Heat wastes another late lead in costly overtime loss to Bucks. Takeaways and postgame reaction

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 121-115 overtime loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (43-34) on Saturday night at Kaseya Center to fall to 0-2 on its three-game homestand. The Heat (35-43) closes this stretch at home on Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers:

The Heat led multiple times down the stretch, but again struggled to close in another painful late-season loss.

Both teams were missing key players, as the Heat entered without Tyler Herro because of a right thigh contusion and the Bucks remained without Damian Lillard due to right calf deep vein thrombosis.

But the Heat found itself in position to come away with an important win despite missing its leading scorer in Herro.

The Heat led Saturday’s game by seven points with 3:04 left in the fourth quarter, by two points with 53.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and again by two points with 3:05 to play in overtime and still ended up losing.

“It’s a tough one because we played well enough that I feel like we should have won,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

After the Heat pulled ahead 115-113 with 3:05 remaining in overtime, the Bucks closed the contest on a game-winning 8-0 run on their way to the six-point victory.

Kevin Porter Jr. scored on a layup to tie the game at 115 with 2:34 left in overtime, Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down a dunk in transition to put the Bucks ahead by two points with 1:36 remaining in overtime, Porter again made a layup to extend the Bucks’ lead to four with 10.8 seconds to play in overtime and then Brook Lopez finished off the Heat with a dunk to push the Bucks’ lead to six with 4.1 seconds left in overtime.

The Heat, which led by as many as 10 points on Saturday, missed its final three shots of the game and also committed three turnovers during this costly stretch.

“A couple turnovers, some miscommunication and that was really the ball game right there,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said.

Antetokounmpo led the way for the Bucks with a triple-double stat line of 36 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists.

Porter added 24 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists off the Bucks’ bench.

Adebayo scored a team-high 31 points for the Heat to go with 12 rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block in 43 minutes.

Saturday’s loss comes just two days after Ja Morant hit a game-winning fadeaway jumper at the final buzzer to break a tie and send the Memphis Grizzlies to a victory over the Heat in Miami on Thursday.

Following Saturday’s defeat, the Heat has now blown a double-digit lead in an NBA-high 21 losses this season. The Heat has also now blown an NBA-high 20 fourth-quarter leads in losses this season.

But Spoelstra believes the last two close defeats are different than the ones the Heat experienced during its miserable 10-game losing skid last month.

“This is different because we’re playing good basketball,” Spoelstra said. “This is the thing where we have to be disciplined and not think that this is what was happening before.”

With Saturday’s loss, it’s looking more likely that the Heat will need to win two straight games in the play-in tournament to make the playoffs.

After Saturday’s defeat, the Heat (35-43) remained in 10th place in the Eastern Conference but fell one-half game behind the ninth-place Chicago Bulls (35-42), 1.5 games behind the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks (36-41) and three games behind the seventh-place Orlando Magic (38-40).

The Heat only has four games left to play this regular season.

The East’s play-in game between the No. 7 team and No. 8 team will be played on Tuesday, April 15 at a time still to be determined and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the seventh-place team, earns the conference’s seventh playoff seed.

The East’s play-in game between the No. 9 team and No. 10 team will be played on Wednesday, April 16 at a time still to be determined and aired on ESPN. The Heat — as the 10th-place team — would go on the road to face the Bulls in Chicago in this game if the current standings hold, with the loser of this matchup eliminated from playoff contention.

Then the East’s play-in game between the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game and the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 game will be played on Friday, April 18 and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game, earns the conference’s eighth playoff seed.

To have any chance of passing the Bulls to move into ninth place in the East, the Heat very likely needs to defeat the Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday in the teams’ final regular-season matchup.

But not even that would be enough because the Bulls currently have one fewer loss than the Heat and has already clinched the tiebreaker by winning the regular-season series between the two teams. Even if the Heat wins out over its final four regular-season games, Miami needs Chicago to lose at least two of its five remaining regular-season games (at Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, at Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, vs. Heat on Wednesday, vs. Washington Wizards on Friday and at 76ers on April 13) to pass the Bulls in the standings.

If the Heat finishes the regular season in ninth or 10th place, it would need to win two straight games in the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed. Closing the regular season in seventh or eighth place means the Heat would get two chances to win one play-in game to make the playoffs as either the East’s No. 7 or No. 8 seed.

But it became much more likely that the Heat will be in the East’s No. 9 vs. No. 10 play-in game after Saturday’s loss.

With only one week left in the regular season, Herro watch has begun.

After initially being listed as questionable because of a right thigh contusion, Herro was ruled out for Saturday’s game against Bucks. Herro suffered his thigh injury late in Thursday’s loss to the Grizzlies.

It marks just the fourth game that Herro has missed through the Heat’s first 78 games this season — one because of right groin tightness, one because of a stomach illness, one because of a head cold and now one because of a thigh contusion.

“He was doing as much treatment as he could,” Spoelstra said prior to Saturday’s game when asked about Herro’s injury. “You guys saw the play. It was on that fast break. He just had a contusion there. We’ll treat him day to day.”

Is there concern that Herro could miss the rest of the regular season, which ends in a week on April 13?

“I’m not going there,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t know why you’re going there. But we’ll see. The body will let us know.”

Along with missing Herro, the Heat was without Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Kevin Love (personal reasons), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery), Andrew Wiggins (right hamstring tendinopathy) and Isaiah Stevens (right foot discomfort) against the Bucks. Stevens hurt his foot while warming up for Saturday’s contest.

Wiggins, who has missed five straight games with a hamstring injury, said after Saturday’s loss that he hopes to return in the coming week before the end of the regular season.

The Bucks didn’t have Damian Lillard (right calf deep vein thrombosis), Bobby Portis (league suspension) and Jericho Sims (right thumb UCL sprain) against the Heat.

With Herro out, the Heat went with a new starting lineup Saturday that had not yet been used this season.

The Heat opened the game with a lineup of Alec Burks, Duncan Robinson, Pelle Larsson, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware. It marked the Heat’s 26th different starting lineup this season.

In fact, Saturday marked the first time that this five-man combination has been used by the Heat at any point in any game this season.

Robinson started in place of Herro, finishing the loss with 16 points on 4-of-10 shooting from three-point range in 31 minutes.

Burks contributed a season-high 24 points on 6-of-14 shooting from deep as part of the Heat’s starting lineup in 35 minutes.

“Alec played significantly more minutes than I’m supposed to play him right now, probably the same with Duncan,” Spoelstra said. “They both feel OK right now, but that’s where we are.”

The Heat’s bench rotation was also affected by Herro’s absence.

Robinson’s promotion to the starting group in place of Herro opened a spot in the Heat’s bench rotation for Rozier.

Rozier received seven DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in the previous 12 games after falling out of the Heat’s rotation amid his season-long shooting slump.

But Rozier was back in the mix on Saturday, albeit for a short stint. Rozier missed both of his shots to finish the loss scoreless during a first-half stint that lasted 4:24 and he never re-entered the game.

Instead, it was Davion Mitchell and Kyle Anderson that again stood out among the Heat’s reserves.

Mitchell totaled 20 points, five assists and one steal in 39 minutes off the Heat’s bench.

Anderson recorded 12 points, 14 rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes off the Heat’s bench.

“I’m grateful that we have Kyle because he does a lot of good things to help you win,” Spoelstra said.

Jaime Jaquez Jr., Josh Christopher and Keshad Johnson didn’t play on Saturday despite being available for the Heat.

“It’s one of those tough games because dudes like AB, Kyle, Davion, they played so well and you want that win,” Adebayo said.

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Heat wastes another late lead in costly overtime loss to Bucks. Takeaways and postgame reaction

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