MIAMI — The Miami Heat was presented with another opportunity to overcome adversity, but it couldn’t come through this time.
With just 10 available players because of injury issues, the Heat (37-21) wilted in the second half in a 107-99 loss to the Dallas Mavericks (34-24) on Tuesday night at FTX Arena. The result snapped the Heat’s five-game winning streak.
While missing six players, including Tyler Herro, Caleb Martin and Dewayne Dedmon, the Heat led by as many as 13 points late in the first half. But Dallas dominated the third quarter to outscore Miami 30-19 in the period to rally and take a three-point lead into the fourth.
The Heat never truly recovered, as the Mavericks extended their lead to 6:56 to play.
Miami attempted to put together a comeback of its own led by Jimmy Butler, scoring eight answered points to cut the deficit to only three a few minutes later.
But with the Heat only trailing by five, the Mavericks sealed the win when Maxi Kleber hit a three to extend their lead to eight with 38.3 seconds remaining.
When it was over, Dallas outscored Miami 56-40 in the second half.
After shooting 52.3 percent in the first half, the Heat shot just 12 of 40 (30 percent) from the field and 1 of 14 (7.1 percent) percent from three-point range in the final two quarters.
Jimmy Butler scored 21 of his game-high 29 points in the second half, but the rest of the Heat’s roster combined to total just 19 points in the final two quarters.
Luka Doncic scored a team-high 21 points on 5-of-19 shooting from the field and 9-of-12 shooting from the foul line to go with 10 rebounds and six assists. Kleber contributed 19 points off the bench.
The Mavericks shot 18 of 41 (43.9 percent) on threes to negate a 52-24 deficit to the Heat in the paint
Despite owning the same record as the Chicago Bulls, the Heat remains in the first place in the Eastern Conference because it holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bulls.
Next up for the Heat is a road matchup against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday before entering the All-Star break.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Mavericks:
The Heat’s string of third-quarter dominance came to an end.
The Heat had outscored teams by a combined margin of 71 points in the third quarter during its five-game winning streak that was snapped on Tuesday. Miami shot 51.4 percent from the field and 14 of 34 (41.2 percent) from three-point range in the third quarter during that stretch.
But that trend came to an abrupt and painful end on Tuesday, when the Mavericks rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit by outscoring the Heat 30-19 in the third quarter.
The Heat shot just 6 of 24 (25 percent) from the field and 1 of 11 (9.1 percent) from three-point range in the period. Meanwhile, the Mavericks shot 10 of 20 (50 percent) from the field and 5 of 10 (50 percent) on threes in the quarter.
The Heat was without three rotation players on Tuesday.
Three important members of the Heat’s bench rotation were out against the Mavericks because of injuries. Dewayne Dedmon (lower back tightness), Tyler Herro (right knee contusion) and Caleb Martin (left Achilles soreness).
Dedmon was a new addition to the injury report on Tuesday, as coach Erik Spoelstra said the hope is his back injury is a “short-term” issue.
After returning from a two-game absence to play in Saturday’s win over the Brooklyn Nets, Herro again was unavailable on Tuesday because of a right knee contusion. Before playing Saturday, he missed the previous two games because of right knee soreness.
“He’s making progress with it,” Spoelstra said of Herro’s knee. “But if you’re playing every other night, it’s not going to totally resolve itself. So we think this is the best course of action right now.”
An MRI on Herro’s injured knee revealed only a contusion and no structural damage.
When asked if the Heat could keep Herro out through the All-Star break as a precaution, Spoelstra said: “Possibly. That’s something that we’re discussing with the training staff.”
Martin, who had his two-way contract converted into a standard contract by the Heat on Tuesday, was listed as questionable but was ruled out for a third straight game just minutes before tipoff because of Achilles soreness. He has missed four of the last six games with the Achilles issue.
“I’ll just say that everything we’re managing right now is manageable,” Spoelstra said. “A lot of the guys have the same response to me. They say, ‘If this is the playoffs, I’m playing tonight.’ Well, it’s not the playoffs and we want to make sure that we’re handling things so they’re manageable right now and not leading to something else.”
The Heat was also without Udonis Haslem (right eye abrasion), Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) on Tuesday.
With injuries limiting the Heat to just 10 available players, the bench rotation looked different against the Mavericks.
With the Heat going with its usual starting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo, the only reserves available on Tuesday were Kyle Guy, Haywood Highsmith, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Omer Yurtseven.
The Heat played Highsmith, Strus, Vincent and Yurtseven off the bench against the Mavericks.
Yurtseven finished with 11 points and eight rebounds in 15 minutes as the Heat’s backup center in place of Dedmon. It marked the most minutes that the rookie has played since Adebayo returned from injury on Jan. 17.
Yurtseven had totaled just 26 minutes in the previous 14 games since Adebayo returned after missing seven weeks because of thumb surgery. Adebayo, as a starter, and Dedmon, as the backup, have played ahead of Yurtseven during this stretch.
But Yurtseven did not show any sign of rust on Tuesday, entering the game with 4:26 left in the first quarter and immediately making his presence known. He recorded eight points on 4-of-6 shooting, six rebounds and one assist in 8:43 during his first stint of the night.
Highsmith, who signed a 10-day contract with the Heat just hours before Tuesday’s game, finished with six point on 2-of-5 shooting on threes in 16 minutes.
Guy was the only available Heat player who did not get into the contest.
The Heat again made life tough for Mavericks star Luka Doncic, but others around him came through.
Doncic finished Tuesday’s game with 21 points on 5-of-19 shooting. But his teammates combined to score 86 points on 50.9 percent shooting.
Doncic entered averaging 20.7 points on 39.5 percent shooting from the field and 31.5 percent shooting from three-point range in his first seven games against the Heat. That’s the fewest points that Doncic has averaged against any team during his young NBA career.
To be fair, a two-point performance in a game on Dec. 14, 2019 that Doncic was limited to just two minutes because of an ankle injury that brings down his scoring averaged against the Heat is included in there. But he still has hit the 30-point threshold just once and has been an inefficient shooter against Miami.
Doncic now holds a 3-5 record in games he has played against the Heat during his NBA career.
The Mavericks were also short-handed on Tuesday, as they were without Reggie Bullock (left hip contusion), Trey Burke (left shoulder sprain), Marquese Chriss (right knee soreness), Tim Hardaway Jr. (left foot surgery) and Theo Pinson (right fifth finger fracture).
But guard Spencer Dinwiddie and forward Davis Bertans made their Mavericks debuts on Tuesday after being traded to Dallas last week.
The Heat dropped its first game of the season in this specific situation.
The Heat fell to 11-1 this season when playing a game coming of of two or more days of rest. In comparison, Miami is just 2-7 on the second night of back-to-backs and 24-13 with one day of rest.
The Heat plays six more games this season after two or more days off.
