Five takeaways from the Heat’s 118-108 loss to the Mavericks in Dallas on Wednesday:
▪ The Heat rallied late but ultimately couldn’t overcome dismal three-point shooting and not enough second-half offense from its wing players on a night Miami played without Norman Powell.
Miami made just 4 of its first 21 threes and finished 11 of 37 (30 percent) – just nine days after the Heat shot 5 for 27 on threes in a 106-102 win against Dallas in Miami. Overall, the Heat shot a season-worst 39.6 percent from the field.
Conversely, Dallas shot 16 of 32 on threes, including five makes from Klay Thompson and three by Ryan Nembhard.
This was quite the contrast from Monday’s 140-123 dismantling of the Clippers, when Miami tied a franchise record with 24 threes.
By the time the Heat missed its 17th three-pointer in 21 attempts, Dallas had stretched its lead to 17 early in the third.
Miami’s bench opened 3 for 16 from the field, with Kel’el Ware accounting for the Heat’s only bench field goals until midway through the third quarter.
The Mavericks’ zone defense was problematic, but this was also a case of not running offense smoothly and missing too many open looks.
Ware did his part, equaling a career high with four three-pointers (in five attempts) on a 22-point, 10-rebound night. That followed his 20-point, 18-rebound effort last week against Dallas.
Tyler Herro scored 20 in the first half on 8 for 12 shooting, but missed all five of his shots in a scoreless second half.
So what changed? “Not touching the ball,” Herro said. “I didn’t really have the ball in the second half.”
Was this a case of Dallas denying him the ball or the Heat getting away from the movement it had in the first half? “It just didn’t find me,” Herro said. “It’s all good.”
Bam Adebayo scored 21 points (10 for 19 shooting) with seven rebounds, but he and Ware couldn’t overcome the lack of offense around them and Adebayo missed his final five three-pointers after making his first.
The rest of the Heat’s cast mostly struggled offensively.
Andrew Wiggins shot 4 for 18 on an 11-point night.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. shot 3 for 10 and Simone Fontecchio 2 for 8.
Davion Mitchell was 2 for 7 and Pelle Larsson 1 for 5 on four-point nights for each of them.
“It’s not just us missing shots,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “First half, our spacing was a little bit jammed up. Against a good defense like that, particularly at the rim, they do a great job with their bigs of protecting at the rim.
“If your spacing is not right, you’re going to be bumping into each other. It took us a while to get our spacing appropriate because we had good drives in the first half, but we were running right into each other. Then that started to get cleaned up a little bit and then we missed some open looks. But Dallas is a very good defensive team, so you do have to credit them.”
Dallas entered fourth in the league in points allowed per 100 possessions; the Heat ranks third.
Cooper Flagg scored 22 for Dallas, and Anthony Davis added 17 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks.
▪ Ware fueled a late Heat rally that came up short.
Down 93-80 entering the fourth, the Heat pulled to within 110-106 with 2:45 left, thanks to good work from Ware, combined with contributions from Dru Smith, Jaquez, Fontecchio and Adebayo.
But Dallas then scored six straight (two by Davis, four by Flagg), while Wiggins missed one shot on the other end and had another shot blocked. That essentially settled matters.
Spoelstra played Adebayo and Ware together for the final six minutes after using them separately earlier in the game. Both played well but couldn’t overcome the lack of help from the Heat’s wings down the stretch.
Ware closed 8 for 11 from the field and blocked a shot in his 25 minutes but also had three turnovers.
“He did some good things, so we’ll focus on that and then we’ll continue to develop him on all those finer details,” Spoelstra said.
But overall, the coach viewed this game as an opportunity lost.
“I felt like it was an opportunity that slipped for us to be able to have that gratification of winning a game where we weren’t making shots,” Spoelstra said. “We made a good comeback there at the end. But through three quarters, there was more discouragement from our missed shots that was affecting our concentration level and resolve defensively.”
▪ With Powell sidelined by a sprained left ankle, Spoelstra opened with his ninth different starting lineup and opted to bring Ware off the bench.
Miami’s starting group of Adebayo, Herro, Mitchell, Wiggins and Larsson had a good start, pushing the Heat to a 10-2 lead that evaporated when the reserves entered the game.
But that quintet wasn’t particularly good to start the second half, as the Mavericks extended their 10-point halftime lead to 17 before Jaquez Jr. entered for Adebayo.
With Mavericks center Derrick Lively sidelined by an injury, the 6-10 Davis was Dallas’ only starter taller than 6-9, and Spoelstra countered with a smaller starting lineup (without Ware).
Adebayo did excellent defensive work for much of the game against Davis, holding him to 1 for 4 shooting when the two were matched up in the first half.
The Heat badly missed Powell, who is second in the league in three-point percentage (45.8 percent) among players averaging at least six attempts. Miami fell to 2-3 without him this season.
“He’s not quite ready to play, so we think more treatment will be more helpful,” Spoelstra said.
▪ Nikola Jovic’s difficult season continued with a brief cameo on a night the Heat’s bench played its worst first half of the year.
Aside from Ware’s three first half baskets, the Heat bench shot 0 for 12 in the first half.
But the reserves played much better in the second half. Jaquez (10 points, four rebounds, four assists, four steals) and Fontecchio (two fourth-quarter threes, a block and steal) and Smith (four rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block) helping keep Miami afloat in the fourth.
Jovic entered in an 8 for 31 tailspin, with 10 assists and 10 turnovers in his previous five appearances.
Looking for a spark, Spoelstra used him as Miami’s fifth player off the bench. He had two rebounds and a block in six minutes but missed two shots and made a defensive mistake against Nembhard. He didn’t play in the second half.
▪ The Mavericks have now held the Heat to two of their four lowest point totals of the season.
“We’ve got to get in transition a little bit more, get the ball out, play faster,” Herro said. “Dallas did a good job of keeping us off the three point line, making things tough. We were getting the looks we wanted.
“We can still win games when shots aren’t falling. It’s not all offense. We’ve got to figure out ways to win when things aren’t going our way.”
Miami (14-8) entered averaging 124.3 points, second most in the league.
The Heat’s season-low point total was 101 in a loss to San Antonio. Its next lowest were 106-point games against Dallas and Milwaukee, and Wednesday’s output was its fourth lowest.
Before the game, Spoelstra was asked — for at least the fifth time this season — about the Heat’s offensive evolution to a fast-paced, high-octane team.
He gave a variation of the same answer, with one addition, admitting that the 122-point first round sweep by Cleveland “was the most embarrassing that I’ve been a part of as a head coach… We were totally outclassed and embarrassed in the playoff series. It was extremely humbling.
“I didn’t know where the pace would land. It had to make sense. We felt like some of the things made sense for this roster. But if it didn’t make sense we would pivot. And we still want to do better, some different things. And if we need to pivot a little bit, we will.”
Miami couldn’t maintain that pace Thursday on a night that threes didn’t fall and Dallas’ zone proved troublesome. The Heat’s pace of 100 possessions per 48 minutes on Wednesday tied its lowest of the season; Miami entered averaging 106.1 possessions per 48.
This story was originally published December 3, 2025 at 10:54 PM.
Barry Jackson
Miami Herald
Barry Jackson has written for the Miami Herald since 1986 and has written the Florida Sports Buzz column since 2002.
