The Miami Heat drop a crucial game to the Dallas Mavericks, 111-92, inside the Kaseya Center Wednesday night on the tail-end of the back-to-back. Miami's goal was simple going into the final three games of the season if they wanted to get out of the play-in tourney and be in contention for the sixth seed, win out, but that has been put to rest with the result Wednesday.
For Miami, Tyler Herro led with 21 points along with seven rebounds and six assists while the main stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo had disappointing outings with 12 and eight points respectively. For Dallas, the usual suspects handled business as Luka Doncic had 29 points, nine rebounds, nine assists where as Kyrie Irving had 25 points.
Here are three takeaways from Miami's loss to Dallas, making it a series sweep for the opponent:
Frustrating first half for the Heat
Dallas got the upper hand of Miami in the opening period of the game as it was a showcase for the opponent's top two stars in Doncic and Irving. For the former, he scored 13 points, collected four rebounds, and shot five of seven from the field along with making three of his five attempts from three-point range. However, Doncic would come in to foul trouble early as he got three fouls.
However, Irving was the player the Mavericks turned to as he finished the quarter with 10 points, including a buzzer-beater jumper to put their team up nine by the end of it. Miami shot eight of 20 from the field and four of eight from deep compared to Dallas who made 59.1 percent of their shots from the field and 53.8 percent from beyond the arch.
The second quarter was worse in all aspects for the Heat as by the end of it, they were trailing by 22 points. Dallas took full control on both sides of the ball as Irving continued with 11 more as he was perfect from the field and from deep.
Miami was lifeless in the 12 minutes as arguably their top two stars were absent, especially Adebayo who had a rough start to the game as he only made one shot out of nine attempts. Butler would finish the half with eight points while the scoring leaders were Caleb Martin and Tyler Herro with 12 and 1o. If Miami can't get make some adjustments, the Heat are inevitably a play-in tourney team.
Disappointing second half
The Heat would do a lot of dirty work in the third quarter as while they were down by as much as 25 points, they dwindled down the deficit to 13 at one point. While not very explosive, they would score a game-high up until that point with 27 points in the third period, but it was defensively where they got back to their strengths and held Dallas to 19.
What was killing Miami in the first half was the dynamic duo of Doncic and Irving, but in the third period, they scored six and zero points respectively. It set the Heat to have a bounce back in the final period and possibly make the game more interesting.
The fourth quarter would be exciting to start as the Heat would go on another run and make their deficit back to single-digits to eight points. What did they do from there? Not much.
Miami couldn't build on the momentum they had from the third quarter and start of the fourth to make some shots and get some stops on the defensive side. It was noticeable that there was no juice left for the Heat as their main stars not named Herro in Butler and Adebayo still couldn't get anything rolling.
Major fatigue for Miami?
While a lot could be attributed for the loss against the Mavericks, a possible one could be that the Heat are feeling the effects from Tuesday's game against the Atlanta Hawks. While a back-to-back will always have the impact on fatigue going into the second game, Miami's was a different scenario as the contest took two overtime periods to decide a winner.
It could be seen as a petty excuse since Dallas also played a game the night before, but not to the point that Miami did in double overtime. Still though, the Heat have been disappointing this season against talented teams and it continued Wednesday.
The chances of Miami getting out of the play-in tourney are dead in the water as fans should prepare for the second straight season where there is a chance they don't play a playoff series to begin with. With two games left, both against the Toronto Raptors at home, fans are hoping for the Heat to recreate the magic from last season where they went from the play-in to the NBA Finals.
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