Takeaways and notes from another Heat loss on the second night of a back-to-back

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 112-93 loss to the Boston Celtics (15-5) on Wednesday at TD Garden. The Heat posted a 2-1 record on what was an encouraging three-game trip, which included wins over the Nets and Raptors ...

Heat ends encouraging road trip with loss to Celtics on second night of back-to-back

1. Four of the Heat’s six losses this season have come on the second night of a back-to-back set. On the bright side for the Heat (15-6), a lot of home games are right around the corner.

It has certainly been an encouraging start to the season for the Heat, but it has struggled to find success on the back end of back-to-backs. Most NBA teams struggle in these situations, but it has been pronounced with Miami because more than half of its losses have come on these nights.

The Heat has played four back-to-backs so far, and all four have resulted in losses on the second night — Oct. 27 loss vs. Timberwolves, Nov. 8 loss vs. Lakers, Nov. 23 loss vs. 76ers and Wednesday’s loss vs. Celtics. All four have also come on the road against quality teams that have posted a combined record of 58-24.

But Heat assistant coach Dan Craig, who filled in for head coach Erik Spoelstra on Wednesday, did not want to make excuses.

“We feel like regardless of the circumstance on a back-to-back, our game is good enough to win when we’re our best version offensively and defensively,” Craig said. “We feel like we can come in if it’s a second night of a back-to-back, if we put our best foot forward and execute offensively and are disruptive defensively, then we feel like those are games we can win regardless of the schedule.”

The Heat, which has outscored opponents by 111 points this season, has been outscored by 68 points on the back end of back-to-backs. Miami has nine remaining back-to-back sets to play, including a difficult one up next that begins at home against LeBron James and the Lakers on Dec. 13 and ends with a road matchup against Luka Doncic and the Mavericks on Dec. 14.

But the schedule does soften a little now, with eight of the Heat’s next 11 games coming at home after playing 13 of the first 21 games of the season on the road. Miami’s upcoming four-game homestand begins with three teams that have losing records — Friday against the Wizards, Sunday against the Bulls and Tuesday against the Hawks.

2. Jimmy Butler is playing good basketball right now.

After recording the fifth triple-double of his career Tuesday against the Raptors, Butler finished Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics with a season-high 37 points and tied a career-high with six made threes. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists.

No other Heat player finished with more than 12 points in Boston. Big man Kelly Olynyk scored 12 off the bench.

Jaylen Brown and Kemba Walker combined to score 59 points for Boston, and the Celtics outscored the Heat 26-11 at the free-throw line.

“He just really tried to will it,” Craig said of Butler. “He knew we were struggling. He was looking at me. I knew it was his time to try to carry this group that was struggling, and he came out and put on a show and really did allow us to hang around.”

Butler is averaging 20.1 points on 43.6 percent shooting from the field and 32.1 percent shooting on threes, six rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.4 steals in 17 games this season. There are four other NBA players averaging at least 20 points, six rebounds and six assists this season, and they are James Harden, Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook.

3. Turnovers became an issue again in the Heat’s loss to the Celtics.

The Heat committed 19 turnovers, and the Celtics scored 26 points off those mistakes. Miami leads the league in turnovers, averaging 18.2 per game this season.

Things were trending in the right direction in this area recently, with the Heat averaging only 13 turnovers over the previous three games. But Wednesday’s 19-turnover performance is a step in the wrong direction, with Bam Adebayo, Kendrick Nunn and Butler each committing four turnovers against the Celtics.

“It just gets repetitive. We talk about it all the time,” Butler said of the Heat’s turnover issue. “I don’t know how many times you can say we need to stop turning the ball over. Hell, I had the majority of them. It’s easy to be careless with the ball when your so called best player is careless with the ball. Lead by example. If I turn the ball over, I guess it kind of gives everybody else the right to turn the ball over.”

4. With Spoelstra back in Miami for the birth of his second son, Craig filled in as head coach against the Celtics.

It marked just the second game Spoelstra has missed in his 11-plus seasons as the Heat’s head coach, the other coming in March 2018 when his first child, Santiago, was born. Craig coached the team that day, too, which was an overtime loss to the Pacers in Indianapolis.

Craig’s second chance to serve as the Heat’s head coach also resulted in a loss, but this one came in a familiar place. He moved to Massachusetts when he was 12 years old and went to a high school located just outside of Boston.

“Obviously, it’s a big adjustment,” Craig said of moving to head coach for Wednesday’s game. “You’re going from an assistant chair to the head coach chair, and you’re trying to juggle all the dynamics of what a head coach has to deal with before a game, in game, after games.”

As for Spoelstra, he received word from his wife, Nikki, on Wednesday morning that it was time to get home. Spoelstra took a flight to Miami just hours after the team arrived to Boston from Toronto early Wednesday morning following Tuesday’s nights win over the Raptors.

As of Wednesday evening, Craig said the team was still awaiting word on the birth of Spoelstra’s second child.

Both of Craig’s losses while filling in as head coach still count toward Spoelstra’s all-time record. Craig did win a coach’s challenge Wednesday, though, when an offensive foul called on Adebayo was overturned.

5. Guard Dion Waiters was on the Heat’s active roster for the second consecutive game, but again did not play.

Waiters has yet to play this season, as he has already served two team-issued suspensions for conduct detrimental to the team that have kept him away for a combined 11 games. He was in uniform on the Heat’s bench for Wednesday’s game.

With guard Goran Dragic unavailable because of a groin injury, the Heat used a 10-man rotation against the Celtics that included Butler, Adebayo, Meyers Leonard, Duncan Robinson, Nunn, Justise Winslow, Olynyk, Tyler Herro, Derrick Jones Jr. and Chris Silva.

With the Heat trailing by as many as 23 points late in the fourth quarter, there looked to be a small window to bring Waiters in for his season debut. But it turns out that will have to wait.