After brutal double-OT loss to Kings, Heat responds with signature win over Warriors. Takeaways

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 114-98 win over the Golden State Warriors (18-18) on Tuesday night at Chase Center on the back end of a back-to-back set to improve to 1-1 on its six-game West Coast trip. The Heat (18-17) continues the trip on Thursday against the Utah Jazz:

Just 24 hours after blowing a 17-point fourth-quarter lead in a brutal double-overtime loss to the Kings in Sacramento on Monday, the Heat bounced back with a signature win.

“This is a very ambitious group,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said just hours before Tuesday’s game. “Sometimes, unfortunately, you have to go through some pain in this league to learn how to win games. We’ve had some moving parts, and I’m not saying that as an excuse. We’re figuring it out. ... These are great learning points for our group. We’ll get a breakthrough.”

Whether Tuesday represented a breakthrough remains to be seen, but it was an impressive victory.

With star Jimmy Butler serving the third game of his team-issued seven-game suspension, the Heat won behind its zone defense and quality performances from players throughout its rotation. Miami improved to 1-2 during Butler’s suspension.

The Heat was sharp from the start, shooting 50 percent from the field and 8 of 18 (44.4 percent) from three-point range in the first half to enter halftime with a 61-48 lead.

After wasting a double-digit lead the night before against the Kings, the Heat staved off the Warriors’ second-half comeback attempt on Tuesday.

The Warriors outscored the Heat 30-23 in the third quarter to trim the deficit to six points entering the fourth quarter.

The Warriors then began the fourth quarter on an 8-3 run to pull within one point with 9:34 to play.

But the Heat put together a strong response, scoring nine unanswered points thanks to back-to-back threes from Nikola Jovic and another three from Alec Burks to push its lead back up to 10 points less than two minutes later.

The Heat never looked back, pulling ahead by as many as 20 points in the final minutes of the game on its way to the 16-point win.

“You have to expect it to be really tough whenever you’re on the road and this league is tough,” Spoelstra said. “But these are opportunities, when you have a real tough game last night and a quick turnaround, you can rally around each other or you can get overwhelmed and feel sorry for yourselves. We have a group that has great competitive character.”

With the Heat staying in its zone defense for most of the night, the Warriors struggled to make shots. Golden State shot just 40.8 percent from the field and 14 of 50 (28 percent) from three-point range in the loss.

While Warriors star Stephen Curry finished Tuesday’s defeat with a game-high 31 points on 11-of-22 (50 percent) shooting from the field and 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) shooting from three-point range, the rest of the Warriors’ roster combined to score just 67 points on 38.2 percent shooting from the field and 18.2 percent shooting from behind the arc.

According to Second Spectrum, the Warriors scored just 0.83 points per possession on 53 half-court possessions against the Heat’s zone defense.

The Heat improved to 9-0 this season when holding its opponent under 100 points.,

“We were disruptive,” Heat captain and center Bam Adebayo said. “We got stops. We rebounded the basketball today. And we got out and made plays.”

Meanwhile, six Heat players finished with double-digit points led by a team-high and season-high 20 points from Nikola Jovic. In addition to his 20 points, Jovic also totaled six rebounds and four assists while playing a team-high 34 minutes.

“Last night, as painful as that was, there were a lot of teaching points that in tonight’s game we were better in those areas,” Spoelstra said. “Offensive organization, controlling the lead at different key times and the efforts were there two nights in a row defensively against a team that can score and obviously get you in a bunch of compromising ways with Curry and all the actions they run.”

Spoelstra found a lineup that worked in the fourth quarter and stuck with it.

The Heat opened the fourth quarter with a lineup of Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Alec Burks, Jovic and Adebayo, and stuck with it for the first 11:24 of the period before emptying its bench with just 36.4 seconds to play.

This group turned a six-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter into an 18-point advantage before they exited the game in the final seconds.

Jovic (11 fourth-quarter points) and Burks (eight fourth-quarter points) combined for 19 of the Heat’s 30 points in the final period.

Before playing most of Tuesday’s fourth quarter together, the lineup of Rozier, Robinson, Burks, Jovic and Adebayo had only logged four minutes together this season.

With Butler away from the team, the Heat has needed second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. to step into a bigger offensive role and he has delivered.

Jaquez produced his first NBA triple-double in Monday’s loss to the Kings, finishing with 16 points and career-highs in rebounds (12), assists (10) and minutes (46). He also tied his career-high with five steals.

Jaquez made his second straight start and sixth start of the season in Tuesday’s win, closing with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, 1-of-3 shooting on threes and 3-of-4 shooting from the foul line and one assist in 28 minutes.

Jaquez was aggressive and effective from the start against the Warriors, scoring 11 of the Heat’s first 20 points.

“I wanted to get off to a good start,” Jaquez said. “Last night, we obviously had a big double-overtime game, so I know this game we wanted to get off to a really good start and continue that and have great energy throughout the entirety of the game. So that was kind of my mentality going into it.”

This has been an encouraging two-game stretch for Jaquez in the middle of what has been an underwhelming sophomore NBA season. Before impressing in the last two games, Jaquez was averaging 8.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting just 41.9 percent from the field and 26.3 percent on threes this season.

Last regular season as a rookie, Jaquez averaged 11.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and one steal per game while shooting 48.9 percent from the field and 32.2 percent on threes on his way to being named to the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team.

Despite being listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game because of a left knee contusion, Heat guard Tyler Herro has yet to miss a game this season.

Herro was available and in his usual starting role against the Warriors, finishing with 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-9 shooting on threes, eight rebounds, three assists and one steal in 26 minutes. This comes one night after Herro logged a career-high 49 minutes in Monday’s loss to the Kings.

With Herro’s first three-pointer on Tuesday, he tied Robinson’s Heat record for the most consecutive regular-season games with a three-point make. Herro has now made a three-pointer in 69 straight regular-season games.

“I was good, just a little banged up from last night,” Herro said after playing through a knee contusion against the Warriors. “I got some treatment this morning.”

Herro, who turns 25 on Jan. 20, has now played in each of the Heat’s first 35 games this season just months after Heat president Pat Riley called him “fragile” during his season-ending news conference in May. It marks the first time in Herro’s first six NBA seasons that he has played in each of the team’s first 35 games.

The most games that Herro has played in a season during his NBA career is 67 games during the 2022-23 season. He only played in 42 games last regular season.

With Butler away from the team as he serves his suspension, Herro started Tuesday’s game alongside Rozier, Jaquez, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo. It marked the second straight game that the Heat has used this starting group.

The Heat then went with a bench rotation of Kel’el Ware, Jovic, Burks and Robinson against the Warriors before emptying its bench late in the double-digit win.

The Heat was without Butler (team suspension), Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Warriors.

The Warriors didn’t have Jonathan Kuminga (right ankle sprain), Gary Payton II (left calf strain) and Brandin Podziemski (right abdominal injury management) against the Heat.

Tuesday’s game between two Team USA coaches turned into Adebayo appreciation night.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and Spoelstra were both on Team USA’s coaching staff for this past summer’s Paris Olympics. Kerr was the national team’s head coach and Spoelstra served as an assistant coach.

And Adebayo was an important part of the national team’s bench rotation, helping Team USA win the gold medal this past summer. Adebayo, who also won a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021 in his first Olympic appearance, became the first player in franchise history to win multiple Olympic gold medals while with the Heat.

Before Tuesday’s game, Kerr praised Adebayo.

“I just told our staff in the meeting, everybody should be lucky enough to coach Bam,” Kerr said. “This guy is just an amazing pro. His work ethic, his intelligence, his energy and then ultimately his dedication to the team and to the cause. His approach, he’s so professional and just an absolute joy to coach.”

During Team USA’s six-game run at the Paris Olympics to win the gold medal, Adebayo averaged six points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game while shooting 53.3 percent from the field and 3 of 9 (33.3 percent) from behind the arc in a bench role. Team USA outscored opponents by 32 points with Adebayo on the court during the Paris Games.

“I think everybody at USA Basketball the last two tours got an idea of what Bam is all about,” Spoelstra said prior to Tuesday’s contest. “It’s about winning. He’ll sacrifice. He’ll do the dirty work. I think he was arguably one of everybody’s favorite teammates this summer, because he took on all the challenges defensively. He facilitated, got everybody involved, played a great role. That’s why he has two gold medals, been to the Finals twice.

“And then for me, personally, you don’t get these opportunities that often, in this league, where you’re able to develop a relationship with somebody for seven, eight years. Usually it’s one, two, three years, either there’s a transaction with the player or the coach gets fired. So I’ve treasured the relationship that I’ve been able to develop with Bam, from the beginning as a 19-year-old to now, with all those accomplishments. And this summer was probably the most enjoyable, just in terms of I was able to develop a different relationship with him, a lot less stress. There was a lot of pressure, but it wasn’t a head coach-player relationship. It was assistant coach, more of a friend type relationship. That was so much fun and something I’ll treasure for the rest of my career.”

Adebayo closed Tuesday’s win with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 1-of-1 shooting on threes, nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block.