourth quarter. Miami added to its lead to pull ahead by 16 points with 6:49 to play.

The Hawks made a late push to cut the deficit to six with 50.6 seconds left, but they ran out of time to complete the comeback.

The Heat used another big night from Adebayo to pick up the short-handed victory. He finished with 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and 8-of-8 shooting from the foul line, 17 rebounds, four assists, one steal and two blocks for his third consecutive double-double.

“When you have your leader play like that, it inspires everybody else,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo. “That’s the best way to put it. He makes everybody believe with his efforts, his two-way ability, anchoring our defense against an explosive offensive team.”

And then there were a bunch of quality contributions from the Heat’s supporting cast.

Rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. ended the night with a career-high 20 points to go with three rebounds, four assists and one steal in a career-high 38 minutes.

Veteran guard Kyle Lowry totaled 17 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting on threes, three rebounds and four assists.

Starting forward Haywood Highsmith struggled to make shots with 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field, but contributed six rebounds and five assists while providing his usual excellent defense with three steals and one block.

Reserve guard Josh Richardson added a season-high 16 points on efficient 6-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes despite dealing with back spasms throughout the day.

And reserve guard Dru Smith was a star on the defensive end against the Hawks’ dynamic backcourt duo of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. Smith, who played the entire fourth quarter, finished the win with nine points, two assists, three steals and one block.

“I think the gratifying part about it is guys like Dru Smith really put his imprint on this game,” Lowry said. “A true professional in Kevin Love, who hasn’t played in whatever amount of games, comes in and puts his imprint on the game. I think being able to see Bam continue to take the next step is like the most gratifying thing about these type of wins because you never know the opportunity that you’re going to be given. And J-Rich coming out and being probable with back spasms and having a game like he had tonight defensively and offensively. Those are the gratifying things in this victory.”

Playing from behind for most of the night, the Hawks could not overcome their slow start, 22 turnovers and off shooting night for Young. Young finished with 27 points 7-of-19 shooting from the field.

The Heat used different defensive coverages, including its 2-3 zone look, to slow the Hawks’ offense. Atlanta posted a season-worst offensive rating of 105.8 points scored per 100 possessions on Saturday.

With Butler and Herro out, the Heat used its sixth different starting lineup in the first nine games of the season.

The Heat opened Saturday’s win with a lineup of Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Jaquez, Highsmith and Adebayo.

Lowry, Highsmith and Adebayo were the three usual starters available, while Robinson and Jaquez were plugged in for the unavailable Butler and Herro. It marked Robinson’s first start of the season and Jaquez’s third start of the season.

The Lowry-Robinson-Jaquez-Highsmith-Adebayo lineup had not played together this season prior to Saturday’s minutes.

But this new starting lineup put together out of necessity set the tone early, opening the game on an 18-9 run before the Heat made its first substitution.

This lineup ended the night with a plus/minus of plus-1 in 16 minutes together.

The expectation is that when Butler returns, which could happen as soon as Sunday, Jaquez will return to the bench and Robinson will remain in the starting unit in place of the injured Herro.

Jaquez continued to open eyes early in his rookie season.

With Butler and Herro out, Jaquez not only started but also took on a bigger offensive role. Jaquez made the most of it, finishing Saturday’s win with career-highs in points (20) and minutes (39).

The 22-year-old Jaquez was used as the primary ball-handler at times, creating efficient offense for himself and others during the Heat’s 63-point first half. He recorded 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, two rebounds, three assists and one steal while playing 19 of the 24 minutes in the first half.

“Just to make plays,” Jaquez said of his mentality on Saturday. “I think coach trusted me to put the ball in my hands a couple times and I just tried to make the right play.”

Jaquez did most of his damage around the basket, shooting 5 of 9 within the restricted area off post-ups, timely cuts and paint attacks.

“Jaime had a phenomenal game,” Adebayo said. “I keep saying he’s not a normal rookie. At some point, somebody is going to believe me because he keeps on putting performances like this.”

It has already been an eventful and productive start to Jaquez’s rookie season. Through the first two-plus weeks of the regular season, he has been tasked with defending Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, play important fourth-quarter minutes, take and make a game-clinching three in the final seconds of the Heat’s victory in Memphis on Wednesday, and then put together a 20-point night on Saturday.

But one area that continues to be a work in progress for Jaquez is three-point shooting. After a 2-of-7 performance from behind the arc on Saturday, he is shooting 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) from three-point range this season.

The Heat’s bench rotation also looked a little different, with Kevin Love used as the backup center for the first time this season.

Love opened the season as the Heat’s starting power forward but lost that job to Highsmith last week, receiving three straight DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) after being moved to the bench.

But Love emerged Saturday, playing off the bench for the first time since being pulled from the starting lineup. The 35-year-old Love entered as the Heat’s backup center when Adebayo went to the bench ahead of usual backup center Thomas Bryant.

It has been a struggle for Bryant early on, as the Heat has been outscored by 14.6 points per 100 possessions in his minutes this season.

That opened the door for Love, who played mostly as the backup center but also logged a few minutes as the power forward alongside Adebayo on Saturday.

Love was effective, finishing with seven points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, four rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes. He was an impressive plus-10 on Saturday.

“He was fantastic with his leadership spirit, but also his talent and that veteran experience” Spoelstra said. “With Tyler and Jimmy out, that changes the equation and this may be a game-to-game thing. I just know in my gut that we need Kevin Love. I mentioned that when I had to make a different move (and pulled him out of the starting lineup), it just really turned my stomach because I know how important he is to our team with a lot of different things.”

Love said he had a feeling he would get on the court Saturday with the Heat missing so many rotation players.

“There was a lot of transparency, conversation yesterday during practice that the lineups could change just because we’re missing 26-plus points from Tyler,” Love said. “Obviously, Caleb is out, lost Jimmy this morning and we don’t know for how long. It’s for a personal matter. So yeah, I mean, I knew during shootaround that I would likely see some minutes at the backup five.”

The rest of the short-handed Heat’s four-man bench rotation for Saturday included Smith, Richardson and Jamal Cain. But Cain played just 24 seconds, so Miami essentially went with an eight-man rotation against the Hawks.

Four available Heat players did not play against the Hawks: Bryant, Nikola Jovic, Orlando Robinson and Cole Swider. It marked Bryant’s first DNP-CD of the season.

The Heat is right back at it in less than 24 hours.

It will be a quick turnaround for the Heat, with tipoff between the two games of this back-to-back set less than 24 hours apart. Saturday’s game against the Hawks in Atlanta began at 7:30 p.m. EST and Sunday’s game against the Spurs in San Antonio begins at 7 p.m. EST.

There’s also a 2.5-hour flight from Atlanta thrown in there that is scheduled to get the Heat into San Antonio around 2 a.m. ET.

The Spurs (3-6) have been off since Friday, but enter Sunday’s matchup against the Heat on a four-game losing skid. With rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama as the headliner, the Spurs entered Saturday with the NBA’s 26th-ranked offensive rating and worst defensive rating this season.

“I don’t know,” Adebayo said when asked what he expects it will be like to play against the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama. “Because I haven’t seen him. I’ve seen him play a couple times, but I haven’t seen him play in person. This is going to be the first time. It’s going to be exciting.”