Heat’s losing skid at four, as struggles vs. Nuggets and NBA’s elite continue. Takeaways

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 100-88 home loss to the Denver Nuggets (46-20) on Wednesday night in a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals to close a winless two-game homestand. The Heat (35-30), which has lost four straight games, now hits the road for a four-game trip that begins with back-to-back matchups against the Detroit Pistons on Friday and Sunday:

The Heat’s struggles against the Nuggets and NBA’s elite teams continued.

The Heat fell to 0-11 this season against the teams currently with the NBA’s top five records (0-3 vs. Boston Celtics, 0-2 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, 0-2 vs. Nuggets, 0-2 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves and 0-2 vs. Los Angeles Clippers).

The Heat has also now dropped 17 of its last 20 games against the Nuggets, including last season’s NBA Finals. The last time the Heat defeated the Nuggets in Miami was six years ago with a double-overtime home win on March 19, 2018.

Meanwhile, Denver improved to 10-1 since the All-Star break.

Wednesday’s game was close for most of the night, but the Nuggets took full control with a dominant fourth quarter.

Denver began the fourth quarter on a 22-13 run to turn a one-point lead entering the period into a 10-point advantage with 3:38 to play on its way to the 12-point victory. The Nuggets outscored the Heat 28-17 in the fourth quarter.

“When they want to put on the jets, they’ve been able to leave teams behind in the dust and that’s what it felt like tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Wednesday’s loss to the Nuggets. “It felt like they just flipped a switch in those last four minutes.”

The Nuggets got hot late, shooting 12 of 18 (66.7 percent) from the field and 3 of 7 (42.9 percent) from three-point range in the final period.

“They’re a complex team,” Spoelstra continued. “We still only held them to 100. You feel like you have a handle on them and then all of a sudden, they can just separate in those skirmishes. At this point, they do that, I think, better than anybody else in the league.”

Meanwhile, the Heat’s game-long offensive issues continued in the fourth quarter. The Heat shot just 7 of 21 (33.3 percent) from the field and 1 of 8 (12.5 percent) on threes to score just 17 points in the period.

The Heat closed the loss with only 88 points on 42.5 percent shooting from the field and 5 of 21 (23.8 percent) from three-point range. Miami fell to 2-12 this season when scoring fewer than 100 points.

“Clearly it was a struggle for us to score,” Spoelstra said. “We had moments and that’s fine actually if we could have kept it in the mud. But they had their burst and we stayed where we were and that was basically the game.”

The Heat also set a new season-low with just five three-point makes and matched a season-low with 21 three-point attempts against a Nuggets team that is among the NBA’s best at limiting three-point opportunities.

“To me, it felt like we passed up some open threes,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t think it would have been 43 attempts. But certainly, it should have been 10, 12 more. We passed up open ones and then drove it in to their size. ... We certainly needed to take a few more.”

The Heat posted its sixth-worst single-game offensive rating of the season in the loss, scoring 96.7 points per 100 possessions. The Heat is 1-7 this season when scoring fewer than 100 points per 100 possessions.

But the Heat’s defense still kept the game close for most of the night, fighting back from an early 13-point deficit to enter halftime trailing by just six points despite shooting only 1 of 8 (12.5 percent) from three-point range and committing seven turnovers.

The Heat then took its first lead since early in the first quarter, pulling ahead 56-55 with 7:43 left in the third quarter.

That began a back-and-forth third quarter that included six lead changes and three ties before the Nuggets entered the final period ahead by one point and then broke the game open down the stretch.

Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic did not have a huge game, finishing with just 12 points on eight field-goal attempts to go with 14 rebounds, six assists and four turnovers.

But others around Jokic stepped up.

Michael Porter Jr. scored a game-high 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 shooting on threes for the Nuggets. Aaron Gordon added 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field for Denver.

The Heat remains in eighth place in the East standings, but is now one game behind the seventh-place Indiana Pacers (37-30), one game behind the sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers (36-29), 2.5 games behind the fifth-place Orlando Magic (38-28) and three games behind the fourth-place New York Knicks (38-27).

Bam Adebayo produced impressive moments on both ends of the court on Wednesday. But the Heat’s leading duo of Adebayo and Jimmy Butler have not produced enough on the offensive end during this four-game skid.

The first loss during this skid: Mavericks star Luka Doncic, by himself, outscored Adebayo and Butler 35-28 on Thursday.

The second loss: Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, also by himself, outscored Adebayo and Butler 37-25 on Friday.

The third loss: Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma scored a game-high 32 points, while Adebayo (16 points) and Butler (23 points) combined to score 39 points for the Heat on Sunday.

The fourth loss: Porter scored a game-high 25 points, while Adebayo (17 points) and Butler (15 points) combined to score 32 points on 31 field-goal attempts on Wednesday.

It should be noted, though, that Adebayo turned in a dominant defensive effort to help keep Jokic and the Nuggets’ high-powered offense in check for most of the game.

“There’s no one better in the league that can negotiate this,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo’s defense against Jokic and the Nuggets. “First of all, nobody will go toe to toe minute for minute against Jokic other than Bam. Bam signs up for that and he’ll put himself out there and be vulnerable to the competition. That’s the competitor of all competitors. That just sets the tone.”

Adebayo also scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds during a strong third quarter. But he only scored two points in the fourth quarter.

Adebayo has averaged just 13 points per game on 38.5 percent shooting from the field during this four-game skid.

For Butler, it was a struggle for him to score throughout Wednesday’s game. He totaled 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field and only generated two free-throw attempts in the loss.

Butler has been relatively quiet during this skid, averaging 18 points per game on 45.3 percent shooting from the field and 2-of-11 (18.2 percent) shooting on threes in the last four games. He has also attempted just four three-throw attempts per game during this stretch, which is down from his season average of eight free throws per game.

“I think that’s an adjustment from the league,” Spoelstra said when asked about Butler’s recent dip in free-throw attempts. “The staff has been talking about that. I didn’t receive a memo about it. But it’s clear that they’re calling it a little more like that. So hey, we have to make the adjustment and I think that’s a good adjustment. Go to score, not necessarily to draw fouls.”

The Heat’s duo of Adebayo and Butler entered Wednesday averaging a combined 41.6 points per game on 50.6 percent shooting from the field this season. Their production over this four-game skid has been far below those numbers, as they’ve combined to average 31 points per game on just 42.2 percent shooting from the field during this span.

The Heat went with the same starting lineup for the eighth straight game, but that group’s uneven play continued.

With Herro still out, the Heat opened Wednesday’s game with a starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Butler, Nikola Jovic and Adebayo.

Wednesday marked the eighth straight game this group has started, but the results haven’t been great.

This five-man combination was outscored by 6.6 points per 100 possessions in 89 minutes together during the first seven games of this stretch.

The eighth game wasn’t much better, as the Nuggets began Wednesday’s contest on a 17-9 run before the Heat made its first substitution of the night.

The second half was a positive, though, as the Heat’s starting lineup began the third quarter by outscoring the Nuggets 15-10 before turning to its bench.

But this five-man lineup still closed Wednesday’s loss with a negative plus/minus of minus three in 13 minutes together.

With the Heat already using 31 different starting lineups this season to tie for the most in a season in franchise history, the Rozier-Robinson-Butler-Jovic-Adebayo combination is the Heat’s most used starting group this season at eight games.

This unit did not start a game together before this eight-game stretch.

The Heat then played five players off the bench to go with a 10-man rotation on Wednesday.

The Heat used Jaime Jaquez Jr., Caleb Martin, Patty Mills, Thomas Bryant and Haywood Highsmith off the bench against the Nuggets.

This five-man bench unit outscored the Nuggets’ reserves 17-6 in the first half to help keep the Heat in the game.

But Denver’s bench was better in the second half, outscoring Miami’s reserves 18-11 in the final two quarters. That included a string of seven straight points for Nuggets reserve Reggie Jackson during Denver’s game-deciding fourth-quarter run.

“I think Reggie made some big shots down the stretch,” Adebayo said. “That’s something we got to live with. He was making shots, he was in his mode.”

In the end, the Heat’s bench closed the game with a narrow 28-24 edge over the Nuggets’ reserves.

Bryant, who played as the Heat’s backup center against the Nuggets’ size, was solid. He finished with nine points and six rebounds in 14 minutes.

Martin also contributed nine points off the Heat’s bench in 25 minutes.

The only available Heat players who did not play on Wednesday were Orlando Robinson, Cole Swider and Delon Wright.

There’s still to clear timetable for Heat guard Tyler Herro’s return.

Herro missed Wednesday’s matchup because of right foot medial tendinitis, marking the ninth straight game he has sat out. Along with Herro’s foot issue, he also has dealt with a hyperextended left knee during this stretch of absences that he has since recovered from.

When asked prior to Wednesday’s game whether Herro is making progress in his recovery from his foor injury, Spoelstra did not offer many details.

“He’s making progress,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t have any more for you. But he’s doing everything he needs to do.”

The Heat was also without Kevin Love (right heel bruise), Josh Richardson (right shoulder surgery), Jamal Cain (G League) and Alondes Williams (G League) against the Nuggets.

Richardson is out for the season, but it remains to be seen if Herro and/or Love will travel with the team to Detroit on Thursday for the start of the Heat’s four-game trip

Meanwhile, the Nuggets had their full rotation available.