In a close game coming down to the wire, the Miami Heat received loss number 19 of the season in Crypto.com Arena to the Los Angeles Lakers, 109-112. The Lakers had many lower-role players step up with big numbers to help compensate for the absences of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. As for the Heat, big games from their stars were not quite enough to get them past Los Angeles.
Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler Impress with Big Performances
Who would have thought? The Miami Heat’s two big stars have great performances against one of the league’s premiere teams.
The Lakers were without LeBron James (ankle) and Anthony Davis (right foot). Davis still remains out, however, NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski said he was slowly starting to work his way back.
The Lakers were also without Lonnie Walker IV (left knee), one of their top shooters with a 45.5% field goal percentage.
So, with the lack of star power from the Lakers. Adebayo and Butler took advantage with 30 and 27 points, respectively. Adebayo also snagged 13 rebounds to secure the double-double, his 18th of the season. Butler was impressive from the field, going 11-of-22 (50%).
A big reason for the Heat’s defeat is their lack of scoring from other players. Tyler Herro had a quiet night with nine points on 4-of-14 (29%) shooting. Victor Oladipo was efficient rebounding the basketball with seven boards. But, he only finished with 12 points on 4-of-10 (40%) shooting. Kyle Lowry had 11 points while only taking seven shots from the floor.
The Heat also had an off night from three, shooting 27% from beyond the arc.
Dennis Schroder’s Explosive Night Pushes Lakers to Victory
The Lakers’ guard finished with 32 points. It was his best night of the season as his defense also got the Lakers’ defense going with his four steals in the game. Los Angeles had 10 total steals in the game.
Schroder’s performance at the free throw line was vital as he went 12-of-14 from the stripe. The team got to the line often as they shot 30 free throws, converting 24 of them.
Lakers’ center Thomas Bryant also had a great game down low even with the tough matchup against Adebayo.
He finished with 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting and had nine rebounds. He was also perfect from the free throw line.
Russell Westbrook had a great game as well with 21 points off of the bench. He was effective in other facets of the game as well with eight rebounds and nine assists.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra on the game: “They (Los Angeles) were driving and attacking us relentlessly. We just weren’t able to get a hold of that part of our defense… We had really costly fouls on jump shooters as well.”
The majority of points from both teams came from in the paint with Miami having 66 and Los Angeles having 60.
Up Next
The Miami Heat are now just above .500 at 20-19 and now sit firmly 2.5 games above the Hawks for the 8th seed in the eastern conference. Their next game will be Friday night in Phoenix against the Suns at the Footprint Center. Tip-off is at 10:00 p.m. E.T.