Heat routs Grizzlies for first three-game winning streak in over a month. Takeaways and details

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 136-120 win over the Memphis Grizzlies (21-34) on Saturday night at Kaseya Center to complete a back-to-back set. The Heat (31-27) now enters a two-day break before going on the road to begin a two-game trip on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks:

Don’t look now, but the Heat has now won three straight games for the first time in almost two months on a memorable night for Andrew Wiggins.

After defeating the Pelicans in New Orleans before the NBA All-Star break, the Heat returned from the break to earn a road victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday and a home win over the Grizzlies on Saturday.

This is the Heat’s first three-game winning streak since winning four straight from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1.

The Heat has done it in convincing fashion, too. All three victories during this current three-game winning streak have come by double-digits.

“Nothing else matters besides winning,” Heat guard Norman Powell said. “I think that’s the most important thing. And I think we’re really starting to buy into the collective effort and trusting one another working the game. I think that’s the biggest part.”

The Heat led the undermanned Grizzlies by as many as 10 points in the first half before entering halftime with a 73-68 lead.

The Heat then blew the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the Grizzlies 39-26 in the period to take an 18-point lead into the fourth quarter.

The Heat’s lead grew to as large as 24 points in the fourth quarter.

With the Heat nearly at full health, its depth was on display. Eight Heat players finished with double-digit points on Saturday.

Wiggins led the way with a near perfect shooting night, finishing the Heat’s win over the Grizzlies with 28 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field, 4-of-4 shooting on threes and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds, three assists and one steal. Along the way, he reached 15,000 career points in the NBA on Saturday.

Wiggins was unaware of the milestone before the Heat announced the accomplishment during Saturday’s game, saying: “I knew nothing. I thought it was a timeout. Just a regular timeout. So I was just, you know, la-di-da-di-da, just running to the bench. … I didn’t know how [many points] I had before this.”

Powell added 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting on threes, two rebounds, six assists, two steals and one block.

Then there were 14 points from Tyler Herro, 13 points from Bam Adebayo, 12 points from Kasparas Jakucionis, 12 points from Jaime Jaquez Jr., 11 points from Kel’el Ware and 10 points from Pelle Larsson.

Adebayo’s stat line looked quiet on the surface, finishing with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, six rebounds and five assists. But he posted a team-best plus/minus of plus 27, as the Heat’s offense played off all the defensive attention that the Grizzlies sent at Adebayo.

“It was one of the most mature post-up games Bam has played,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He just allowed the defense to overreact, and then he made the easy play over and over and over. That’s what the great players do.”

GG Jackson scored a team-high 28 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for the Grizzlies.

The Heat’s offense was efficient despite committing 17 turnovers on Saturday. Miami totaled 136 points on 51 percent shooting from the field and 13 of 36 (36.1 percent) shooting from three-point range.

The Heat also outscored the Grizzlies 70-54 in the paint, and has scored 70 or more paint points in two straight games. Miami is now 8-0 this season when scoring at least 70 paint points.

“When we’re a full squad and everyone is healthy, we’re very hard to deal with,” Wiggins said. “Because from the first man to the last man, everyone can go in there and do something special to change the outcome of the game.”

Even with starting guard Davion Mitchell unavailable on Saturday because of an illness, Herro again played off the bench in his second game back from injury.

After totaling a game-high 24 points in 23 minutes off the bench in his return from a rib injury to help the Heat defeat the Hawks in Atlanta on Friday, Herro again played as a reserve on Saturday.

Herro wasn’t as efficient, though, finishing Saturday’s win with 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting on threes, five rebounds and six assists in 23 minutes off the bench.

Before this two-game stretch, Herro hadn’t played in a game in over a month. He missed 15 straight games because of his rib injury prior to making his return on Friday.

This also represents just the second full back-to-back set that Herro has played in this season.

“It was encouraging that my body feels good after the game,” Herro said after playing two games in two nights. “I missed, obviously, a lot of time. And a lot of the time I was just sitting and relaxing and letting my ribs heal. So it just feels good to be out here again.”

In fact, Saturday only marked Herro’s 13th game of the season due to injury issues. He missed the first 17 games of the season due to offseason ankle surgery, 13 games because of a toe contusion and then 15 straight games because of his rib injury.

Saturday also only marked the fifth game that Herro has played off the bench since the start of the 2022-23 season.

Herro played as part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Ware, Jaquez, Dru Smith and Gardner on Saturday.

With Herro now playing two straight games off the bench, it remains to be seen how long he’ll play as a reserve this time.

“I’m coming off the bench right now, and it doesn’t really feel like out of place because we’ve got guys that can start and I’m comfortable in my role and in myself,” Herro said. “So, I’m happy where I’m at.”

Instead of Herro, the Heat started Jakucionis in Mitchell’s place against the Grizzlies.

Jakucionis made the ninth NBA start of his rookie season, beginning Saturday’s game alongside Powell, Larsson, Wiggins and Adebayo in the Heat’s starting unit.

This lineup has now started seven games this season, with the Heat 5-2 in those games after Saturday’s win.

Jakucionis, 19, again made the most of his opportunity. He finished Saturday’s victory with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds and five assists in 23 minutes.

The Heat’s trust in Jakucionis continues to grow. He has now logged double-digit minutes in 17 of the Heat’s last 18 games after playing only 53.7 seconds in the NBA through the Heat’s first 26 games of the season.

“He’s doing what we talk about all the time,” Spoelstra said of Jakucionis. “Make us watch you. Make us pay attention a little bit more. Impact the game. Make us think about playing you more. And he’s earning everything right now.”

Saturday’s game didn’t end without a scuffle between the two teams.

With 1:55 left in the fourth quarter, Grizzlies guard Scottie Pippen Jr. charged at Gardner and shoved him to the court. Their teammates immediately rushed over, and Pippen and Gardner were both ejected from the game after the altercation was broken up.

What led to Pippen going at Gardner?

On the previous possession, Gardner seemed to push Pippen down to the court from behind after Pippen put up a three-pointer.

“I thought it was kind of a cheap shot,” Pippen said. “He kind of hit me from when I didn’t see him. So I thought it was a soft move.”

Pippen got up and immediately charged at Gardner, with both players going down to the court. Pipped added after the game that he doesn’t believe he deserves a fine or suspension from the NBA.

“I don’t think any punches or anything were thrown,” he said. “I think it was, like I said, a hug. I don’t think it was too crazy. I got ejected. I think it should be left at that, but we’ll see.”

Gardner, who had his two-way contract converted to a standard deal by the Heat earlier this week, has become known for getting under opponents’ skin with his physical play. Even after Saturday’s fight, Spoelstra doesn’t want Gardner to change.

“His greatest strength is this unbridled intensity and effort and energy, and his heart is in a great place, and he’s wired like us competitively,” Spoelstra said of Gardner. “So you add that type of intensity to this competitive will that will boil over at times. I don’t want to take away from that competitiveness.

“We love Myron. I don’t know what happened on the three-point shot. I just saw Pippen fall. I haven’t seen the replay on that one. I just saw the play after that, and that looked like it was 95 percent Pippen. But let’s just see what it is. I love Myron regardless.”

The rebuilding Grizzlies didn’t offer much resistance, missing most of their regulars on Saturday.

Along with trading two-time NBA All-Star center Jaren Jackson Jr. to the Utah Jazz earlier this month, the Grizzlies were without Santi Aldama (right knee injury management), Kyle Anderson (knee soreness), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (finger surgery recovery), Brandon Clarke (calf strain), Cedric Coward (knee hyperextension), Zach Edey (ankle stress reaction) and Ja Morant (elbow UCL sprain) against the Heat.

That left Memphis with a starting lineup of Jaylen Wells, Ty Jerome, Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Taylor Hendricks and Walter Clayton Jr. against Miami.

The Grizzlies, which have now lost 11 of their last 14 games, had 11 available players on Saturday.

With the Grizzlies now in 11th place in the Western Conference and moving in the wrong direction, one could say this is an example of tanking. Memphis owns its first-round pick in this year’s draft.

But Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo made it clear before Saturday’s game that the team is still “trying to accomplish a lot.”

“The expectations have not changed,” Iisalo said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the roster we play. We still expect everybody to give max effort, max focus, play for the team and learn new things.”

Meanwhile, the Heat was without Mitchell, Nikola Jovic (low back tightness), Vlad Goldin (G League), Jahmir Young (G League) and Terry Rozier (not with team) against the Grizzlies.

It was a productive night for the Heat in its effort to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament for the first time on four years.

The Heat’s win over the Grizzlies paired with the Orlando Magic’s double-overtime loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday moved Miami past Orlando for seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.

After Saturday’s win, the seventh-place Heat (31-27) is one-half game ahead of the eighth-place Magic (29-26).

With the sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers also losing to the Pelicans on Saturday, the Heat moved closer to the sixth spot it needs to reach to avoid the play-in tourney.

The Heat is now just percentage points behind the sixth-place 76ers (30-26).

The Heat needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to qualify for the playoffs without needing to take part in the play-in tourney. Miami has 24 regular-season games left to play after Saturday’s victory.

“We want to get out of the play-in, so we’re locked into it,” Powell said. “We know what we need to do.”

The Heat has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the NBA’s play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons.

Heat routs Grizzlies for first three-game winning streak in over a month. Takeaways and details

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