Heat loses in overtime to Magic despite more good work from Butler: Details and takeaways

Six takeaways from the Heat’s 126-114 overtime loss against the Orlando Magic on Saturday night at Amway Center:

▪ Once again, Jimmy Butler was magnificent, scoring 26 after halftime, fueling a furious Heat rally and sending the game to overtime with a closely defended three-pointer at the buzzer. But the Heat then unraveled in overtime.

After Butler lifted Miami from a 10-point deficit to tie it at the end of regulation, Miami then collapsed in overtime. Orlando opened the OT on a 10-2 run, including threes by Jalen Suggs and Cole Anthony.

Orlando outscored Miami 18 to 6 in the overtime.

That ruined a glorious night from Butler, whose 38 points tied for his most in a regular season game for the Heat. (Butler has scored more than that in postseason for Miami.) But he didn’t attempt a shot in overtime.

Butler left for his usual second-half rest with the Heat down two. When he returned with 7:26 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Heat was down 10.

From that point, Butler scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, including the high-degree-of-difficulty three, with two Magic players defending him, at the buzzer, knotting the game at 108 at the end of regulation. Those were his final points of the night.

Asked about that dramatic three, Butler said: “Doesn’t matter because we lost. All the making shots in the world didn’t help us win this game, so I don’t care.”

From there, Orlando took over, and Butler went scoreless in overtime.

Butler entered having averaged 25 points per game on 64.5 percent shooting in nine games since the All Star break.

He scored 12 in the first half on 5 for 11 shooting, then scored 11 in the third and 15 in the fourth. He closed 14 for 25 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line.

What’s encouraging is that Butler has been able to play - and play exceptionally well - in both sets of back to back games over the past two months, after missing one of the games in three previous back to back sets earlier in the season due to knee maintenance. He played 39 minutes Saturday.

“He’s on an impressive run right now,” Erik Spoelstra said.

After Butler hit the three at the end of regulation, “we felt we were going to be able to control the overtime,” Spoelstra said.

But there wasn’t enough support. Adebayo had 14 points and 7 rebounds, making only 7 of 17 shots from the field and committing four turnovers. Victor Oladipo struggled through a 3 for 13 night. Kevin Love missed his only shot from the field in 17 minutes.

Tyler Herro missed much of the fourth quarter and overtime because of food poisoning, Spoelstra said.

The Heat, the league’s third worst three-point shooting team, again struggled from distance, finishing 11 for 37 (29.7 percent) behind the line.

And Miami was outrebounded 54-35, with Wendell Carter hauling in 11 and Paulo Banchero 10 and Adebayo limited to seven.

The game ended oddly, with Butler walking off the court with 10 seconds left and the Heat called for a technical for having too few players on the court.

“We turned the ball over, didn’t get stops,” Butler said. “That’s never the recipe for winning. They gave us problems all year long. We just have to do better from jump street. We didn’t deserve to win.”

▪ Lowry returned from his knee injury and played off the bench for the first time in a decade.

Lowry, who had missed 15 games in a row with knee soreness, logged 36 minutes and played down the stretch, finishing with 12 points on 4 for 8 shooting, four assists, three turnovers and two steals. He drew a technical foul midway through the fourth, and the Magic hit the free throw to stretch the lead to 13.

He came off the bench for the first time since late January of 2013, ending a streak of 677 starts in a row, which had been the sixth longest streak among active players.

Spoelstra, using Lowry off the bench for the first time, said he’s “excited to have him back in the mix. We could use another spark right now, during the stretch run.”

Lowry is accepting of his bench role. “At this point, I know in my heart I’m a starter,” he said. “Spo and I talked and he wants to make sure I’m healthy and not have to change the lineup again and change the rotation. Great communicator he is, great coach he is, I respect [that].”

Gabe Vincent started for the 16th game in a row at point guard and made his first three shots, finishing with 13 points (5 for 10 shooting) in 37 minutes.

Lowry - in the second year of a three-year, $90 million contract -had his knee drained when he missed four games in January with knee soreness.

He met with the Heat after he was the subject of trade discussions, and Lowry agreed to do whatever was asked of him.

▪ Omer Yurtseven made his season debut after Cody Zeller left for good with what Spoelstra said was a broken nose.

Suggs and Zeller both fell to the court after a collision on a Suggs foray to the basket late in the first quarter. Suggs extended his left arm on the drive, leaving Zeller with a bloody gash under his right eye, which required stitches.

He was ruled out for the game and a timetable for his return is unknown.

Miami already was without Caleb Martin, who missed the game due to knee soreness, and Duncan Robinson, who entered health and safety protocols.

Zeller’s exit created an opportunity for Yurtseven, who made his season debut after missing most of the year following ankle surgery in late September.

Yurtseven had a rebound and missed his only shot in four scoreless first half minutes, then played three uneventful minutes in the second half, finishing the night with that one rebound and one missed shot, one rebound and a foul in seven minutes.

Yurtseven played two games for the Heat’s G-League team in South Dakota before rejoining the Heat this past Monday. He was a DNP-CD (did not play/coach’s decision) for the Heat’s previous three games, as Spoelstra opted to continue using Zeller, who has played well since joining the team at the All Star break.

Yurtseven averaged 12.1 points and 12.7 rebounds and shot 51 percent in 12 starts last season. He will be a restricted free agent after the season.

▪ Oladipo’s shooting struggles continued. And Herro didn’t play down the stretch because of the food poisoning.

By any statistical measure, Oladipo remains among the league’s worst shooters this season. He opened 2 for 11 on Saturday and finished the night with nine points on 3 for 13 shooting, including 1 for 8 on threes.

Among shooting guards, Oladipo’s 39.2 percent shooting - entering Saturday - was next to last, ahead of only Fred Van Vleet. His 31.5 percent shooting on threes is tied with Bennedict Mathurin for worst in the league among shooting guards.

Meanwhile, Spoelstra kept Herro on the bench for the final 7:26 of the fourth quarter and overtime because of the effects of food poisoning, which forced him to the locker room earlier in the game.

“He was trying to do anything just to be available for the guys,” Spoelstra said

Instead, Spoelstra used Butler, Adebayo, Lowry, Vincent and Max Strus during the game’s deciding moments.

Herro finished with 14 points on 6 for 13 shooting, with five rebounds and three assists.

▪ Spoelstra wasn’t happy with referee James Williams, who called a technical foul on Butler for leaving the court late in overtime and made other questionable calls or non-calls.

“It was a bizarre deal,” Spoelstra said. “There were half a dozen instances with that official. It’s neither here nor there. I’m not going to get a fine. League you’re not even going to think about giving me a fine.

“It started off with that blocking foul [against the Heat], where Jimmy took one to the face. Then Cody took another one to the face and broke his nose. Our debate about those things seemed to carry over.... And then it became a matching of egos I guess. He got the last laugh on that one, the official did.”

▪ The Heat lost again to an East bottom feeder and stayed in seventh in the conference standings.

Miami entered with a 2-0 record against the Magic but is now 6-8 against the teams with the five worst records in the East: Chicago, Indiana, Orlando, Charlotte and Detroit.

With the Clippers beating the Knicks, New York fell to sixth in the East, percentage points behind No. 5 Brooklyn.

The Heat (36-33) stands three games behind both the Knicks and Nets and stayed 1.5 games ahead of No. 8 Atlanta.

“We weren’t able to get the typical Miami Heat stops,” Spoelstra said. “That ended up being pretty costly.”