Miami Heat failed against Oklahoma City Thunder

MIAMI – Ultimately, this was a jarring and painful reminder of the level of competition in the NBA – particularly for Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

Facing a challenge from the best in the NBA West, the Miami Heat found themselves outnumbered and came up short in a 104-97 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Kaseya Center on Friday night.

After forward Jimmy Butler was sidelined in the first quarter with a stomach ailment and center Bam Adebayo was forced to retreat to the locker room in the third with seven stitches above his left eye, the Heat have now extended their season-best four-game winning streak with a two-game losing streak .

“When you do it on the fly without Jimmy, you just have to do everything you can to get a possession game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We were pretty close.”

While Adebayo finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, it just wasn’t enough against the quality of the Thunder, who got 33 points from Jalen Williams and 25 from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, his 26th 20-point game of the season, the most in the NBA. The Thunder also got 18 rebounds from center Isaiah Hartenstein

Tyler Herro was the Heat’s only consistent offensive source, finishing with 28 points, a season-high 12 rebounds and five assists.

Another obstacle for the Heat was 19 turnovers, which led to 27 Thunder points.

After Monday night’s road loss to the Detroit Pistons brought the pain of blowing an eight-point lead in overtime, this game ended the Heat’s five-game home winning streak.

Next up for the Heat, amid uncertainty over Butler’s health, is a Saturday night road game against the Orlando Magic.

Five degrees of heat from the game on Friday evening:

1. Closing time: The Thunder led 30-25 at the end of the first quarter and 50-47 at halftime.

Both teams then scored 10-0 runs in the third period, which ended with the Thunder leading 81-70.

From there, Herro returned with 8:07 left with the Heat trailing 89-80, with Dru Smith’s third 3-pointer of the night bringing the Heat within 96-91 with 3:33 left.

The Heat had a chance to further reduce that deficit as Jaime Jaquez Jr. erased that lead with a missed free throw and turnover, and the Thunder took the lead to 101-92 on a 3-pointer from Williams.

Herro countered with a 3-pointer with 74 seconds left in the game to make it 101-95, with a free throw from Adebayo bringing the Heat within 101-96 with 45.7 seconds left.

A few Thunder free throws later, it was essentially over.

In the end, the Thunder’s defense proved to be just adequate.

“They’re active,” Spoelstra said. “If you have open windows, you have to be able to attack.”

2. Butler sick: Butler went to the locker room with 4:41 left in the opening period after it appeared he twisted his left ankle while battling Luguenz Dort for a loose ball.

That put Butler out of the game before he even attempted his first shot.

The Heat said shortly afterward that Butler was out overnight due to illness because he came to the arena with a gastrointestinal illness.

Just before Butler twisted his ankle, he went to the Heat bench during a Heat free throw and asked coach Armando Rivas for something.

Jaquez started the second half in place of Butler.

Spoelstra said that after Butler reported for duty, they didn’t think about starting him.

“If the guys say they can go,” Spoelstra said, “we’ll go right away.”