DALLAS — Whether at home or on the road, the Miami Heat just keeps winning.
The Heat (6-1) extended its winning streak to five games with a 125-110 victory over the Dallas Mavericks (4-3) on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center. Miami has won three straight on the road.
Each of the Heat’s six wins this season have been by double digits.
The Heat trailed by as many as 11 points in the first quarter, but controlled the rest of the game. Miami led by eight at halftime and 11 after three quarters on its way to the 15-point win.
The Mavericks made a late run to cut the Heat’s lead to six early in the fourth quarter. That was the closest Dallas got.
The Heat allowed a season-high 110 points, with superstar Luka Doncic leading the Mavericks’ offense with 33 points on 10-of-24 shooting, three rebounds and five assists.
But Miami’s offense was so good that it didn’t matter, totaling 125 points on 51.8 percent shooting from the field and 13-of-25 (52 percent) shooting on threes while committing just seven turnovers.
After making just 29.6 percent of its threes (third-worst in the NBA during that time) in its first five regular-season games, the Heat has erupted to shoot 34 of 62 (54.8 percent) from deep in the last two games.
There were many contributors for Miami.
Tyler Herro scored 25 points on 11-of-20 shooting and dished out four assists.
Jimmy Butler, who was just named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for his excellent play last week, recorded 23 points with the help of 15-of-17 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Kyle Lowry finished with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 6-of-9 shooting on threes, five rebounds and nine assists to set season highs in points, threes made and threes attempted.
Bam Adebayo totaled 22 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks.
The Heat will look to keep its winning steak going when it returns home to face the Boston Celtics on Thursday.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Mavericks:
The Mavericks take a lot of threes and the Heat gives up a lot of three-point attempts. So when Dallas started missing threes, Miami pulled away.
Dallas led by as many as 11 points in the opening period with the help of a 4-of-6 start from deep and 5-of-12 shooting from deep in the first quarter.
But the Mavericks cooled down, shooting 3 of 11 on threes in the second quarter and the Heat won the period 46-32 to enter halftime with an eight-point lead.
Dallas then shot just 6 of 19 (31.6 percent) from three-point range in the second half.
The three-pointer is important in nearly every NBA game these days, but it was a little more important than usual in Tuesday’s game between the Heat and Mavericks.
Dallas entered averaging the third-most three-point attempts in the NBA at 41.2 per game and Miami entered averaging a league-high 42.5 three-point attempts per game. So the correlation between the Mavericks’ three-point efficiency and the result was clear.
Tyler Herro continues to look like a much improved player early in his third NBA season.
The Heat’s sixth man looks like the early-season Sixth Man of the Year.
Herro has scored 157 points off the bench so far this season, the most in the first seven games by any Heat reserve in franchise history.
Herro also entered averaging a league-high 22 points per game off the bench. Charlotte’s Kelly Oubre Jr. was a distant second with 17.7 points per game.
Of course, Herro is hardly being used a reserve. He’s entered averaging a team-high 17.8 shots per game and the fourth-most minutes (31) behind only the leading trio of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Kyle Lowry.
Bam Adebayo returned and made an impact, especially in the second half.
After missing Saturday’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies because of a left knee bruise, Adebayo was back in the Heat’s starting lineup against the Mavericks.
Adebayo started slow, scoring just six points on 2-of-8 shooting in the first half. But he came alive to total 16 points in the second half.
How did the Heat replace injured wing Max Strus in the rotation against the Mavericks? With Caleb Martin.
Martin, one of the Heat’s two-way contract players, filled Strus’ bench minutes in Dallas to finish scoreless and with three rebounds in 17 minutes.
The rest of the Heat’s four-man bench rotation remained the same, with Tyler Herro, Dewayne Dedmon and Markieff Morris playing as reserves as usual.
Tuesday marked the first game that Strus has missed after spraining his left knee in Saturday’s win over the Grizzlies. Strus said he expects to miss “a couple weeks,” and Martin looks to be on track to be a consistent member of the Heat’s rotation while he’s out.
Players on two-way contracts like Martin can be on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games this season. Martin has been active in five of the Heat’s first seven games.
When asked Monday about replacing Strus in the rotation, coach Erik Spoelstra pointed to guard Gabe Vincent and Martin as options to fill the role.
KZ Okpala was not an option to replace Strus in the Heat’s rotation on Tuesday.
Okpala, 22, was not available to play against the Mavericks because of a sprained right ankle. He has logged 16 minutes over four games this season, but they have all come in the fourth quarter of double-digit wins when the result was already decided.
Okpala, who is in his third NBA season, has played more minutes in the G League (572) than in the NBA (489) during his career.
“He has been putting in the time,” Spoelstra said Tuesday when asked about Okpala’s injury. “He has been making progress and all that work doesn’t go away. That’s still there and the improvement that he has made has been noticed.”
Okpala was a participant in Monday’s practice in Dallas. When asked when Okpala sprained his ankle, Spoelstra said: “I’m not sure. It might have been a residual from the work or getting hit.”
The Heat had 12 available players against the Mavericks, with Marcus Garrett (G League assignment), Okpala, Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) and Strus out.
The Mavericks were without Trey Burke (health and safety protocols), Maxi Kleber (left oblique strain) and Kristaps Porzingis (lower back tightness).
