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As the Miami Heat were without star Jimmy Butler Monday night, they fell at the hands of the Boston Celtics, 108-89, to take their losing streak up to two games. It was another slow night for the Heat's captain in Bam Adebayo, as head coach Erik Spoelstra tries to conjure up an answer as to why the center has had a rough start to the season.
In the loss to the Eastern Conference rival in Boston, Adebayo would score 15 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists. Looking at the shooting numbers, he made six of 18 attempts from the field, which also included making just one of four shots from beyond the arc.
While shooting slumps happen, Adebayo's has been uncharacteristic, especially when it comes from the paint, as he made 57.3 percent of his shots there last season compared to the present, where he came into Monday at 46.2 percent. Against the Celtics, he made just four of 11 shots from in the paint, and even close to the rim, he was just one of four.
These are usually high-percentage shots for Adebayo and easy makes, but it has not been going the way of the 27-year-old as even Spoelstra says “you can't explain” the slump, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“He’s built a career being able to make those shots and make those look easy,” Spoelstra said. “It’s just one of those stretches that sometimes you can’t explain.”
Bam Adebayo speaks on the Heat's shooting struggles
There is some validity to Spoelstra's point since Adebayo has been successful in that range in the past, with a possible explanation being that it's a slump that he will get out of at some point. It was a strange game for the University of Kentucky product, though in the scoring department, as after making his first shot, he would miss eight straight after, scoring just four points in the first three periods.
He would explode in the final frame with 11 points, but it was too little too late for Miami as Boston had the game in the bag at this point. Seen as a cornerstone for the Heat, while Adebayo continues to excel in other areas, that elite defense, play-making with his passing, and crashing the boards, he is seen as one of the team's main offensive engines.
However, it was a cold day for Miami in general as they shot 35.6 percent from the field and made just eight three-pointers out of 35 attempts, coming out to 22.9 percent from deep.
“We missed a lot of shots we normally make and that’s been the result a lot this season,” Adebayo said after the game to the media.
So far this season, Adebayo has averaged 15.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game while shooting 41.9 percent from the field, which the scoring number would be its lowest since the 2019-20 season where it was 15.9 points per game.
Heat's Erik Spoelstra reflects on loss to the Celtics
The Celtics entered the game being a dominant three-point volume shooting team, though going into the game, they were missing Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Sam Hauser. Even with the missing pieces, it did not change their game plan as they out-shot Miami from deep, making 19 of their 55 attempts.
The 35.6 percent from the field, as mentioned before, Miami was a season-low as it was a disappointing effort as keeping the Celtics under 110 points was relatively successful, as Spoelstra stated after the contest.
“You hold them under 110, you feel like on the road that should be enough to make it a possession game going down the stretch,” Spoelstra said. “But that just wasn’t the case. We would have had to make a lot of those restricted area shots and some of those threes.”
Heat's Jimmy Butler status is up in the air
One could credit that the Heat were without Butler, who missed the game due to a sore right knee as suffered the day prior when the team lost to the Toronto Raptors. When asked about Butler's status before the outing against Boston, Spoelstra said the listing for him will be “day to day” and that they will check back in once they get back home.
“There’s no change,” Spoelstra said before Monday's game. “He’s not playing tonight. We’ll just treat him day to day. He’s still sore. But we’ll see what happens when we get back to Miami.”
Butler has had many outings this season for the Heat that showed when he displays his aggressiveness, it leads to positive results. There is no doubt that the team hopes he's back sooner rather than later.
Heat's Jaime Jaquez Jr. filled in for Jimmy Butler
Filling in for the injured Butler was Heat star Jaime Jaquez Jr., who made his first appearance in the starting lineup in his place and had a productive night leading the team along with Tyler Herro with 19 points, shooting five of 14 from the field. He would also not make a single three-pointer out of three attempts and made nine of 12 from the free-throw line.
“When guys go down, it’s our job to step up and try to fill in those gaps,” Jaquez said of his time in the starting lineup for the injured Butler. “So coming into this game, I knew I had to be aggressive. That was my mentality.”
Jaquez would also speak about the overall shooting night for the Heat where he accredited missed opportunities as a reason for the performance. He would mention a part of the game plan being to counteract Boston's relentlessness to shoot from beyond the arc but would express it is “difficult” when the shots are not falling on their side.
“I thought we had some great looks at the basket,” Jaquez said. “Sometimes they just don’t fall. They shoot a lot of threes, and it’s our job to try to contest and make it difficult for them. But it’s difficult when you’re not making shots on the other end.”
Other injuries to the Heat led to slight changes
Besides Butler, the Heat also missed a crucial piece in Kevin Love to back spasms, who usually serves as the team's primary backup to Adebayo. Spoelstra would imply before the outing against Boston that it isn't a serious or severe issue for Love, saying he “tweaked” his back.
“This is the same back deal,” Spoelstra said. “He just tweaked it a little bit. It’s not as painful as the initial time. But enough so that he wouldn’t be able to go tonight.”
They were also missing Heat rookie Kel'el Ware with a foot injury, Nikola Jovic with an ankle injury, and Josh Richardson as he now deals with an illness. The amount of injuries prompted Spoelstra to try out different lineups, like starting guard Dru Smith in the second half over Duncan Robinson.
“A lot of that was some of the defensive stuff that we saw in the first half, and then Dru gave us that spark,” Spoelstra said of the decision via The Miami Herald. “We were just trying to get some better matchups and see if we could shake free Tyler off the ball. That wasn’t necessarily anything with Duncan.”
The Heat now looks to snap the two-contest skid, but the schedule ahead remains tough as they start a three-game home stand starting Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers. After that, the team prepares for a back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday, where they will face the Phoenix Suns and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
