As Jimmy Butler begins suspension, Heat crushed by struggling Jazz. Takeaways and details

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 136-100 loss to the Utah Jazz (8-25) on Saturday night at Kaseya Center to close its three-game homestand at 1-2. The Heat (17-16) now embarks on a six-game West Coast trip that begins Monday against the Sacramento Kings:

A bad week for the Heat got even worse with a 36-point blowout loss to the rebuilding Jazz.

On Thursday, Heat star Jimmy Butler made clear that he’s no longer happy playing for the Heat and insinuated that he’s open to a trade.

On Friday, the Heat suspended Butler for seven games “for multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team over the course of the season and particularly the last several weeks” and announced that it will listen to trade offers for Butler.

“We’re just going to focus on tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said regarding the Butler situation to open his pregame media session on Saturday. “We want to quiet all the distractions, enough has been said. We have clarity and we’re just going to focus on this group in the locker room. That’s what I want them to focus on and quiet the noise as much as possible. I’m not a clickbait type of coach, so you’re not going to get anything else really from me.

“We have a task to do. The guys are excited about this game coming off of a tough game the other night. You have to deal with a lot of different things in this association and it’s Saturday night. I’m looking forward to this game.”

But the game was a dud, as the Heat suffered its most lopsided loss of the season.

“I don’t think we make any excuses for this,” Spoelstra said after the game when asked whether the emotional toll from a rough week played a role in the ugly defeat. “We just took it on the chin and we have to get to work.”

The 36-point loss is the Heat’s most lopsided loss since a 47-point defeat to the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 29, 2020. It’s also the sixth-most lopsided home loss in Heat history.

“Tonight, obviously, wasn’t how we imagined it or pictured it,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “But you try to put this one past you.”

Making matters worse, the Jazz entered the game with the NBA’s fourth-worst record this season at 7-25.

The Heat was crushed 57-27 from three-point range and 57-32 in total rebounds.

Utah, which is one of the NBA’s top offensive rebounding teams this season, finished with a 16-5 advantage in offensive rebounds to outscore Miami 21-6 in second-chance points.

“Our inability to contain the ball, I think, was a bigger factor regardless of what they were running,” Spoelstra said when asked about the Jazz’s huge rebounding edge. “They got away from their normal offense in the first half and were just isolating and trying to attack us off the dribble and one on one. And then if you’re constantly getting broken down, bringing help defenders over, that’s going to expose you on the back side and they’re a big team.”

The Heat led 11-3 early, but it was downhill from there.

After the first quarter ended with the score tied at 22, the Jazz dominated the Heat 40-19 in the second quarter to enter halftime with a 21-point lead.

The Jazz cruised from there, with its lead growing to as large as 43 points. The win snapped Utah’s five-game losing skid.

Brice Sensabaugh led the Jazz with a career-high 34 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field and 7-of-11 shooting on threes.

As the Heat listens to trade offers for the suspended Butler, the Heat needs Bam Adebayo and Herro to step into even bigger roles. They both had rough nights Saturday.

Adebayo’s season-long inefficient shooting continued, finishing the loss with just four points on 0-of-6 shooting from the field in 26 minutes. It marked the first game in Adebayo’s NBA career that he finished without a field-goal make while playing at least 25 minutes.

Adebayo, a three-time NBA All-Star, has shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career prior to this season. But he’s shooting just 45.6 percent from the field this season.

Meanwhile, Herro turned in one of his worst shooting performances of the season in the loss with 15 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting from three-point range. He closed with his third-worst single-game effective field-goal percentage (measures field-goal percentage adjusting for made three-point field goals being 1.5 times more valuable than made two-pointers) of the season at 37.5 percent.

“I will watch the film,” Herro said. “I try to watch the film from every game, win or lose or however many points we win or lose by. I feel like there’s always something you can take from everything. Everything counts, so why not dissect it and try to find something from it.”

With Butler away from the team, the Heat went with its sixth different starting lineup of the season.

The Heat opened Saturday’s game with a lineup of Terry Rozier, Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic and Adebayo.

It marked the first time the Heat has used this lineup to start a game this season, but the group had already played 26 minutes together this season before Saturday’s start. They outscored opponents by an impressive 27.9 points per 100 possessions during that small sample size.

In Butler’s absence, Spoelstra said the starting lineup will likely continue to change.

“We’ll do this by a night-by-night basis right now and then we’ll see,” Spoelstra said. “We’ll do whatever is necessary.”

This group actually started Saturday’s game strong, as the Heat outscored the Jazz 11-6 before making its first substitution of the night.

But the second half began with this lineup getting outscored by five points before the Heat turned to its bench.

“It was a little bit matchup, a little bit other factors into it,” Spoelstra said of his decision to start Saturday’s game with the Rozier-Herro-Highsmith-Jovic-Adebayo lineup. “The tough thing about this is it’s going to be hard to evaluate much from this game. We did get off to a good start. I think that was probably the only good stretch we had over the course of the game. But I’ll continue to assess and we’ll put together what we think is best.”

The two notable changes to the starting group on Saturday involved Rozier and Jovic.

Rozier, who started the first 12 games of the season before moving to a bench role, made just his second start since Nov. 18. He returned to the starting group and Duncan Robinson moved back to the bench after starting in 19 straight appearances.

Jovic, who started the first eight games of the season before moving to a reserve role, made only his second start since Nov. 10. He started in place of the suspended Butler.

Rozier finished the loss with eight points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field and 0-of-5 shooting on threes, one rebound and zero assists in 18 minutes.

Jovic contributed a team-high 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes in 24 minutes.

The Heat’s bench rotation also looked different with Butler out of the mix, as undrafted rookie Keshad Johnson played extended minutes on Saturday.

Johnson, who was recently promoted to a standard contract after beginning the season on a two-way deal, logged a career-high 20 minutes. He recorded seven points, four rebounds, one steal and one block.

The highlight of Johnson’s performance came late in the first quarter, when he hustled and used his athleticism to get a chase-down block on a Collin Sexton layup attempt in transition.

Jazz went undrafted this year out of Arizona and has spent most of the season so far with the Heat’s G League affiliate. He has impressed with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, averaging 19.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.5 steals and one block per game in 15 G League appearances.

Johnson was part of a seven-man Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson, Alec Burks, Pelle Larsson, Josh Christopher and Kel’el Ware.

The only Heat players unavailable for Saturday’s game were Butler, Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League).

That left Kevin Love as the only available Heat player who didn’t get into Saturday’s contest.

Next up for the Heat is a lot of time on the road.

The Heat will take a long flight to Sacramento on Sunday to begin a six-game West Coast trip with a matchup against the Kings on Monday. It’s tied for the Heat’s longest road trip of the season.

The trip also includes games against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, Jazz on Thursday, Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, Los Angeles Clippers on Jan. 13 and Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 15.

From the first game to the final game, the trip spans 10 days. The Heat’s next home game is Jan. 17 against the Denver Nuggets.

So far this season, the Heat is 10-7 at home and 6-9 on the road.

“Just trying to bring that collective spirit that we can rally around each other for almost two weeks out on that road trip,” Herro said.