The past month for the Miami Heat has been all about overcoming injury and COVID-19 issues.
The Heat has been successful in doing so often.
But the depleted Heat (23-14) couldn’t do it on Sunday, falling to the Sacramento Kings 115-113 on Sunday at Golden 1 Center. The loss snapped Miami’s five-game winning streak.
With the game tied at 113, Kings guard De’Aaron Fox was fouled on a drive to the basket by Tyler Herro with 6.2 seconds to play. Fox made both free throws, which proved to be the difference in the game.
The Heat had one final opportunity to send the game to overtime or escape with the win, but Jimmy Butler missed a one-handed floater from eight feet away from the basket as the final buzzer sounded.
The Heat started slow, shooting just 32 percent from the field and 1 of 9 on threes in the first quarter. The Kings led by as many as 11 points in the opening period.
But the Heat bounced back by hitting five threes in the second quarter to cut the deficit to four entering halftime.
Then Omer Yurtseven and Herro each scored 10 points in the third quarter to help the Heat surge to an eight-point lead before the teams entered the fourth tied, 90-90.
The Heat managed to build a seven-point lead early in the fourth quarter. But the teams then traded punches until Fox’s game-winning free throws for the Kings (16-22).
Each of the Heat’s five roster regulars available finished with double-digit points. Herro and Yurtseven each scored a team-high 22.
Butler finished with 21 points on 9-of-22 shooting, six rebounds and five assists. He tied a season-low with just two free-throw attempts.
Lowry ended the night with 14 points and 12 assists.
The Heat continues its six-game trip on Monday against the Golden State Warriors (10 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and NBA TV) to complete the road back-to-back set. Miami is 1-1 on the trip.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Kings:
After setting a franchise record for threes made in a single month in December, the Heat’s three-point shooting went cold to start January.
Miami shot just 9 of 33 from three-point range on Sunday. The Kings outscored the Heat 39-27 from beyond the arc.
Tyler Herro shot 4 of 11 from deep, but the rest of the team combined to shoot just 5 of 22 (22.7 percent) on threes.
This performance comes after the Heat set a new franchise record with 229 total made threes in December. Miami’s previous record for a single month was 199 made threes, according to Heat.com’s Couper Moorhead.
Yurtseven is making history with his elite rebounding.
The Heat’s rookie center grabbed double-digit rebounds for the eighth straight game, finishing with career-highs in points (22) and rebounds (16) on Sunday.
It’s the longest such rebounding streak for a Heat rookie in franchise history, surpassing the previous record of three consecutive games by both Michael Beasley and Rony Seikaly.
Yurtseven, 23, has also grabbed at least 12 rebounds in eight straight games. The last rookie to do that was Blake Griffin.
With centers Bam Adebayo and Dewayne Dedmon both injured, Yurtseven has started four consecutive games. Yurtseven has recorded a double-double in each of those starts, averaging 14.5 points and 14.5 rebounds in the last four games.
Over the previous 10 games, Yurtseven posted the NBA’s fourth-highest rebounding percentage (the percentage of available rebounds a player grabs while on the court) at 32.1 percent among those who have appeared in at least five game during that stretch. Only Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Atlanta’s Clint Capela and Philadelphia’s Andre Drummond have better rebounding percentages during that time.
Yurtseven, who was signed by the Heat to a guaranteed contract for this season after impressing as a member of its summer league team, has appeared in 17 straight games because of the team’s injury issues after spending the first month of the season out of the rotation.
When Adebayo and Dedmon return, Yurtseven may again find himself out of the rotation. But has flashed his potential as a skilled big who can finish around the basket and help control the boards.
Mario Chalmers is still waiting to play in his first NBA game since 2018.
Chalmers, 35, has been in uniform for the last two games since signing a 10-day contract on Friday to return to the Heat as a COVID-19 replacement. But he has not played in either game.
Chalmers, who spent the first seven-plus seasons of his NBA career with the Heat, last played in an NBA game on April 11, 2018 as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. He tore his right Achilles tendon in March 2016 and it derailed his NBA career, as he needed four additional surgeries because of issues stemming from the injury.
Instead, the Heat’s bench rotation included the same four COVID-19 replacement players who were used in Friday’s win over the Rockets.
With a bench made up entirely of COVID-19 replacements, Miami played Kyle Guy, Haywood Highsmith, Chris Silva and Nik Stauskas as its reserves on Sunday. Those four combined to contribute 19 bench points for the Heat, with Guy and Stauskas each scoring seven.
The positive news for the Heat is there have been no additional positive COVID-19 tests for the rest of its roster in recent days.
Following a wave of positive tests within the team last week, the Heat has six players currently in the NBA’s health and safety protocols: Marcus Garrett, Udonis Haslem, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, P.J. Tucker and Gabe Vincent.
But after Robinson and Garrett entered protocols on Thursday, there have been no other Heat players who have needed to.
“I commend everybody involved,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of getting through the latest COVID-19 crush. “That’s the league, the players and their association, staff members and everybody just trying to figure this out and continue to move the business forward. The priority is everybody’s health and safety, and our family and friends. And then we’re adapting.”
With the NBA allowing players to return after five-day quarantines if they meet certain testing requirements, the Heat could get each of its six players sidelined by protocols back by the end of the week.
Haslem and Strus’ five-day quarantine ran through Sunday; Tucker and Vincent’s five-day quarantine runs through Monday; and Garrett and Robinson’s five-day quarantine runs through Tuesday.
“I commend the league for adapting to this new variant and the fact that things are different than they were two years ago and a year ago,” Spoelstra said. “Now we have a league that is mostly vaccinated, double vaccinated with a booster. The ones that are testing positive, the overwhelming majority of them are asymptomatic or very minor symptoms. So I think the return-to-play protocol now, which could be quicker, I think was the appropriate step and I don’t think it was a rash decision.”
Adebayo’s expected return is a few weeks away, but he’s still traveling with the Heat.
Adebayo (thumb surgery), Dedmon (knee sprain), Markieff Morris (whiplash), KZ Okpala (wrist sprain) and Victor Oladipo (knee injury recovery) were the five Heat players unavailable Sunday because of injuries. Morris and Oladipo remain in Miami, but the rest of the Heat’s injured players are on the trip.
Dedmon and Okpala are close to returning, so it’s not a surprise that they’re traveling. Dedmon is expected to miss one to two weeks and he has already been out for a little more than a week, and Okpala is considered day-to-day.
But Adebayo, the Heat’s starting center, is not expected back before the team returns to Miami following its Jan. 8 game against the Phoenix Suns. Adebayo’s recovery timeline has him returning in mid-January after undergoing successful surgery on Dec. 6 for a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb.
So, why is Adebayo traveling?
“Bam is the heart and soul of our group,” Spoelstra said Sunday. “So I think just from a spirit standpoint, and an emotional-boost standpoint, it’s great having him here with the team, with the guys. He’s able to work out every single day. But he likes being around the team, likes being around the games. You see how engaged he is in every huddle, and on the sidelines. I believe in that. There’s no way to really know for sure. But I think it speeds up recovery to be around the guys, and having that human interaction is helping his hand heal a little quicker.”
