Takeaways from Heat’s turnover-filled loss to Cavaliers to fall to 2-3 on important homestand

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 104-100 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers (42-26) on Wednesday night at Miami-Dade Arena to drop to 2-3 on its six-game homestand. The Heat (35-32) closes the season-long homestand with another game against the Cavaliers on Friday:

The Heat could not overcome its sloppy play and poor three-point shooting in a loss that erased the possibility of a winning homestand.

The Heat committed a season-high 24 turnovers that the Cavaliers turned into 29 points. Cleveland outscored Miami 29-22 on points off turnovers.

With the Heat committing so many turnovers, the Cavaliers also were able to finish with an 80-70 edge in field-goal attempts to win the possession battle that has become such a big part of Miami’s winning formula this season.

The Heat fell to 15-62 when committing 24 or more turnovers in a game in franchise history, including the playoffs.

“We feel like this was set up to be a really competitive game, but it is extremely tough to win in this league when you have 24 turnovers,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Despite its turnover issues, the Heat kept the score close throughout on the way to its league-leading 47th clutch game (one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter) of the season.

The Cavaliers led for the entire second half and pulled ahead by as many as 12 points, but the Heat managed to chip away at the deficit to cut it to just one point with 2:44 left in the fourth quarter.

But the Heat couldn’t complete the comeback, as the Cavaliers responded by scoring four unanswered points to push their lead back up to five points with 49 seconds to play.

After the Heat pulled within one point on a dunk from Caleb Martin with 2:44 remaining, Miami missed six of its final seven field-goal attempts.

The only make during this stretch was a Tyler Herro three-pointer to cut the deficit to two points with 20.7 seconds on the clock. The Heat then fouled Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen, who only made one of two free throws to bump the lead up to three and keep it a one possession game.

The Heat could not capitalize, though, as Max Strus missed what would have been a game-tying three-pointer with 4.1 seconds left to end Miami’s hopes of completing the comeback.

“That’s about as good as you can get,” Spoelstra said of Strus’ relatively clean look in the final seconds.

Along with its high turnover performance, the Heat also shot just 8 of 29 (27.6 percent) from three-point range in the loss.

The three-point shooting struggles have been a problem all season, as it holds the NBA’s fourth-worst team three-point percentage at 33.6 percent. But the turnover issues are uncharacteristic for this season’s Heat team, as it owns the 13th-lowest turnover rate this season.

“We had 24 turnovers,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “That was the game right there. I felt like we were careless with the ball, including me at times where we could have had an extra possession that could have changed the game.”

Jimmy Butler scored a team-high 28 points with the help of 12-of-15 shooting from the foul line for the Heat. Butler also finished with five rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Herro closed with 22 points, five rebounds and five assists.

The first half was competitive with 18 lead changes and six ties before Cleveland entered halftime with a 57-53 lead. There were no lead changes in the second half.

Darius Garland led the Cavaliers with a team-high 25 points and seven assists.

“I thought we played well,” Spoelstra said. “I thought we played tough. I thought we did a lot of really good things. The turnovers were really tough to overcome, particularly in key stretches during the course of the game. We’re one of the better teams at taking care of the basketball. Just get it to, I’ll throw out an arbitrary number, 16 to 18 turnovers and we win this game. But that would be discrediting what they did.

Adebayo was limited by first-half foul trouble and was never able to find an offensive rhythm.

Adebayo played just nine minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

Adebayo went to the bench after being called for his second foul with 4:51 left in the first quarter and did not return until there was 9:44 left in the second quarter. But he quickly picked up his third foul just a few minutes later with 7:25 left in the second quarter and spent the rest of the first half on the bench.

Adebayo was only called for one foul in the second half to remain on the floor for 19:14 in the final two quarters. But he was limited to just seven points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field and one rebound after halftime.

“Other guys had it going,” Adebayo said of his quiet offensive night. “And when I got it in middle, they would crash in so I had to kick it out and make the extra pass. Nobody is going to just let me sit in the paint now and go one on one.”

Adebayo finished the game with 17 points and a season-low one rebound in 29 minutes. He grabbed his lone rebound of the game, which was an offensive rebound, with 2:01 left in the fourth quarter.

“The rebounding gods weren’t on my side tonight,” Adebayo said.

The foul trouble created some extra playing time for Heat backup center Cody Zeller, who logged 15 first-half minutes on Wednesday. He entered averaging 13.8 minutes per game in his first seven appearances with the Heat.

Zeller took advantage to grab eight rebounds in the first half on his way to finishing the loss with three points, eight rebounds and one assist in 19 minutes off the bench.

Heat forward Kevin Love returned from injury to face his former team.

Love, who missed Monday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks because of a right rib contusion, was back in the Heat’s starting lineup to finish Wednesday’s loss with eight points, eight rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes. He started strong, scoring Miami’s first four points and drawing two charges within the first 3:53 of the game.

But Love played just two seconds in the fourth quarter, as Spoelstra again opted to instead use reserves Martin and Victor Oladipo for most of the fourth quarter.

Wednesday marked Love’s seventh game with the Heat but his first against his former team since agreeing to a contract buyout with the Cavaliers last month.

“Definitely seeing those guys on the other side of the court warming up was definitely different,” Love said of facing his former teammates just weeks after leaving the Cavaliers. “I have so much love for everybody down there. So much love. ... Obviously, would have loved to win tonight. But any night we’re not playing them, I’m rooting for them.”

After falling out of Cleveland’s rotation this season, the 34-year-old Love requested a buyout in order to find consistent playing time elsewhere.

But Love’s ties to Cleveland remain strong. He had been with the Cavaliers since joining the organization prior to the 2014-15 season, winning one championship in 2016 and making consecutive All-Star Games in 2017 and 2018 during his time with the organization.

With Love back in the Heat’s starting lineup, Strus returned to a reserve role. The Heat’s bench rotation on Wednesday included Oladipo, Zeller, Martin and Strus.

Duncan Robinson was again out of the rotation after scoring 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes in 17 minutes off the bench in Monday’s win over the Hawks. But with Love returning Wednesday, Robinson received his fourth DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in the last six games.

Heat point guard Kyle Lowry remained out, but he continues to move closer to his return.

Left knee soreness forced Lowry to miss his 14th straight game on Wednesday. He has not played in a game since Feb. 2 and was at the center of trade speculation ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline.

When asked about Lowry’s status prior to Wednesday’s game, Spoelstra repeated the same answer he’s given for the last week: “He’s making great progress.”

While the Heat has not offered a definitive timetable for Lowry’s return, there’s optimism within the organization that he’ll return before the end of the season and possibly within the next week with 15 regular-season games left.

Gabe Vincent, who made his 14th consecutive start in Lowry’s place, finished Wednesday’s loss scoreless and attempted just one shot in 18 minutes.

Along with missing Lowry, the Heat remained without rookie forward Nikola Jovic (G League assignment) against the Cavaliers. Jovic is working his way back from a lower back stress reaction that has kept him sidelined since early January.

The play-in tournament continues to look like the most likely outcome for the Heat unless it can go on a big late-season run.

With the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets both idle on Wednesday, the seventh-place Heat fell four games behind the fifth-place Knicks and three games behind the sixth-place Nets with only 15 regular-season games left to play.

The tiebreaker with the Knicks is still up for grabs, but the Nets have already clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Heat. That means Miami is essentially four games behind Brooklyn since the Heat doesn’t hold the tiebreaker edge.

To escape having to qualify for the play-in tournament, the Heat needs to finish as a top-six playoff seed in the East.

With the Atlanta Hawks defeating the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, the seventh-place Heat is 1.5 games ahead of the eighth-place Hawks. Miami holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Atlanta.