Monday night saw the Miami Heat lose their seventh straight game as they fell to the Phoenix Suns inside the Kaseya Center, 118-105.

The struggles continue for the Heat as they couldn't handle the likes of Suns big three in Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal who combined for 61 points. However, their bench were solid with 48 points, led by Eric Gordon who had 23.

On the Heat's side, Jimmy Butler led with 26 points, Terry Rozier had a Miami career-high with 21, plus Tyler Herro had 17. They would shoot 39.3 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from the three-point line.

Here are three takeaways from another Heat loss, this time to the Suns:

Another sluggish start for Miami aside from Rozier breaking out

Miami Heat stars Terry Rozier, Jimmy Butler, and head coach Erik Spoelstra in front of the Kaseya Center.

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said that it was important for “Terry to be Terry” in reference to Rozier as he is in the midst of getting acclimated to the team. Other players such as Butler as well said that they want Rozier to be aggressive, to be himself.

The first quarter saw for the first time how effective he can be with Miami as he started the game with six straight points and at one point had eight of the team's 11 points. This included a smooth move where he faked out Durant and connected on a nice turnaround jumper. After, he would hit a three in the corner, plus get the foul for a four-point play.

While that is a great sign for the Heat, the rest of the team was for the most part, radio silent. By the end of the first period, the team shot 38.1 percent from the field and made three of their 13 shot attempts from deep. Going into the second quarter with 15 minutes through the game, Rozier was the only player on Miami that had made more than one basket.

Heat would be unable to match their first quarter scoring total as they scored 24 in the second period. Through the first 24 minutes, Miami shot 35.4 percent from the field and made six of their 19 attempts from three-point range as they were down 13 going into the second half.

More of the same in the second half 

The struggles would continue into the third period as while it's asinine to question the effort of the Heat, it's undeniable how sluggish the team has been the past few weeks. Sure, the Suns are a good team. There's no question, but the Heat made the NBA Finals last season with virtually the same integral pieces plus the addition of Rozier.

Butler and Rozier would seem to be the only players who can execute anything on offense as they both had 21 points when the third period ended. Going into the final period, the Heat scored 25 in the quarter, but Phoenix had their best offensive quarter with 38 points. It would take a miracle for Miami to come back down almost 30 points as they trailed 100-74, heading into their seventh straight loss.

If there is a bright side, Miami started the final period with an 11-0 run that would give the crowd something to cheer for. While it would be a fun for them to come back, the Suns weren't having any of it as they closed them out of a miracle and sealed the deal.

Seven straight losses for Miami

The Heat have not been a stranger to their slumps and losing streaks in seasons where they have miraculous playoff runs, but this skid feels different. An even more daunting statistic is that the last time Miami went on a seven-game losing streak was in the late portion of the 2007-2008 season.

What was their record that season? 15-67.

Granted, this team is built way more to go to the postseason than that squad did, but now is not the time to be in company with one of the worst teams in the franchise's history. Even worse, during this slump, the team has inching closer and closer to their record being at .500 as now they're 24-23.

Going into Monday night's game, they were seventh in the Eastern Conference and had the same record as the Orlando Magic who were in the eight seed. At halftime, they were beating the Dallas Mavericks 77-61, so time will tell where the Heat fall in the rankings. Their next test is against the Sacramento Kings Wednesday night as they look to snap the long skid before they travel to face the Washington Wizards on Friday.