The Miami Heat (3-3) dropped the sixth game of the regular season on Sunday night, losing 130-120 to the Los Angeles Lakers (5-2). Here’s some of the main statistical reasons why the game turned out the way it did.
Shooting: The Heat converted on just 27 percent of their three point shots after coming into this game having hit 40.5 percent on their threes. Strangely enough, although some general shooting regression was to be expected, what stood out the most were the easier ones. Bizarrely enough, the Heat missed all nine of the corner threes they attempted.
What’s worse, the Heat finished the game with 13 more free throw attempts than the Lakers, but missed 11 of them. Pardon the cliche, but they’re called free throws for a reason. Their 69 percent free throw shooting mark would rank dead last in the league.
The silver lining for the Heat: they took 41 percent of their overall field goal attempts at the rim, good for 84th percentile in the league, and finished about 80 percent of them (86th percentile). Also, the 36 free throw attempts would rank first in the NBA. The relentless drive-and-kick game that has driven their revitalized offense continues to shine. Jaime Jaquez Jr., in the midst of quite the bounce-back season so far, was a huge part of that, finishing with 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting (all inside the paint), as well as 13 free throw attempts.
Turnovers/Transition Defense/Possession Game: In the first half, the Heat turned the ball over a whopping 10 times, which led to 15 points off turnovers for the Lakers. Although the Heat gave the ball up only half as much in the second half, the Lakers finished with a 98th percentile 192.9 transition offensive rating for the game.
The Heat, missing their two best perimeter scorers in Tyler Herro and Norman Powell, could not afford to lose the possession game by as much as they did, as the Lakers finished with 11 more field goal attempts. This was particularly troublesome on top of all the missed free throws.
Lackadaisical Defense: Although the Heat held Luka Doncic, who came into this game averaging 45.3 points per game on 58 percent shooting, to his worst scoring game of his season so far (29 points, nine of 22 from the field), the overall team defense was not exactly up to par for the Heat’s standards.
In the first half, the Lakers put up 73 points, featuring a blistering 137.5 points per 100 possessions. For context, the best offensive rating in the league at the moment is putting up a 126.5 offensive rating, and the Heat came into this game with the third best defensive rating at 108.9.
In addition to the easy transition offense generated from Heat turnovers, the halfcourt defense was just as faulty, with the Lakers converting on 58 percent of their attempts there. The con with focusing so much of their defense on a passer of Doncic’s caliber is that guys like Jake LaRavia and Jaxson Hayes combined to shoot 17 of 20 from the field.
The defense, bolstered for the second straight game by the Heat’s famous shape-shifting zone defense, was much better in the second half (34 percent shooting in the halfcourt and a 108.2 overall offensive rating, which would rank in the bottom five in the league). At that point, however, despite how well Jaime Jaquez Jr. continues to play, it wasn’t enough to dig themselves out of the hole they’d put themselves in after the first half.
Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at toledoalexander22@gmail.com. Twitter: @tropicalblanket
Polarizing starter is failing the Heat, other grades from loss to Lakers
Jaime Jaquez Jr’s big scoring punch not enough against Luka Doncic, Lakers: three takeaways
Norman Powell says Clippers weren’t straight with him
