The Miami Heat lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder were better than the Heat, winning 128:120 at the Kasey Center. The Heat started the game with quality, but collapsed in the second half due to inconsistency on both sides.
Why the Heat lost: the Thunder scored 63 points in the second half
The Fever continued to show instability in the second half. Miami is not a high-scoring team, but they are still trailing in the playoffs. They have shown that they can compete with anyone, but the problem has been in crunch time.
OKC scored 63 points in the second half and took their biggest lead of the game in the fourth quarter at 16 points. They opened the third quarter with an 11-0 run to steal the lead from Miami. They held the lead for most of the third quarter and never looked back.
“I wish we didn’t have a halftime lead,” said Erik Spoelstra. “We started the third quarter slow and that changed the momentum just a little bit. We regained it towards the end of the third quarter, but that’s when the momentum changed. That’s when our defensive mistakes started to show.”
Miami looked sluggish coming out of the locker room. The Thunder were outpacing them. Gilgeous Alexander scored 16 points in the second half and Chet Holmgren scored 13 of his 23 points.
Top scorer: Haywood Highsmith
One of the Heat’s best defenders focused on scoring against the Thunder. Haywood Highsmith set a new career-high with 19 points, hitting 5 of 7 threes from the field. Miami looked for Highsmith with open catch-and-shoot attempts for most of the first half.
He opened up the offense, but OKC had to spread defenders all around the perimeter instead of bothering to make plays. Highsmith was a big reason for Miami’s double-digit lead, which it held for most of the first half.
The Heat led by as many as 10 points in the first 24 minutes. Highsmith’s defense on Gilgeous-Alexander was the best on the team, and his shot was crucial, but it was not in the fourth quarter. Highsmith was held scoreless in the final 12 minutes.
Highlight of the game:
Nikola Jovic took a long time to develop in Miami, but it appears he’s starting to come around. Jovic showed clear signs of improvement and confidence against the Thunder. In the first half alone, he had 12 points, two assists, one block and one steal.
This shot by Jovic was a true indication of his improved skills under Spoelstra. He is known as a creative passer of the ball, being 180 cm tall, but patience was a problem for the young promising basketball player. Jovic is starting to read defences at a higher level and is exploiting gaps with his size.
Jovic started the game as the primary passer of the ball for Miami, as starting point guard Kyle Lowry was out due to injury. Spoelstra talked about his development and mentioned his progress over the course of the season, slowly coming on the court.
“He’s made a lot of progress and his confidence is growing, you can see that,” Spoelstra said. “He adds a different dimension to our team in terms of skill and size. We will continue to build on that.”