MIAMI — The season ended for the Miami Heat on Saturday the way it does for a fallen racehorse being humanely put out of its misery.
It ended in a 120-103 loss to Milwaukee that meant the Heat were jettisoned from the first round of the NBA playoffs in four straight — only the second time in 33 seasons and 47 franchise playoff series that Miami was swept in a best-of-7, and the first time in 14 years.
You couldn’t help think it was maybe for the best, considering no team in league history had ever, ever, come back from a 3-0 hole to advance in the postseason. And the Heat would have faced two of the remaining three games in Milwaukee.
And done so still with no answers to solve the Bucks’ height, size and length advantages creating a sizable rebounding edge.
“They really capitalized on that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They were a great team last year and they improved on that. They took their game to another level.”
It was if Heat fans even sensed the hopelessness of the situation, with the Game 4 crowd in the downtown bayside arena several thousand short of the maximum 17,000 allowed by COVID-19 protocols. An hour before the matinee tipoff you could get tickets (and plenty of ‘em) for as little as $24 via Vivid Seats.
Last fall in the bubble playoffs Miami dispatched the Bucks 4-1 en route to reaching the NBA Finals. Seven months later Milwaukee exacted its revenge in a manner that both flexed the Bucks’ own improvement and invited the notion the Heat’s deep run last season may have been a tad fluky.
Clearly Miami should now have learned that the team’s current iteration led by Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo is good enough to be good, playoff-good, but not good enough to contend for the franchise’s fourth championship.
There is a reason Miami’s name is mentioned just about every time a prominent player comes available. James Harden. Bradley Beal. Kyle Lowry.
You needn’t remind Pat Riley he needs a whale, another Big 3. Nobody knows it better.
Failing to be in play for Harden was never about Riley being unwilling to part with Tyler Herro. It was about Miami being unable to match or come close to matching the four first-round draft picks Brooklyn gave up to get him.
The next whale-hunting expedition could come this summer, with reports Miami would interest Kawhi Leonard should he opt to leave the L.A. Clippers.
Help is needed from somebody.
This series taught that lesson in capital letters.
Butler, Adebayo and Herro, the team’s top three scorers, all underperformed this series. Adebayo was at his best in Game 4 with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Butler had a triple-double but a quiet 12 points on 4-for-14 shooting. Herro scored 14 but again shot poorly.
“Just some missed shots here and there,” Butler said. “They did a great job, leave it at that. [My] scoring was a little bit low.”
Of Butler, “They defended him well, and he missed shots,” Spoelstra said. “We live with those. He was able to create and make plays. We just weren’t able to get it done. Some of that is on me.”
Said Adebayo: “It’s my job to come back better every year. That’s my job. There is no excuse for us. We hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
There was a point midway through the second period on Saturday when the Heat led Milwaukee by 41-31. During a timeout, an over-the-top “Heat On Fire!” hype video played.
The Heat needed a quick start. Or at least one not mired in quicksand.
They got it.
Miami was outscored 72-34 in the first quarter of the previous two games, leading to 34- and 29-point losses.
This time it was the Heat coming out hot, and icicles on the Bucks’ basketball.
Miami led from Adebayo’s opening basket, led by as many as 12 points, and never trailed until 6:52 was left in the third period, when Milwaukee inched ahead for its first lead, 69-68, on a pair of Khris Middleton free throws.
Middleton hit a 3 moments later.
Miami never regained the lead.
The Bucks’ took Miami’s 6-point halftime lead and laughed at it in a second half domination.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was far from great with 20 points but had 12 rebounds and 15 assists, and his team had its biggest lead at the end, winning easily.
Nothing in the buildup to this led anyone to think the series would be lopsided, let alone a rout.
“I don’t know if this year is going to be different,” said Antetokounmpo, expressing doubt uncommonly shared by elite athletes. “I’m not going to lie to you. It might be the same. Who knows?”
Meanwhile, Butler was not shy, or conveying any doubt about these playoffs or this opening series.
“I think I’m stupidly locked in,” he said.
Swept.
It was comeuppance.
And a reminder the Heat need help. The Heat need a whale.
