Heat falls to Thunder, as Jimmy Butler exits early with illness. Takeaways and details

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 104-97 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder (22-5) on Friday night at Kaseya Center to begin a back-to-back set. The Heat (13-12) will complete the back-to-back on Saturday against the Orlando Magic at Kia Center (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun):

Even without Jimmy Butler for most of the game, the Heat managed to hang around against an elite Thunder team. But ultimately, the Heat didn’t do enough to get the win.

The Thunder entered the game with the NBA’s second-best record and top defensive rating this season.

The Heat was without Butler for most of the night after he left the game with 4:41 remaining in the first quarter because of an illness and did not return.

But the Heat still kept the game close, trailing by three points at halftime. The Heat even pulled ahead by three points with 7:25 left in the third quarter.

That’s when the Thunder finally took control, closing the period on a 23-9 run to turn that three-point deficit into an 11-point lead entering the fourth quarter behind 13 third-quarter points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The Thunder played from ahead for the rest of the night.

The Heat kept competing, pulling within five points multiple times in the final minutes. But that’s the closest that Miami would get.

“Doing it on the fly without Jimmy, you just got to do whatever you have to do to try to get it to a possession game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We were pretty close to that. There were some swing moment possessions — offense and defense, both ends of the court — the last three or four minutes that it could have gone more in our favor. That’s the unfortunate thing.”

Even with the Thunder playing its third game in four nights and the Heat coming off a three-day break following Monday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City found a way to hold on for the seven-point victory down the stretch.

The Thunder won behind its suffocating defense, entering with the NBA’s highest opponent turnover rate (percentage of opponent possessions that end in a turnover) at 19.1 percent. Oklahoma City forced Miami into 19 turnovers, capitalizing to total 27 points off those mistakes.

The Thunder also closed with a 42-36 edge from three-point range behind an efficient 14-of-34 (41.2 percent) shooting display from behind the arc. The Heat shot just 12 of 40 (30 percent) on threes.

The duo of Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams led the Thunder, combining for 58 points.

Williams finished with 33 points on 12-of-25 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting on threes, six rebounds and four assists.

Gilgeous-Alexander totaled 25 points on 10-of-25 shooting from the field, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Without Butler, the Heat relied on the duo of Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro that combined for 45 points in Friday’s loss.

Herro finished with a team-high 28 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the field and 3-of-10 shooting on threes, 12 rebounds, five assists and three steals. The 12 rebounds are a new season-high for Herro.

The Heat posted its third-worst single-game offensive rating of the season in the loss, scoring at a pace of 100 points per 100 possessions.

“That’s a very good defense,” Spoelstra said.

Herro added: “They did a really good job pressuring the ball, making things tough on us, taking us out of our initial actions. They did a really good job on that end, for sure.”

While it appeared that Butler left Friday’s game early because of a sprained ankle, the Heat said his early exit was due to an illness.

After battling with Thunder forward Luguentz Dort for a loose ball midway through Friday’s first quarter, Dort came up with the steal on his way to throwing down a dunk on the other end and Butler came away hobbling. It looked like Butler turned his ankle on the play.

The Heat immediately called for a timeout and Butler walked straight to the locker room with team trainers, exiting the game with 4:41 left in the first quarter.

But minutes later, the Heat announced that Butler would miss the rest of the game with an illness. According to a league source, the 35-year-old Butler is dealing with a stomach bug.

“I’m not thinking any other thought,” Spoelstra said of Butler entering the game with an illness. “If guys say they can go, we’re going right now.”

Butler looked off from the start of Friday’s contest, going scoreless and not putting up a shot in his 7:19 of playing time against the Thunder just days after recording a triple-double in Monday’s loss to the Pistons. His only stats on Friday were two assists.

With the Heat right back at it on Saturday against the Magic at Kia Center, it remains to be seen if Butler will be available for that game. Butler did not travel with the Heat to Orlando late Friday night, but it’s still possible that he could make the trip to Orlando on Saturday to play against the Magic.

Butler, who has been at the center of trade speculation this month, has already missed five of the Heat’s first 25 games this season.

Meanwhile, Adebayo returned from a blow to the face to finish Friday’s game for the Heat.

Adebayo went back to the Heat locker room with 10:19 left in the third quarter to receive seven stitches for a cut above his left eye. He re-entered the game with 4:17 left in the third quarter.

Adebayo went on to play the rest of the game, finishing the defeat with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 36 minutes. He committed a team-high six turnovers.

With Adebayo on the court, the Heat outscored the Thunder by five points. The problem is the Thunder outscored the Heat by 12 points in the 12:10 that Adebayo was on the bench.

With Adebayo on the court, the Heat also limited the Thunder to 98.6 points per 100 possessions. With Adebayo off the court, the Thunder scored 130.8 points per 100 possessions.

“He’s able to impact the game in so many ways,” Herro said of Adebayo. “Then he gets hurt or gets his eye split open, and he’s able to get back here and get stitches and jump right back in the game. It shows how much he loves the game.”

Adebayo recorded the 206th double-double of his NBA career on Friday to pass Alonzo Mourning for second place on the Heat’s all-time list for most double-doubles. Only Rony Seikaly has turned in more double-double performances (221 double-doubles) than Adebayo in a Heat uniform.

Most of the Heat’s backup center minutes on Friday went to Nikola Jovic.

The Heat’s usual backup center Kevin Love logged just three minutes against the Thunder, with all of his playing time coming in the first quarter when Adebayo went to the bench for his first rest of the night. Miami was outscored by eight points with Love on the court.

After Love’s first and only stint of the game, Jovic played as the Heat’s center when Adebayo was on the bench. Jovic even played his traditional position of forward alongside Adebayo during stretches of Friday’s contest.

Jovic returned Friday from a one-game absence due to a sprained ankle, finishing the Heat’s loss with seven points and one rebound in 19 minutes.

This isn’t the first time that Love has been pulled from the rotation in the middle of a game because of matchup issues, as he only played five minutes in the Heat’s Dec. 8 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers and nine minutes in the Heat’s Dec. 12 win over the Toronto Raptors.

The Heat’s bench rotation on Friday included Jovic, Love, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dru Smith and Terry Rozier.

With the Heat entering the game without Josh Christopher (G League) and Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation), Miami’s only available players who did not enter Friday’s contest were Alec Burks, Keshad Johnson, Pelle Larsson and Kel’el Ware.

Next up for the Heat is a short-handed Magic team.

The Magic already ruled out its best two players for Saturday’s matchup against the Heat, with Paolo Banchero (torn oblique) and Franz Wagner (torn oblique) still sidelined. Banchero has been out since the start of November and Wagner has missed the last four games.

The Magic also listed Gary Harris as questionable because of a strained hamstring. Jalen Suggs is probable to play despite a sprained ankle.

But the Magic has still managed to stay near the top of the Eastern Conference standings amid its injury issues.

Orlando stands in fourth place in the East with a 17-12 record behind an elite defense. The Magic entered Friday with the NBA’s third-best defensive rating this season.

The last time that the Heat and Magic faced off came in the season opener, when the Magic routed the Heat 116-97 on Oct. 23 in Miami.

The Heat and Magic will meet twice in the next week, with another game in Orlando set for Thursday following Saturday’s matchup.

“We got another one tomorrow, we can’t harp on this,” Adebayo said after Friday’s loss. “We got to get out there and try to get a W tomorrow.”