Bam Adebayo-less Heat blown out by Hornets for its most lopsided loss of the season. Takeaways

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 136-106 blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets (35-34) on Tuesday night at Spectrum Center to drop its second straight game. The Heat (38-31) now returns to Miami to host the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday:

Without starting center Bam Adebayo on Tuesday, the Heat lost its second straight game as the possibility of another play-in tournament appearance looms. This turned into the Heat’s most lopsided loss of the season, too.

The Heat played without Adebayo for the first time since Dec. 27, as he was unavailable for Tuesday’s game because of right calf tightness. It marked the ninth game that he has missed this season, ending his string of 36 straight games played.

The Heat couldn’t overcome his absence. Instead, the surging Hornets improved to 19-6 in their last 25 games after a shaky 16-28 start to the season.

The first half was a competitive back-and-forth affair that included 19 lead changes and 10 ties before the Hornets entered halftime with a narrow 59-57 lead.

But the second half didn’t include any lead changes, as the Hornets began the second half on a 7-0 run to extend their lead to nine just 1:45 into the third quarter and played from ahead the rest of the way.

After ending the third quarter with an eight-point advantage, the Hornets broke the game open by outscoring the Heat 40-18 in the fourth quarter. Charlotte led by as many 30 points in the final period.

“We let go of the rope a little bit at the beginning of that fourth and things kind of got out of control,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said.

The Hornets ended up outscoring the Heat 77-49 in the second half to turn a back-and-forth game into a 30-point blowout win. It’s the most points that Miami has lost a game by this season, surpassing a 28-point defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 6.

“There were parts of the game where it was just highly competitive,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Both sides, both teams were going back and forth. It was set up to be a great finish. Once they got it to 10, that’s when it really changed. And the flood gates went from there. So, it’s a disappointing end to that game.”

The Heat shot just 7 of 36 (19.4 percent) from three-point range in the loss, including 3 of 20 (15 percent) from deep in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Hornets’ offense was efficient. Charlotte shot 53.1 percent from the field and 17 of 42 (40.5 percent) on threes in Tuesday’s win.

“We definitely didn’t shoot the ball well,” Spoelstra said. “But if you’re not shooting the ball well like that, then that doesn’t mean that we have to just let the floodgates go on the other end. I think we gave up 62 points in the paint. That’s not like us.”

Three Hornets players finished with more than 20 points — LaMelo Ball finished with 30 points and 13 assists, Coby White scored 24 points and Kon Knueppel added 22 points.

Herro was the only Heat player who hit the 20-point mark on Tuesday, finishing the loss with 20 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 9-of-9 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds and five assists.

Along with missing Adebayo, the Heat was also without starting forward Andrew Wiggins because of a left big toe injury. Heat guard Terry Rozier (not with team) was the only other Heat player unavailable on Tuesday.

The Hornets essentially had their full rotation available, missing Tosan Evbuomwan (G League), PJ Hall (G League), Liam McNeeley (G League), Antonio Reeves (G League) and Tidjane Salaun (left calf strain) on Tuesday.

“I mean, that goes without saying,” Spoelstra said when asked if the Heat missed Adebayo. “But look, you deal with the hand you’re dealt. Through three quarters, I thought it was a very competitive game. Was it going perfect for us? No. Was it going perfect for them? No. It was going back and forth, back and forth, just two teams competing and both teams knowing what was at stake. And then they had the massive response to start that fourth quarter, and we just didn’t respond the way we’re capable of and the way we need to.”

Without two starters in Adebayo and Wiggins, the Heat was forced to use a new starting lineup that had Herro and Norman Powell beginning a game together for the first time in two months.

The Heat opened Tuesday’s game with a starting unit of Davion Mitchell, Herro, Powell, Pelle Larsson and Kel’el Ware. It marked the Heat’s 24th different starting lineup of the season.

With Herro and Powell missing time due to injuries and their minutes staggered recently when they have both been available, Tuesday marked the first time that Herro and Powell have started a game together since Jan. 15. It’s also just the eighth time that Herro and Powell have started together this season, with Tuesday’s loss dropping the Heat to 3-5 in those games.

It didn’t go well.

Herro and Powell, who are the Heat’s two leading scorers this season, entered Tuesday with just 173 minutes played together this season.

Herro and Powell played 17 minutes together on Tuesday. However, the Heat was outscored by the Hornets by 15 points during that time.

While Herro totaled a team-high 20 points, Powell finished with 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field, 1-of-4 shooting on threes and 2-of-6 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and three assists in 30 minutes.

The Hornets overcame foul trouble and a big free-throw discrepancy to win Tuesday.

After the Hornets trio of Knueppel, Brandon Miller and White each entered halftime with three fouls, Miller was called for his fourth foul with 8:46 left in the third quarter and Knueppel was called for his fourth foul with 7:44 left in the third quarter.

Both Knueppel and Miller were forced to spend the rest of the third period on the bench after picking up their fourth foul.

That led to the Hornets missing two of their best players for most of the third quarter, but the Heat couldn’t take advantage. Charlotte won the third period 37-31 to remain ahead of Miami before taking full control of the contest in the fourth quarter.

The Hornets also won despite being outscored by the Heat 27-17 at the foul line. Miami took 13 more free throws than Charlotte.

The absence of Adebayo led to the Heat using a center rotation of Ware and … 6-foot-6 forward Keshad Johnson.

With Ware playing as the Heat’s starting center on Tuesday, Johnson played as the backup center.

Johnson, who has been out of the Heat’s rotation for most of the season, made his 25th appearance of the season on Tuesday. It marked only the seventh game that Johnson has logged double-digit minutes in this season.

Johnson contributed solid minutes as the fill-in back-up center, totaling 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-of-9 shooting on threes, five rebounds, one assist, three steals and one block in 20 minutes off the bench. The three three-point are a new career-high for Johnson.

Johnson, who won the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest in February, scored his first points of the night Tuesday on a one-handed reverse dunk. Johnson then made a corner three-pointer to finish the first quarter with five points.

Johnson continued to impress with eight points in the second quarter to enter halftime with a team-high 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting on threes to go with five rebounds, one steal and one block in 10 minutes.

“When he finally got his opportunity tonight, he was ready for it,” Spoelstra said of Johnson. “He contributed in a big way in that first half.”

Johnson, 24, was part of Heat bench rotation that also included Kasparas Jakucionis, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dru Smith and Simone Fontecchio on Tuesday. Miami then emptied its bench late in the lopsided loss.

Ware was quiet as the Heat’s fill-in starting center, recording seven points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting on threes, eight rebounds, one assist and one block in 28 minutes.

The other available center options on the Heat’s roster besides Ware and Johnson were fourth-year forward Nikola Jovic and undrafted two-way contract rookie center Vlad Goldin.

Jovic, 22 was available on Tuesday after missing the previous 11 games with a lower back issue. But Jovic did not play.

Goldin, 24, entered to play the final 2:21 of the blowout loss for just his fifth appearance with the Heat this season. Most of his playing time this season has come in the G League.

It only gets tougher for the Heat, with less than four weeks left in the regular season.

After losing to one of the hottest teams in the league on Tuesday, the Heat’s next five games come against teams currently with a winning record. In fact, all five of the teams entered Tuesday at least 14 games above. 500.

The Heat hosts the Lakers on Thursday, takes on the Rockets in Houston on Saturday, hosts the San Antonio Spurs on Monday and then travels to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers in back-to-back games on March 25 and 27.

This challenging late-season stretch comes with the Heat trying to avoid the play-in tournament for the first time in four years.

The Heat, which only has 13 regular-season games left to play, remains in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.

The seventh-place Heat (38-31) remains one loss behind the sixth-place Orlando Magic (38-30) and two losses behind the fifth-place Toronto Raptors (38-29).

But the Heat is now tied in the loss column with the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks (37-31).

The 10th-place Hornets (35-34) pulled within three losses of the Heat.

The NBA’s play-in tournament features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.

The Heat, which has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the NBA’s play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons, needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot and avoid the play-in tournament.

Bam Adebayo-less Heat blown out by Hornets for its most lopsided loss of the season. Takeaways

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