Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat blow it in Milwaukee against Giannis-less Bucks

The Heat’s brief two-game road trip started with a loss in Milwaukee against the Bucks. They failed to convert easy baskets, and they let Ryan Rollins turn into vintage Ray Allen.

The Heat got out in transition early and had the edge on the glass, but they had five turnovers, and the Bucks led by one at the end of the first quarter thanks to superior long and mid-range shooting, much of it coming from Ryan Rollins and Kyle Kuzma. 

The hosts kept raining 3-pointers in the second quarter, but the Heat countered with four straight of their own, forcing coach Doc Rivers to call a stoppage. The visitors closed out the half on a 10-13 run and were down five, plus they had started losing their intensity to hunt for loose balls and soiled their offense with multiple late turnovers. 

They subsequently had an early flurry in the first few minutes of the third quarter to take the lead, but the Bucks snatched it back half as fast with a pair of shots in the lane and two 3-pointers. The Heat eventually went into the fourth ahead by four points following their success getting back to their transition attack, plus they made 10 shots in the paint. 

The team followed up going cold, and Norman Powell did his best to bail them out of a tight fourth quarter by nailing a trifecta and five free throws, yet they let go of the rope late when Andrew Wiggins missed two late freebies. 

The Heat were outscored by 15 in the fourth quarter and lost 128-117.

They will not practice on Wednesday.

Takeaways:

• This was the Heat’s second confrontation of the year with the Bucks, who were without Giannis Antetokounmpo for his 12th straight game. The Heat has the bad habit of playing down to the level of the competition, and they struggled to guard.  One particular mistake they keep making is reckless closeouts to the arc. 

• Kevin Porter Jr. limped to the locker room fewer than four minutes into the game after hurting his ankle, and then came back scoring 32 points. He finessed his way into the lane for eight baskets, but none were bigger than his corner jumper while absorbing the contact from Davion Mitchell to take the lead in crunch time; then he finished on a quick pick-and-roll set to put them up four. Rollins’ two late unguarded jumpers closed the deal. 

• The Heat had big-time contributions from Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins and Kel’el Ware in the third quarter, yet they combined for only 25% shooting in the fourth. Powell was the team’s best player, scoring 26 points, yet he had zero assists and six turnovers. On top of that, the team’s offense was in the gutter, scoring 111.4 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 39th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. The corner shot is the easiest in the NBA, and the Heat missed all nine attempts there.

• Using Tyler Herro and Powell together, especially late, is not a good idea because they are not good enough defenders.