Adebayo's 32 not enough as Heat fall 127-110 to Blazers' daggers

PORTLAND, Ore. – In a make-or-miss league, the Portland Blazers were supposed to miss, entering the night a league-worst .338 from the field.

Instead, they flipped the script, leading to a 127-110 Miami Heat loss Thursday night at Moda Center.

Finding their range for a rare night this season, the Blazers closed 20 of 50 on 3-pointers, while the Heat, who entered sixth in the NBA at .370, closed 9 of 45.

“They just started pulling up,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Blazers’ 3-pointers. “I mean, probably out of those 20 makes, there was probably 8 to maybe 10 that were pull-up threes. Not like the paint, touch, kick, one more, you know, that kind of three.

“That was the biggest difference in the game. Obviously, we didn’t shoot the ball well from there, but we didn’t disrupt them enough. I think overall, they didn’t really feel us.”

Other factors contributed, including the Heat being short on bodies, but the upshot is a 1-2 start on this five-game western swing, despite 32 points from Heat center Bam Adebayo.

With Tyler Herro, Davion Mitchell and Kel’el Ware all sidelined, Spoelstra ultimately lacked enough buttons to push, even with Norman Powell adding 18 points and Simone Fontecchio 17.

Offsetting those performances were major struggles from the Heat’s Nikola Jovic (2 of 8), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (1 of 7) and Dru Smith (1 of 8).

The Heat ultimately lacked enough even with the Blazers losing All-Star candidate and Most Improved Player frontrunner Deni Avdija in the third quarter to a back issue.

“We have to find a way to be able to win games if we’re not necessarily making shots or making threes,” Spoelstra said.

Five Degrees of Heat from Thursday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Blazers led 38-31 after the first quarter and 64-63 at halftime, after moving to a 10-point lead in the second quarter.

As was the case in Monday night’s loss at Golden State and other recent losses, it then got away from the Heat in the third quarter, when the deficit reached 21.

That Blazers run came even with Avdija sidelined for the night in the third period with his back issue after scoring 20 points in his 18 minutes.

This time, though, the Heat put together a 10-0 run as part of trimming the deficit to 103-92 entering the fourth.

Ultimately, that is where the rally failed and the reality set in of what now is a 8-15 road record.

“We had our chances, cut it within 10 points, but they’re in such a good flow and rhythm, and their confidence was extremely high,” Powell said. “They had it rolling tonight, and we just didn’t put enough physicality into the game defensively to slow down what they were doing.”

2. No Mitchell: The Heat’s wheel of injuries this time had Mitchell out with the shoulder bruise that had him out for two games last week before he returned for the first two games of this trip.

That put rookie Kasparas Jakucionis in the starting lineup for the third time.

It could have been worse, with Powell downgraded on the injury report at midday with back pain, before being cleared following his pregame warmup.

That had the Heat opening with a lineup of Jakucionis, Powell, Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins and Pelle Larsson, a lineup that only previously had started Saturday’s victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at Kaseya Center.

3. Adebayo again: The Bam barometer remained on the rise, with the Heat center with 15 of the Heat’s first 43 points.

Adebayo was coming off Tuesday night’s 25-point bounceback in the victory over the Sacramento Kings after being limited to four points on 1-of-13 shooting in the trip opener in Monday night’s loss to the Golden State Warriors.

Adebayo stood with 17 points and six rebounds at halftime. He was up to 28 points through three quarters.

In the end, Adebayo’s focus was on the Blazers’ points, not his own.

“We’re having too many games where we’ll play great defense one night. Another night, we’ll kind of take off,” Adebayo said. “So that’s got to be the difference. We’ve got to be more consistent on that end, even if we’re missing or making shots.”

4.The flip side: And then there’s the remainder of the Heat power rotation that left plenty to be desired with Ware sidelined.

Jovic again played the type of game where the confidence waned with each missed shot, falling to 1 of 7 on 3-pointers along the way.

Marginalized in the rotation until Ware was sidelined, Jovic went through a stretch in the third period when he airballed a 3-pointer, committed a turnover in the backcourt after securing a rebound and then committed a three-shot foul on a Jerami Grant 3-point attempt with the Heat down 16. At that point, he was pulled in favor of Fontecchio.

“We have to show some grit, and Niko’s got to show some grit, right now, to be able to fight through it,” Spoelstra said.

Fontecchio said it has been to collective from the bench and beyond.

“It’s something that we’re trying to conquer right now. We’re winning one game, we’re losing the next one, so it’s something that we’re trying to work with, and we still got to conquer itm because it’s not happening,” Fontecchio said.

5. Two more: The five-game trip concludes with a back-to-back set on Saturday night against the Utah Jazz and Sunday against the Phoenix Suns.

The Heat then were scheduled to return for a four-game homestand, with that scheduling altered by the next Thursday’s game against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center, the makeup game for the postponement on Jan. 8 due to court condensation.

“Our defense, we have to get that back on track,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve had nine straight games now where we’ve given up over 115 points, and that’s not a winning formula for us. We know that.”