On one hand, the Miami Heat had Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro back in their mix.
That assuredly worked in their favor.
On the other hand, the game was at the AT&T Center.
That rarely has worked in the Heat’s favor, entering with a 4-28 all-time regular-season record in San Antonio, 6-32 when counting the playoffs.
But this time, amid a heated playoff race, the Heat made a stand, mostly because Adebayo, Butler and Herro made a stand, pushing past the Spurs, 107-87, Wednesday night.
Against an opponent equally as desperate in their own playoff race in the West, the Heat got 23 points and eight rebounds from Adebayo, 18 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds from Butler, and 22 points from Herro, 14 of those in the decisive fourth quarter.
So after a three-game losing streak that raised concern, there now is a three-game winning streak that has restored hope.
From there Spurs, there were a muted 15 points from DeMar DeRozan and little else of substance other than the five blocked shots of center Jacob Poetl.
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Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat used an 18-4 run to take a seven-point third-quarter lead before going into the fourth up 77-72.
The lead the moved to eight at the start of the fourth, before San Antonio closed within three.
But with Herro, who missed Monday’s victory over the Houston Rockets with foot soreness, stepping up with a 3-pointer with 5:47 left, the Heat moved to a 94-81 lead.
The lead grew from there, with the Spurs eventually emptying their bench down 16 with 4:06 to play.
Herro scored 12 consecutive Heat points during one fourth-quarter stretch.
2. Slam Bam: Adebayo, who missed Monday’s victory over the Rockets with knee soreness, had two three-point plays in the first half and could have had an opportunity for a fourth had the Spurs not won a block-charge replay challenge on his dunk in the second quarter.
He still went into the intermission with 14 points, three rebounds and three assists.
It was, of course, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, coach of the U.S. National Team who bypassed Adebayo for the 2019 World Cup.
3. Filling it up: In his own return game, after missing the previous two with an ankle sprain, Butler again filled the box score, in an old-school matchup against DeRozan.
Like Adebayo, Butler consistently worked his way to the foul line.
Butler changed it up, playing in a headband in this one.
“He looked crazy as hell,” Adebayo said of Butler’s headgear.
4. Altered reality: With Andre Iguodala given the night off, KZ Okpala got another shot at rotation minutes, closing an uneven 1 of 6 for three points in his 19 minutes.
Iguodala was coming off a solid showing in the Sunday-Monday back-to-back wins over the Nets and Rockets.
“His hip was sore and we anticipated that it would be. He wanted to play in the back-to-back and ended up playing close to 30 minutes. He was simply fantastic in that two-game set,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“But he was sore, and I think he’ll feel better after a couple of days of treatment.”
5. Solemn discussion: The Heat discussed the Derek Chauvin verdict ahead of Wednesday’s game.
“I think everybody had a heavy heart and some form of anxiety and anticipation of what the verdict could be yesterday,” Spoelstra said pregame. “We did talk about in our team meeting this morning. And they were able to express themselves.
“And you have mixed emotions about it. On the one hand, you feel great that’s there been accountability, and a step in the right direction in terms of equal justice. But you’re still very saddened that it took the loss of life for it to get to this point.”
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