Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat fall to Lakers in Los Angeles after poor start

The Miami Heat folded in the last six minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers after nearly climbing out of a first-half 18-point hole, falling to 3-3. Pat Riley watched from his lower bowl seats likely annoyed that Spoelstra’s spoilers couldn’t stick it to the team that canned him one more time before he’s honored with a statue in February.

A disaster start for the Heat- allowing Jaxson Hayes to go berserk on three cuts- ensured Kel’el Ware got his minutes sliced to 11. On top of that, the Lakers told the Heat what they thought of them by going to a 2-3 zone in the first quarter. And Andrew Wiggins’ pick-6 resulting in a Bronny James lob was an omen.

The Heat have been the fastest team in the league early on, but the Lakers were superior at it, especially before intermission. Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves ate up coverages, maneuvering inside and out for nine baskets, while combining for 12 assists, too.

Coach Erik Spoelstra summed up the first-half abomination as mistakes and boiling down to “a lack of effort on plays that we’re accustomed to doing and making, and/or mindless plays.” He insisted his team is better than what they showed. 

Jaime Jaquez Jr., the team’s top reserve and third-leading scorer, was their biggest threat. He gashed the open court and coverages for 31 points on 68.8% shooting, including nine digits in the third quarter, when the Heat recovered the most ground. Pelle Larsson was the Heat’s second-leading scorer in the second half as well. 

But Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Jake LaRavia made three field goals apiece in the fourth quarter, while the Heat converted 11.1% of the 3-point attempts and missed five critical late freebies, totaling 11 misfires at the stripe for the night. 

The Heat lost 130-120, despite having Ian edge in three key areas: paint points (66-60), fastbreak points (20-19) and second chance points (16-14). The half-court offense was held to 94.2 points per 100 plays, good enough for the 40th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. Even with Miami scoring more in the lane, they couldn’t match LAL’s accuracy in the restricted area of 79.3%, which is 12.3% above the league average. Furthermore, the Lakers were the nastier team defensively, racking a 25-15 advantage in deflections, the most belonging to Dončić (5) and Marcus Smart (5).

Bam Adebayo was diplomatic about Ware in the locker room after game, saying, “That’s a part of his development. We’re not going to give up on him. We know how great he can be. He moves the needle for this team.”

The Heart’s next game is in Los Angeles against the Clippers on Monday.