INDIANAPOLIS — Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday night’s 135-118 loss to the Indiana Pacers:

– The measure of the Miami Heat amid these Culture years has been urgency.

– Particularly on the defensive end.

– Which is why for weeks, this has not looked like the Miami Heat.

– On Friday night, there were 81 points yielded in the first half in Cleveland, on the way to allowing a franchise single-game-worst 149 points.

– It was humiliating.

– But apparently not humbling.

– Or at least not humbling enough.

– Because the Heat allowed 79 in Sunday night’s first half.

– Against a team that had lost 18 of 19 coming in.

– The lesson is one that should have been learned from the earlier losses this season to the Kings and Jazz and, yes, these cellar-dwelling Pacers.

– And then this opening act on Sunday night against an opponent that might as well be wearing Cancun on their jerseys.

– With lottery balls dropping out of their pockets as they dribbled.

– At another time, with performances like the first halves of these past two games, Udonis Haslem would have broken a water cooler or something worse in the locker room.

– Which means it might be time to inject the former Heat captain back into the mix at one of the practices over this week’s three-game homestand.

– (Yes, Haslem already has practiced several times with the Heat this season.)

– Then again, with the Pacers bad enough already to be comfortable with their position in the lottery, it no longer was must-lose for Indiana on Sunday.

– That could be the case with the tanking Wizards by the time the Heat play Washington twice over the final nine days of the season.

– In other words, potentially no more givens.

– “We fully expect everybody to be playing and approaching the game from a real competitive standpoint,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

– He added, “We don’t expect anybody to gift us anything, and we don’t have a lot of room for error,”

– With defensive errors then following on Sunday.

– So, yes, desperate times.

– “We’re in a position right now,” Spoelstra said, “where we just, we can’t overlook anybody, with two weeks to go. We have to take care of our business.”

– Going into Sunday’s game, Spoelstra also noted, “Look, the last time we were here, the door was blown off.”

– All of which was duly noted, he said, during the game-day video session.

– And then came the opening tip.

– And more defensive deterioration.

– Yes, you can spell Culture without a D.

– But as Sunday showed, it is a difficult way to try to survive.

– With Norman Powell (illness, back spasms) out, the Heat returned to a lineup of Bam Adebayo, Pelle Larsson, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Herro and Davion Mitchell.

– With Larsson called for his second foul 4:25 into the game, Jaime Jaquez Jr. then entered off the Heat bench.

– Simone Fontecchio and Kel’el Ware then followed together, with Fontecchio getting the minutes amid Powell’s absence.

– With Kasparas Jakucionis then making it nine deep for the Heat.

– Then, in need of energy, Myron Gardner was inserted in the second period.

– Wiggins’ 10th point gave him the 750th double-figure game of his career.

– The game opened the 16th of the Heat’s league-high 17 back-to-back sets this season, going into Monday night’s home game against the 76ers with an 11-4 record on the second nights of such pairings  The final back-to-back set is next week at Toronto and then Washington.