MIAMI \u2013 This was an afternoon decidedly different for the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n
A game after allowing 147 points in Wednesday night\u2019s humbling loss to the Boston Celtics, the Heat this time practically were the can\u2019t-miss proposition in Saturday\u2019s 152-136 victory over the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center, finishing one point shy of the franchise scoring record.<\/p>\n
And in another decided contrast, after scoring 83 points in the teams\u2019 previous meeting, Heat center Bam Adebayo this time scored a mundane 14, on a day when he left the scoring to his teammates and took the fourth quarter off.<\/p>\n
No matter, not with the Wizards relishing another defeat that improved their lottery odds, and not on an afternoon when Adebayo\u2019s teammates found the scoring nearly as easy as their team captain did in the previous meeting.<\/p>\n
In the grand scheme, the Heat entered and exited No. 10 in the East, still with a perilous path ahead in their bid to extend their playoff streak to a franchise-record seven consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n
But it at least was a feel-good moment for almost the entire available roster, on an afternoon Tyler Herro and Norman Powell were not available.<\/p>\n
Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the Heat with 32 points, supported by 21 from Andrew Wiggins, and a 24-point, 19-rebound double-double by backup center Kel\u2019el Ware, who added a career-best eight blocked shots.<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
1. Game flow: The Heat led 36-32 after the first quarter and 77-57 at halftime, utilizing a 17-4 second-period surge to break it open.<\/p>\n
The Heat were up to five players scoring in double figures by the intermission.<\/p>\n
From there, the Heat blew it further open, taking a 122-91 lead into the fourth quarter, with the starters getting the balance of the day off.<\/p>\n
While the Wizards trimmed what had been a 35-point deficit as the Heat emptied their bench, the only late concern was a hard tumble by Nikola Jovic on a late scoring attempt..<\/p>\n
2. Different game: No sooner did Adebayo touch the ball on the game\u2019s first possession then the Wizards threw a triple-team at him, forcing a pass. On the Heat\u2019s next possession, while playing in transition, Adebayo converted a 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
Still, this time five points in the first period, compared to the 31 he scored in the first quarter of teams\u2019 previous meeting on the way to his 83. Adebayo had 11 at halftime Saturday, after closing the first half with 43 on March 10 against the Wizards.<\/p>\n
He closed 3 of 6 from the field, 6 of 7 from the line. In his 83-point performance, he finished 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the line.<\/p>\n
Limited to 24 minutes, Adebayo saw his streak of six consecutive double-doubles come to an end.<\/p>\n
3. Still short: Not only did Powell miss his fourth consecutive game as he works back from an upper-respiratory illness, but shortly before tip-off Herro was ruled out for personal reasons.<\/p>\n
That had Simone Fontecchio injected into the starting lineup for the eighth time this season, starting alongside Adebayo, Wiggins, Pelle Larsson and Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n
It was the 15th game that Herro and Powell both missed this season.<\/p>\n
With Powell and Herro out, the Heat remain at only eight games this season with their entire eligible standard roster available.<\/p>\n
4. Road trip: Jaquez found himself with a quick postgame turnaround, leaving immediately afterward for a flight to Phoenix for the championship game of the NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Jaquez\u2019s sister, UCLA guard Gabriela Jaquez, has helped lead the Bruins\u2019 to Sunday\u2019s matchup against South Carolina.<\/p>\n
The timing worked out for the former UCLA\u00a0 forward, with the Heat off on Sunday before returning to practice Monday in Miami.<\/p>\n
The Heat forward played in the 2021 Final Four while a UCLA sophomore.<\/p>\n
5. Home run: Saturday was the penultimate home game of the regular season with the Heat, to take a 25-15 home record into their April 12 season finale against the Atlanta Hawks record at Kaseya Center<\/p>\n
The Heat last season went 19-22 at home, with a 22-19 home record two seasons ago.<\/p>\n
The Heat next complete their road schedule, with Tuesday night and Thursday night games against the Toronto Raptors and then their road finale on Friday night at Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2013 This was an afternoon decidedly different for the Miami Heat. A game after allowing 147 points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,165,189,6,66,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-698467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-washington","14":"tag-washington-wizards","15":"tag-washingtonwizards","16":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116348564644619210","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}