The depleted Heat went on tour to face the undermanned Celtics, getting smacked around and thrown to the curb. The champs mowed down coverages. Luke Kornet turned into Goliath, derailing smaller men with six blocks. And Bam Adebayo had another disappearing act.

Boston’s Payton Pritchard, Derrick White and Jaylen Brown did most of the damage with 14 artillery strikes. And Gang Green’s protections were as strict as a medieval lord during a famine, permitting the Heatles just nine of 25 paint shots during the first half, then shutting them down further and forcing 11 turnovers in the second.

Had things gone close to according to plan for the visitors, Keshad Johnson, an undrafted rookie on a two-way deal, wouldn’t have logged the first six minutes of his career in a second-half blowout.

Despite Boston’s superior talent, both squads were on the second night of a back-to-back, but only the hosts looked like a serious team.

Yet again, the self-proclaimed hardest-working, best-conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the NBA was softer in all of those areas than a despised rival.

This is just in: coach Erik Spoelstra contemplated testing temporary insanity like Pat Riley used to but couldn’t figure out which team member to sacrifice. He is waiting to go rapid-fire in the next film session.

Perhaps he shouldn’t tell the players that if the Celtics’ physical defense is going to neutralize them, he’ll save Boston the trouble and take them out himself, like vintage Riley after the Memorial Day massacre in 1985. But he should have Adebayo sit in the front row and continuously rewind his offensive lowlights for the season.

Adebayo, the team captain, is having his worst year as a starter. Jimmy Butler’s cape looks too large for him, like when Silvio Dante couldn’t handle the pressure of being the boss when Tony Soprano was in a coma.

He used to be a threat to score, but this was his ninth outing of the year, logging below 40% of his field goal attempts. He only had 12 last year in 71 games, and the season before that, it was nine times in 75 matches. Keep in mind that the Heat are nearly a quarter of the way through the year.

The captain’s mojo is missing like a boxer who has lost the sting behind the punch. He is taking slightly fewer shots in the restricted area and is down considerably in volume in his sweet spot- the paint non-restricted area. Accuracy has dropped by 8.8% and 12.7%.

Against no Kristaps Porziņģis, Monday’s game was the perfect opportunity for Adebayo to get back on track and it turned into another misused moment.

When asked what went wrong with the offense, he said, “We missed a lot of shots we normally make.”

The Heat got next to nothing from Duncan Robinson, too. He totaled five points on two of nine tries but missed all six from deep. Some of those were open-enough looks provided by Adebayo.

Likely because of the flight back to Miami, the team will not practice Tuesday, but it should. Don’t forget that Riley is no stranger to hopping off the charter and telling his guys to hit the hardwood. January and February are usually the “watch out” months that he’s warned about, but it behooves the Heatles to treat December the same way.

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The Heat failed to complete a 22-point comeback against the Milwaukee Bucks minus their All-Star freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo. His absence was no issue because Damian Lillard wasted coverages, and the rest of the Bucks converted 41% of their hoisted treys, as Erik Spoelstra was outcoached by Laurence Fishburne. 

First, Lillard led the stampede, draining four 3-pointers and a five-foot shot in the opening quarter. Through seven-and-a-half minutes, he had 17 points as the Heat had 13.

On the other side, close-range attempts were bricked, and the threes weren’t falling.

Within a few minutes into the second quarter, the Bucks ran up a 15-point lead. The Heat’s offense wasn’t the problem in this frame, as it took 15 free throws and made nine of 16 shots. The protections were lit up further by eight 3-pointers supplied by Lillard, Brook Lopez plus four other Bucks. 

At halftime, the Heat was down 51-65. The crew had 22 paint points, one on the break, two via second chances, eight off turnovers and 13 from the bench.

The Bucks had 10 paint points, nine on the break, none on extra tries, 12 off turnovers and 20 from the reserves. 

Out of intermission, the visitors raised the lead to 22 points within a few minutes into the period. Next, the Heat’s defense intensified by 20°, permitting the Bucks 33% of attempted treys in the third quarter. 

Jimmy Butler ate into the deficit with three fastbreak buckets and three freebies. And Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson connected on four 3-pointers in nine attempts to cut the score to 85-80 in favor of the visitors. 

In the fourth quarter, the defense was strict, too, allowing 27.3% of Milwaukee’s shots to drop. Lillard missed both his tries in eight minutes and Gary Trent Jr. was shut down as well. Yet, the guests added a cushion of five digits at the line.

On the other side, Terry Rozier erupted for 13 points with no misses on a drive-by and four deep jumpers.

But when the Heat was down 103-106 with a second left, Rozier took too long to fire after the inbound because he took a dribble.

The Heat lost 103-106, dropping them to 1-2 in Emirates Cup play and 7-8 for the regular season. The team had 46 paint points, 13 on the break, nine via second chances, 17 off turnovers and 33 from the bench. 

The Bucks had 18 paint points, nine in the open court, five on extra tries, 16 off turnovers and 31 from the reserves. 

Observations:

1. Despite Lillard’s first-half rampage, an opportunity to bolster the record was lost. Playing down to the level of competition is reminiscent of last year’s squad.

2. Butler had one of his better performances of the season. Yet, Herro and Adebayo didn’t do enough around him- the former missed too many deep shots, and the latter didn’t throw his weight around enough in the paint in Giannis’ absence, finishing with four free throw attempts.

3. The Heat were outrebounded by three, yet we were careful with the ball, only committing eight giveaways.

4. Lillard had 25 points at intermission and 37 at the conclusion. Eight of 10 field goals were 3-pointers. 

5. Spoelstra ran out of patience with the understudy, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and played him 12 minutes because he was a liability on both sides.

6. The Heat missed seven free throws- Butler bricked two. Robinson, Adebayo, Herro, Rozier, and Pelle Larson missed one. Ball players don’t look professional failing on free throws.

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The Heat won its second game in a row with its new starting lineup, putting down the Wild Horses, minus Luka Dončić.

Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Bam Adebayo had the Heat down 15-18 at the first substitution, nearly six minutes into the first quarter. Their biggest early mistakes were allowing consecutive interior breakdowns to Klay Thompson and Quentin Grimes for scores; then Derek Lively recovered two Dallas misses, hooking one back in and feeding Kyrie Irving at the arc with the other.

Yet, Highsmith defended Irving well, denying him at the rim and tracking his dribble from the perimeter to the paint to force another miss. On top of that, the Heat started deploying the zone at the end of the first quarter.

And Adebayo was the source of the offense, putting up nine points at long and short distances.

In frame two, Irving scored eight points, dribbling to his sweet spot for a jumper, making a second chance hook and nailing a trey.

But Herro and Butler feasted for the Heat. The former scored using the double screen to get free at close range and then blew by Irving for a layup. The latter produced at the line, in transition and on a baseline jumper.

Defensively, the Heat kept incorporating zone with man-to-man coverage.

At halftime, the hosts were up 56-51. The crew had 26 paint points, one on the break, two via second chances, 14 off turnovers and 18 from the bench.

The Mavericks had 30 interior points, none in the open court, nine on extra tries, five off turnovers and nine from the reserves.

Then Thompson gashed the hosts for seven points in the first few minutes of the third quarter. Naji Marshall and Lively combined for seven of eight baskets, too. Yet the Heat’s defense keyed in on Irving, preventing zero makes in three tries from deep.

For the Heat, Butler added eight points from the line and on drives into the lane. And Pelle Larson provided four baskets with no misses from deep and short range.

The Heat entered the fourth quarter ahead 89-84, but its small cushion quickly evaporated.

The protections failed to stop Irving from getting to the paint and splashing treys. Subsequently, P.J. Washington’s putback dunk extended Dallas’ lead to three points.

Next, Butler retook the advantage on a left-side reverse layup. But Irving snatched it back with a jumper over Butler.

Afterward, Herro took a dumb seven-foot shot, getting denied by Spencer Dinwiddie, and Larson had to foul Irving to send him to the line. Yet, Irving made one.

As Robinson checked in the ball on the sideline, Butler cut toward the basket, caught the rock and dunked through contact to tie.

In overtime, the Heat held the Mavericks to two of 10 field goals. Moves from Alec Burks, Adebayo and Butler sealed the win.

The Heat won 123-118. The team had 62 paint points, four on the break, 18 via second chances, 17 off turnovers and 45 from the bench.

Butler had 33 points on 11 of 17 attempts, with nine rebounds, six assists, one steal, two blocks and three turnovers.

Adebayo scored 20 points on 40% accuracy, with 11 rebounds, five assists and two turnovers.

Herro put up 18 digits on eight of 25 attempts, with 10 rebounds, five assists, one steal and one giveaway.

And Larson had 14 points, making six of eight shots, with five rebounds and one assist.

The Mavericks had 66 interior points, six in the open court, 24 on extra tries, 15 off turnovers and 37 from the reserves.

After the game, Butler affectionately said, “I hate to say it. Duncan made an incredible pass,” referring to the connection that forced overtime.

At the postgame presser, Spoelstra said, “It seemed like it was a foul,” regarding Butler’s basket to tie the game.

Observations:

1. Adebayo had a sharp first quarter but didn’t score again until early in the third frame. Three of his eight field goals were 3-pointers from the right corner and up top. Additionally, he had a season-high in 3-point attempts (6).

2. Highsmith disrupted Dallas’ actions but played only 19 minutes because he wasn’t feeling well. He was doing a fine job of defusing Irving.

3. Butler missed five free throws. Furthermore, it was his second straight game scoring at least 30 points. The last time he did that was in 2023-24, between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.

4. Herro (10), Adebayo (11) and Kevin Love (11) had double-digit rebounds and Butler had nine. The Heat’s 57 rebounds is the second-best mark of the season.

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