Takeaways from the Heat’s blowout loss to the Pacers on another quiet night for Jimmy Butler

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 128-115 loss to the Indiana Pacers (17-18) on Thursday night at Kaseya Center on the back end of a back-to-back set to drop to 1-1 on its three-game homestand . The Heat (17-15) closes the homestand on Saturday against the Utah Jazz:

The Heat usually leans on its defense to win games. But the Heat’s defense was the reason it was blown out on Thursday.

The Heat entered with the NBA’s 10th-ranked defensive rating this season, but it didn’t look like a top-10 unit against the Pacers.

The Pacers carved through the Heat’s defense from the start of the game, totaling 66 first-half points on 58.7 percent shooting from the field and 8-of-22 (36.4 percent) shooting from three-point range while dishing out an eye-opening 21 assists. It marks the most assists that Indiana has recorded in a half this season.

As a result, the Pacers led by as many as 17 points in the first half before entering halftime with a 16-point lead.

It didn’t get better in the second half, as the Pacers’ lead ballooned to as large as 28 points over the final two quarters.

Through three quarters, the Pacers had 107 points on 61.4 percent shooting from the field and 15-of-34 (44.1 percent) shooting from three-point range to enter the final period with a 24-point advantage.

Behind 18 fourth-quarter points from rookie center Kel’el Ware, the Heat made a late surge to cut the deficit to 12 with 5:33 to play. But that’s the closest Miami would get.

The Pacers outscored the Heat 23-9 in points off turnovers and 51-33 from behind the three-point line on the way to the rout.

Ware ended the night as the Heat’s leading scorer, with 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field, 3-of-4 shooting on threes and 4-of-5 shooting from the foul line. He didn’t grab a rebound in his 21 minutes, but did block three shots.

The only other double-digit scorers for the Heat were Bam Adebayo (20 points), Tyler Herro (17 points) and Terry Rozier (16 points).

The Pacers were led by a magnificent performance form Tyrese Halburton, who finished with 33 points and a season-high 15 assists

How bad was it? The Heat trailed by double digits for 80 percent of the game.

The Heat fell behind by double digits with 2:31 left in the first quarter and trailed by double digits for the rest of the game.

The Heat’s only lead of the game came when it scored the first basket of the contest to pull ahead 2-0.

Thursday only marked the Heat’s fifth double-digit loss of the season, which is tied for the fifth fewest double-digit losses among NBa teams this season. Only the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies have fewer than double-digit defeats than the Heat.

Heat star Jimmy Butler has been unusually quiet in his first two games back from injury.

Butler, who has been at the center of trade speculation in recent weeks, played in his second straight game on Thursday after a five-game absence due to a stomach illness.

Just like in Butler’s return, he was unusually quiet in his second game back.

In Butler’s first game back in Wednesday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans, he finished with just nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, four rebounds and two assists in 25 minutes. After heading to the bench with 3:29 left in the third quarter, he did not re-enter the game with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra saying after the game that he “just went with the group there in the fourth that was giving us the most.”

Butler followed that up with another nine-point performance in Thursday’s loss to the Pacers. He shot 3 of 6 from the field, 1 of 2 on threes and 2 of 2 from the foul line, two rebounds, four assists and two steals in 26 minutes. Butler again didn’t play in the fourth quarter of the lopsided contest.

After scoring on a layup for the game-opening basket just 21 seconds into Thursday’s, Butler didn’t score again until he made a corner three-pointer with 6:07 left in the third quarter. He totaled seven points in the third quarter before heading to the bench with 1:54 left in the period and never re-entering the game.

Butler entered Thursday averaging 18 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game this season. It’s the fewest points that he has averaged in a season since the 2013-14 when he was a member of the Chicago Bulls.

The Heat’s preferred starting lineup has been among the NBA’s best lineups this season. But it wasn’t good against the Pacers.

The Heat opened Thursday’s contest with its go-to starting lineup of Herro, Duncan Robinson, Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo.

The group has been dominant this season, outscoring teams by 14.5 points per 100 possessions in 157 minutes together this season.

Among the 25 lineups around the NBA that entered Thursday with at least 140 minutes played together this season, this Heat group held the third-best net rating.

But the Heat’s starting lineup struggled against the Pacers, as this unit was outscored 18-11 over the first 6:39 of the game before Miami turned to its bench for the first time on Thursday.

The Heat fell to 9-5 this season when using this starting lineup.

With Terry Rozier back in the mix after serving his league-issued one-game suspension in Wednesday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans, the Heat went with a bench rotation of Rozier, Kel’el Ware, Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr. before empting its bench late in the blowout loss.

The Heat was without Josh Richardson (heel) and Dru Smith (Achilles) against the Pacers.

Less than three weeks after the Heat traded veteran center Thomas Bryant to the Pacers, Bryant made his return to Miami.

The Heat traded Bryant to the Pacers on Dec. 15 without getting a player back in return. The Heat and Pacers agreed to a swap of 2031 second-round picks as part of the trade, with Miami getting the more favorable second-round selection between the two teams that year.

Bryant’s Heat tenure ended in the middle of his second season with the team.

Bryant was not a consistent member of the Heat’s rotation, falling behind starting center Bam Adebayo and then-backup center Kevin Love on the depth chart. Bryant averaged 4.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in 10 appearances with the Heat this season before the trade.

Bryant has been able to step into a bigger role with Indiana, as the Pacers were in search of a new backup center after losing Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman to torn Achilles tendons.

Entering Thursday’s matchup against the Heat, Bryant had played in each of his first eight games with the Pacers. He averaged five points and 3.3 rebounds in 11.1 minutes per game over those eight appearances.

In Bryant’s first game back in Miami since the trade, Bryant totaled three points and one assist in seven minutes against his former team.

“It was really great the way it worked out,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said before Thursday’s game when asked about the move to acquire Bryant. “The Heat was willing to talk to us about a deal to help him get to a better situation and he’s really helped us. So we’re thankful.”