Takeaways from a night Jimmy Butler returned to Philly and Josh Richardson stole the show

So much has gone right for the Miami Heat to start the season. But on Saturday, so much went wrong.

The Philadelphia 76ers (11-5) dominated the Heat 113-86 at Wells Fargo Center on the second night of a back-to-back for both teams.

Philadelphia controlled the game from start to finish, with the Heat (11-4) never holding a lead. Meanwhile, the 76ers led by as many as 41 points.

The loss wrapped up a quick two-game trip for the Heat, which now returns home to face the Charlotte Hornets on Monday.

Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the 76ers ...

1. Jimmy Butler’s return to Philadelphia was met with loud boos from those in attendance at Wells Fargo Center.

From when the Heat walked onto the court for warmups to player introductions to every time he touched the ball, boos rained down on Butler.

Butler ended the night with 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting, five rebounds, three assists and two steals in 30 minutes.

“To tell you the truth, I legit even didn’t pay attention to it and didn’t even too much hear it,” Butler said of the boos. “I heard people talking to me after the game was almost over. But I really don’t pay attention to it.”

Butler spent most of last season with the 76ers after Minnesota traded him to Philadelphia in November 2018. He was eligible for a full five-year, $190 million maximum contract if he remained with the 76ers as a free agent this past offseason, but he decided to move elsewhere after Philadelphia was eliminated by the eventual NBA champion Toronto Raptors in the second round of the playoffs.

It’s still unclear whether the 76ers offered Butler the full five-year maximum deal, with ESPN’s Zach Lowe reporting earlier this week that Butler did not receive the maximum offer from Philadelphia.

Either way, Butler opted to sign a four-year, $142 million maximum contract with the Heat this past offseason. Miami ended up acquiring him in a sign-and-trade transaction, with the Heat sending Josh Richardson to the 76ers and Hassan Whiteside to the Trail Blazers as part of the deal.

76ers coach Brett Brown was asked before Saturday’s game about Butler’s departure, and Brown said: “Sometimes things just don’t work out. He’s in a good place, he’s in a really good place and we wish him well.”

2. Statistically, the Heat entered as the top shooting team in the NBA. But Miami was far from that on Saturday.

The Heat entered its game against the 76ers with the league’s top team shooting percentage (48.3) and third-best three-point shooting percentage (39.3) for the season.

But the 76ers’ length really bothered the Heat, with Miami shooting 40 percent from the field and 6 of 24 on threes in the loss.

The Heat’s offense looked out of sorts from the start, shooting 5 of 22 from the field and 1 of 8 on threes in the first quarter. The 76ers won the opening period 28-13.

“The discouraging thing was that our lack of offensive efficiency and lack of seeing the ball go through the basket then really affected our defensive effort and toughness from there,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re much better than what we showed, particularly defensively. But they had a game on us tonight. On Nov. 23rd, they were clearly better right now. But it’s a long season.”

It wasn’t just the shooting that was off for the Heat.

The excellent ball movement that has been a driving force behind the Heat’s offensive success was missing. Miami dished out a season-low 12 assists, which is way down from its season average of 26.6 assists per game.

It was just a bad night for the Heat’s offense, plain and simple. The 76ers’ length had a lot do with it, with the 6-5 Richardson the shortest player in Philadelphia’s starting lineup.

“Their defense really gave us some challenges,” Spoelstra said. “We struggled to get clean looks. You have to credit them, their length and how they really protected the paint, and forced us into some pretty rough possessions.”

3. Richardson put together one of the best performances of his NBA career in his first game against his former team.

Most of the attention entering the game surrounded Butler’s return to Philadelphia. But it also marked Richardson’s first game against the Heat since he was traded to the 76ers this past summer.

Richardson was the star of the game with a season-high 32 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field and 6-of-7 shooting on threes, while also serving as the primary defender on Butler on a lot of possessions. It’s the second-most points Richardson has scored in an NBA game, only behind last season’s 37-point performance against the Warriors as a member of the Heat.

“Look, you have to expect it when guys change teams,” Spoelstra said of Richardson. “We’ve been the beneficiary of that at times. Guys go other places, he had a lot of emotional investment in us and it was reciprocal for him. We invested so much of our time and our love and resources into him. So I’m sure he had this circled on his calendar, as well he should have. He played a great game.”

Richardson, 26, spent the first four seasons of his NBA career with the Heat after being drafted 40th overall in 2015.

4. Three of the Heat’s four losses this season have come on the second night of a back-to-back set.

The Heat hasn’t had much luck overcoming the odds on the back end of back-to-backs. Miami has played three back-to-backs so far, and all three have resulted in losses on the second night — Oct. 27 loss at Timberwolves, Nov. 8 loss at Lakers and Saturday’s loss at 76ers. All three have also come on the road.

The Heat, which has outscored opponents by 91 points this season, has been outscored by 49 points on the back end of back-to-backs. Miami has 10 remaining back-to-back sets to play.

The Heat’s only loss that didn’t come in a back-to-back situation was its Nov. 5 loss to the Nuggets in Denver. And even that loss came against a team that posted an NBA-best 34-7 home record last season and has an 11-3 overall record this season.

What does all of this say? The Heat has won the games it has been expected to win (and a few others it hasn’t been expected to win) and lost the ones it has been at a disadvantage in.

5. Heat rookie guard Kendrick Nunn struggled against the 76ers.

Nunn finished Saturday’s loss with six points on 3-of-10 shooting.

Nunn entered averaging 17.6 points per game on 48.8 percent shooting. That chunk of the Heat’s offense was missing Saturday, and it was just one of the many things that went wrong for Miami.

Matching up against 76ers center Joel Embiid, Heat center Bam Adebayo also had a relatively quiet night with 12 points, five rebounds and zero assists. Miami’s other big men Meyers Leonard and Kelly Olynyk combined for five points.