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Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 108-89 loss to the Boston Celtics (17-4) on
\nMonday night at TD Garden to close its winless two-game trip. The Heat (9-10)
\nnow returns to Miami to host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday:
\nWith the Heat and Celtics playing on the second night of a back-to-back set
\nand also battling injury issues, both teams were missing a chunk of their
\nrotation. But the Celtics\u2019 high-volume three-point shooting was still the
\ndierence.
\nThe Heat played without Jimmy Butler (right knee soreness), Josh Christopher (G
\nLeague), Nikola Jovic (left ankle sprain), Kevin Love (back spasms), Josh
\nRichardson (illness) and Kel\u2019el Ware (right foot tendinitis).
\nThe Celtics were without Kristaps Porzingis (return from injury management),
\nJrue Holiday (left knee tendinopathy), Al Horford (left big toe sprain) and Sam
\nHauser (personal reasons).
\nBut those absences didn\u2019t deter the Celtics from continuing to lean on their highvolume three-point shooting attack to win the math equation and the game, as
\nthey dominated the Heat 57-24 from three-point range on their way to the 19-
\npoint win.
\nThe Celtics entered the contest averaging an NBA-high in threes made (19.1 per
\ngame) and threes attempted (50.7 per game).
\nBoston shot 19 of 55 (34.5 percent) from behind the arc on Monday.
\nMeanwhile, the the Heat had a rough shooting night, nishing just 8 of 35 (a
\nseason-worst 22.9 percent) from three-point range. Miami also shot a seasonworst 35.6 percent from the eld in the loss.
\n\u201cI thought we had some great looks at the basket,\u201d Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
\nsaid. \u201cSometimes they just don\u2019t fall. They shoot a lot of threes and it\u2019s our job to
\ntry to contest and make it dicult for them. But it\u2019s dicult when you\u2019re not
\nmaking shots on the other end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the Heat\u2019s three-point shooting struggles on Monday, it also shot just
\n18 of 44 (40.9 percent) from inside the paint. That allowed the Celtics to also
\noutscore the Heat 40-30 in paint points.
\n\u201cYou hold them under 110, you feel like on the road that should be enough to
\nmake it a possession game going down the stretch,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra
\nsaid. \u201cBut that just wasn\u2019t the case. We would have had to make a lot of those
\nrestricted area shots and some of those threes.\u201d
\nThe Heat only trailed by three at the end of the rst quarter, but the Celtics shot 7
\nof 15 (46.7 percent) from three-point range in the second quarter to break the
\ngame open and enter halftime with a 15-point advantage.
\nThe Celtics\u2019 lead grew to as large as 27 points in the second half.
\nJaylen Brown totaled a game-high 29 points to go with seven rebounds and four
\nassists for Boston.
\nJayson Tatum added 18 points, 11 rebounds and four assists for the Celtics.
\nPayton Pritchard contributed 25 points, ve rebounds, four assists and two steals
\no the Celtics\u2019 bench.
\nFor the Heat, it was a rough shooting night for nearly every player on the roster.
\nHeat guard Tyler Herro nished with 19 points, but shot just 6 of 19 from the eld
\nand 2 of 10 on threes.
\nJaquez recorded a season-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and three assists,
\nbut shot just 5 of 14 from the eld. He scored most of his points at the free-throw
\nline, shooting 9 of 12 at the charity stripe.
\n\u201cWe missed a lot of shots we normally make and that\u2019s been the result a lot this
\nseason,\u201d Heat center Bam Adebayo said.
\nAdebayo\u2019s season-long shooting slump continues.<\/p>\n
Through the rst 18 games of his eighth NBA season, Adebayo entered Monday
\naveraging 15.7 points per game on 42.6 percent shooting from the eld after
\nshooting better than 50 percent from the eld in each of the rst seven seasons of
\nhis NBA career.
\nAdebayo\u2019s uncharacteristic shooting slump continued in Monday\u2019s loss, as he
\nnished with 15 points on 6-of-18 shooting from the eld and 1-of-4 shooting on
\nthrees.
\nAfter making his rst shot of Monday\u2019s game \u2014 an 18-foot midrange jumper \u2014 to
\nopen the scoring, he missed his next eight eld-goal attempts. He didn\u2019t make his
\nsecond shot of the night until there was 1:49 left in the second quarter.
\nBut after scoring only four points on 2-of-12 shooting from the eld through the
\nrst three quarters, Adebayo came alive to score 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting
\nfrom the eld and 1-of-2 shooting on threes in the fourth quarter with the Celtics
\nalready in full control of the game.
\nAdebayo, a three-time NBA All-Star, has scored more than 20 points in three of the
\nHeat\u2019s rst 19 games this season after doing so in 12 of the Heat\u2019s rst 19 games
\nlast season.
\nOne of the weirdest aspects of Adebayo\u2019s cold stretch is the fact that he entered
\nMonday shooting just 46.2 percent from inside the paint this season after
\nshooting 57.3 percent from inside the paint last season.
\nAdebayo shot just 4 of 11 (36.4 percent) from inside the paint on Monday,
\nincluding 1 of 4 (25 percent) at the rim.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s built a career being able to make those shots and make those look easy,\u201d
\nSpoelstra said. \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those stretches that sometimes you can\u2019t explain.\u201d
\nAdeayo continues to do other things well, though. He contributed eight rebounds,
\nve assists and one steal in Monday\u2019s loss and has helped anchor the Heat\u2019s
\ndefense this season.<\/p>\n
As for the Heat\u2019s injuries, Spoelstra described Butler as \u201cday to day\u201d and said
\nLove \u201ctweaked\u201d his lingering back issue.
\nButler, 35, missed Monday\u2019s game with right knee soreness after tweaking his
\nknee late in Sunday\u2019s loss to the Raptors in Toronto. With Butler missing four
\ngames earlier this season because of a sprained right ankle, he has now been
\nunavailable for ve of the Heat\u2019s rst 19 games.
\nThe good news is that those around Butler are cautiously optimistic that the
\ninjury is not a serious one that will keep him out for an extended period. There\u2019s
\ncurrently no plan for Butler to undergo an MRI or X-ray on the knee.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no change,\u201d Spoelstra said when asked about Butler\u2019s status prior to
\nMonday\u2019s game in Boston. \u201cHe\u2019s not playing tonight. We\u2019ll just treat him day to
\nday. He\u2019s still sore. But we\u2019ll see what happens when we get back to Miami.\u201d
\nWith Love, Monday marked the second game that he has missed in the last four
\ngames with back spasms. Love, the Heat\u2019s backup center, has now been
\nunavailable for 10 of the Heat\u2019s rst 19 games after missing time because of
\npersonal reasons earlier this season.
\n\u201cThis is the same back deal,\u201d Spoelstra said of Love before Monday\u2019s contest. \u201cHe
\njust tweaked it a little bit. It\u2019s not as painful as the initial time. But enough so that
\nhe wouldn\u2019t be able to go tonight.\u201d
\nThe Heat\u2019s other injured players were Jovic, Richardson and Ware, as they each
\nmissed their second straight game with their ailments. Jovic and Richardson did
\nnot travel with the team for the two-game trip and remained in Miami, but Ware
\nwas with the Heat in Toronto and Boston.
\nWith Butler out, the Heat used its fourth dierent starting lineup of the
\nseason on Monday. But the Heat didn\u2019t stick with that starting group to begin
\nthe second half.
\nJaquez received his rst start of the season, opening the contest in Butler\u2019s place.
\nJaquez began the game alongside the Heat\u2019s four other usual starters \u2014 Herro,<\/p>\n
Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo.
\n\u201cWhen guys go down, it\u2019s our job to step up and try to ll in those gaps,\u201d Jaquez
\nsaid of lling in for Butler as part of the Heat\u2019s starting group. \u201cSo coming into
\nthis game, I knew I had to be aggressive. That was my mentality.\u201d
\nThis lineup played just four minutes together this season prior to starting
\nMonday\u2019s game.
\nUnfortunately for the Heat, this starting unit didn\u2019t produce positive results.
\nThe Herro-Robinson-Jaquez-Highsmith-Adebayo combination began Monday\u2019s
\ngame by being outscored 17-9 during the rst 6:28 of the rst quarter before the
\nHeat made its rst substitution of the night. The Heat didn\u2019t use that lineup again
\nfor the rest of the game.
\nInstead, the Heat made an adjustment and started Dru Smith in Robinson\u2019s place
\nto begin the second half.
\n\u201cA lot of that was some of the defensive stu that we saw in the rst half and then
\nDru gave us that spark,\u201d Spoelstra said of the decision to start the second half
\nwith Smith over Robinson. \u201c\u2026 We were just trying to get some better matchups
\nand see if we could shake free Tyler o the ball. That wasn\u2019t necessarily anything
\nwith Duncan.\u201d
\nRobinson played o the bench in the second half, nishing Monday\u2019s loss with
\nve points on 2-of-9 shooting from the eld and 0-of-6 shooting from three-point
\nrange.
\nThe Heat\u2019s injury issues also gave some seldom-used players an opportunity
\nto play.
\nThe Heat used Thomas Bryant, Terry Rozier, Pelle Larsson, Alec Burks, Keshad
\nJonson and Smith o the bench on Monday to complete its 11-man rotation.<\/p>\n
While Rozier, Larsson and Burks are rotation regulars at this point, Bryant and
\nSmith have fallen out of the Heat\u2019s rotation. And Johnson has spent most of the
\nseason in the G League as one of the Heat\u2019s two-way contract players.
\nWith Love and Ware out, Bryant played as the Heat\u2019s backup center after
\nreceiving 10 straight DNP-CDs (did not play, coach\u2019s decision). In Bryant\u2019s rst
\ngame action since Nov. 8, he nished Monday\u2019s loss with two points and two
\nrebounds in 10 minutes.
\nJaquez\u2019s promotion to the starting lineup created a slot in the bench rotation for
\nSmith, who had played in just one of the previous 13 games. Smith closed
\nMonday\u2019s defeat with eight points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals in 21
\nminutes in just his sixth appearance of the season.
\nJohnson, an undrafted rookie, entered for the rst regular-season minutes of his
\nNBA career with 4:19 left in Monday\u2019s third quarter. He scored the rst points of
\nhis NBA career on a dunk, nishing the loss with two points on 1-of-2 shooting
\nfrom the eld in seven minutes.
\nEach of the 11 Heat players who were available played on Monday.
\nThe Celtics\u2019 bench outscored the Heat\u2019s reserves 36-21<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 108-89 loss to the Boston Celtics (17-4) on Monday night at TD Garden to close its winless two-game trip. The Heat… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n