MIAMI — The Miami Heat didn’t have stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, but it evidently still had enough to defeat the defending NBA champions.
The short-handed Heat (15-11) overcame the absences of Adebayo and Butler to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 113-104 on Wednesday night at FTX Arena. The result snapped Miami’s three-game losing skid at home and only marked the second loss in the past 12 games for Milwaukee (16-10)
Caleb Martin was the Heat’s star of the night, finishing with a career-high 28 points with the help of a career-high six made threes on eight attempts. He also recorded eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 34 minutes as he started in place of the injured Butler.
The Heat used a big third quarter to earn the impressive win, outscoring the Bucks 39-26 in the period to turn a seven-point halftime deficit into a six-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
Heat guard Kyle Lowry was the catalyst, scoring 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range in the period.
Lowry ended the night with 22 points and 13 assists.
Then Max Strus got hot in the fourth quarter to score 16 points in the period on 4-of-8 shooting from deep to help the Heat hold on for the victory. Those were his only points of the night.
The Heat closed the game with a lineup that included Martin, Strus and KZ Okpala, who stepped up with one of the best performances of his NBA career. Okpala contributed 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal in 32 minutes off the bench.
P.J. Tucker was also important to the Heat’s winning formula Wednesday, spending most of the night defending Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Tucker made Antetokounmpo work hard for his offense, as the two-time NBA MVP was limited to 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting.
Tucker also recorded 15 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals.
With the Bucks cutting the Heat’s lead to four with 2:28 left in the fourth quarter, Lowry made a clutch midrange jumper to extend the lead to six. Lowry then stole the ball from Bucks wing Khris Middleton and found Martin for a transition dunk to push Miami’s lead to eight with 44.2 seconds to play and seal the win.
Aside from 22 turnovers, the Heat’s offense was sharp. Miami totaled 113 points on 51.9 percent shooting from the field and 22-of-47 (46.8 percent) shooting from three-point range.
The Heat tied a franchise record with its 22 made threes, a mark it has hit only twice before in a March 4, 2020 win over the Orlando Magic and a May 15, 2021 loss to the Bucks.
The Heat will close its three-game homestand on Saturday against the Chicago Bulls.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Bucks:
The Heat used a starting lineup that didn’t include Adebayo, Butler or Herro. But it did include ... Martin, who turned in the best performance of his NBA career.
Adebayo (torn UCL in right thumb) and Butler (tail bone contusion) missed the game because of injuries. Adebayo is not expected to return until mid-January after undergoing successful surgery on his thumb on Monday and Butler is day-to-day after re-aggravating his tail bone injury during Monday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
As for Herro, coach Erik Spoelstra opted to keep him in his usual sixth man role to provide a scoring punch off the bench rather than moving him into Butler’s spot in the starting lineup.
Instead, the Heat started Martin in Butler’s place alongside Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, P.J. Tucker and Dewayne Dedmon. The Lowry-Martin-Robinson-Tucker-Dedmon combination played just one minute together this season before Wednesday’s game.
But the lineup was effective, as the Heat built a 16-10 lead before making its first substitution of the game with 6:17 left in the first quarter.
Martin was the Heat’s best player on Wednesday. He scored 17 points and tied a career-high for a single game with five made threes in the first half.
Martin ended the game with 28 points with the help of 6-of-8 shooting from deep.
Martin’s season-high was 18 points before Wednesday’s contest. He entered shooting just 31.1 percent on threes for the season.
After a sloppy first half, the Heat needed to clean things up to have a chance against the Bucks. Miami did just that.
Miami committed 15 first-half turnovers for the second straight game. Milwaukee scored 19 points off those mistakes in the first two quarters.
That allowed the Bucks to overcome 36.2 percent shooting from the field and 6-of-23 shooting from three-point range in the first half to enter halftime with a seven-point lead. Milwaukee took 10 more shot attempts and 11 more free throws than Miami in the first two quarters because of all of the Heat’s empty possessions created by turnovers.
But the Heat was much more efficient in the second half, committing only seven turnovers in the final two quarters.
Without Adebayo and Butler, the Heat’s offense relies on ball movement and three-point shooting. Miami excelled in both areas against Milwaukee.
The Heat finished with 32 assists on 40 made shots and converted on 22 of its 47 three-point attempts on Wednesday.
In the Heat’s three wins without Adebayo and Butler this season, the Heat has shot 45 percent on threes against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 15, 47.1 percent on threes on Friday against the Indiana Pacers and 46.8 percent on threes on Wednesday against the Bucks.
Spoelstra continues to modify his plan at center without Adebayo based on the matchup. KZ Okpala was the big of choice on Wednesday.
After playing small with the 6-5 P.J. Tucker at center in the non-Dedmon minutes for most of Monday’s loss to the Grizzlies, the Heat turned to rookie center Omer Yurtseven (6-11, 275) to play as the first big off the bench on Wednesday.
But after Yurtseven committed two turnovers and two quick fouls, he was subbed out after four minutes in the first quarter.
That’s when forward KZ Okpala (6-8, 215) replaced Yurtseven with 1:44 left in the first quarter and Spoelstra stuck with him the rest of the night.
Okpala provided a nice spark off the bench and played the next nine minutes, eventually sliding over to forward with Dedmon entering during that stretch. He converted on a dunk, grabbed two rebounds and blocked a shot during that stint.
Okpala then re-entered the game to play the final 1:29 of the second quarter and again contributed quality minutes by hitting a three-pointer and tacking on a steal.
Okpala, who has yet to find a consistent role in the Heat’s rotation in his third NBA season, finished the first half with five points on 2-of-2 shooting, two rebounds, one steal and one block in 11 minutes.
Spoelstra again went with Okpala to play the non-Dedmon minutes in the second half.
The Heat ended a recent trend of slow starts, but still lost the first quarter.
Miami entered with losses in four of the last five games and was outscored in the first quarter in each of those four losses by a combined 44 points. The Heat averaged 21.8 points on 35.9 percent shooting while the opponent averaged 32.8 points on 56.6 percent shooting in those four first quarters.
The Heat turned it around (kind of) on Wednesday, pulling ahead by as many as nine points in the opening quarter. But the Bucks still managed to end the period with a two-point lead.
The numbers were much better for Miami, though. In Wednesday’s first quarter, the Heat totaled 24 points on 52.6 percent shooting and the Bucks scored 26 points on 34.8 percent shooting.
The primary reason Miami still entered the second quarter facing a deficit was because of its turnover issues. The Heat committed eight turnovers that the Bucks turned into 11 points in the opening period.
The Heat improved to 5-9 this season in games that it has lost the first quarter in.
