How ‘uninspiring’ Heat defense led to its first loss of the season against a losing team

If there’s one word to describe the Heat this season, a good one would be resilient.

Already with five overtime wins this season, the never-say-die Heat rallied from a 17-point deficit to take its first lead of the game with 5:57 to play. But Miami couldn’t seal the deal Monday, with the Grizzlies (10-17) hanging on for a 118-111 win over the Heat (19-8) at FedExForum.

Memphis closed on a 14-4 run to earn the victory.

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

1. Despite the Grizzlies’ 9-17 record entering Monday’s game, this one wasn’t going to be as easy as it seemed for the Heat. Memphis came in playing its best basketball of the season with wins in three of its previous four games.

The Grizzlies made it known from the start that it wasn’t going to be an easy night for the Heat. Memphis shot 7 of 8 on threes in the opening period to end the first quarter with a 36-32 lead over Miami.

The Grizzlies’ hot shooting continued in the second quarter, finishing the first half with 73 points on 65.9 percent shooting from the field and 11 of 16 shooting on threes. It marked the fifth-highest first-half point total in Grizzlies history. For the Heat, it was tied for the ninth-most first-half points allowed in franchise history.

“This team has been playing extremely well,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Grizzlies. “After this, they’ve won four out of five. They have a lot of young talent that is growing and getting better as the season is going on. They got in such an incredible rhythm in that first half. Might have been our worst defensive half of the season. Finishing plays, basically all across the board, it was pretty uninspiring.”

The Heat turned to its zone defense for most of the second half, and it worked. The 2-3 look helped slow down Memphis’ scorching offense, with the Grizzlies scoring 45 points on 33.3 percent (15-of-45) shooting over the final two quarters. Memphis was 2 of 20 on threes over the final two quarters.

The Grizzlies, which recorded 23 first-half assists, had just five assists in the second half.

But the first-half hole the Heat dug for itself was just too much to overcome. The Grizzlies finished with 118 points on 48.8 percent shooting and 13-of-36 shooting on threes.

Grizzlies center Jonas Valanciunas finished with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting and 10 rebounds.

“It was kind of all across the board in the first half,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s defensive struggles. “It was staggering to see that they scored over 70 against us. It was in the paint, they had 54 for the game. It was second-chance, it was threes, it was basically everything. And we fouled way too much. I don’t know if I could list more things. You get the point.”

The Heat posted a defensive rating of 120.4 in Monday’s loss, which is its worst single-game defensive rating of the season. In other words, it was Miami’s worst defensive performance of the season.

“We just didn’t guard nobody, man, from the beginning of the game,” Heat wing Jimmy Butler said. “That’s the direction that we’re trending in right now. I feel like we got to take it personally. That doesn’t mean enough to us right now, to man up and take the challenge. We deserved it.”

2. The Heat dropped its first game of the season against a team with a losing record.

With Monday’s loss to the Grizzlies, the Heat fell to 10-1 against sub-.500 teams. Considering Miami was 21-15 against losing teams last season, this is still a drastic improvement.

The Heat’s loss also snapped its franchise-best five-game winning streak against the Grizzlies. It was also tied for Miami’s longest winning streak against a Western Conference opponent.

Next up for Miami is a matchup against a winning team. The Heat faces the 76ers (20-8) on Wednesday to close its three-game trip.

3. The Heat’s duo of Bam Adebayo and Butler continued its recent trend of logging big minutes.

With Goran Dragic (strained right groin), Justise Winslow (strained lower back), James Johnson (personal reasons) and Dion Waiters (team suspension) all unavailable, the Heat pretty much stuck with an eight-man rotation for the second consecutive game. The ninth player Miami used, two-way contract center Chris Silva, played only 2:48 in Memphis.

Adebayo and Butler again led the way in minutes played, with Adebayo logging 43 minutes and Butler logging 39 minutes against the Grizzlies. Over the past five games, Adebayo has averaged 40.1 minutes and Butler has averaged 41 minutes per game.

It doesn’t help that the Heat has played three overtime games during this five-game stretch.

Adebayo (14 points on 4-of-12 shooting) and Butler (25 points on 6-of-12 shooting) combined to score 39 points on 41.7 percent shooting Monday. As usual, Miami’s two leading men also left their marks on the game in other areas, combining for 17 rebounds, 13 assists, four steals and three blocks.

As a team, the Heat’s offense wasn’t bad. Miami shot 45.7 percent from the field, 11 of 24 on threes and 26 of 31 from the free-throw line. The Heat also committed a reasonable amount of turnovers at 14.

“How many points do we need to score?” Spoelstra said. “Do we have to score 130 to win? We scored 111, our turnovers were down. That’s more than enough to win on the road.”

4. The battle between two of the league’s top two rookies lived up to the hype. And Heat first-round pick Tyler Herro was pretty good, too.

Heat guard Kendrick Nunn and Grizzlies guard Ja Morant faced off for the first time since they were named Rookie of the Month for their respective conferences earlier this month.

Nunn finished with 18 points and three assists. Morant finished with 20 points and 10 assists.

“It’s fun,’ Nunn said of going up against Morant. “Every night it’s fun, going against everybody, particularly this game. Of course, the rookie matchup. It was fun. But unfortunately we couldn’t get the win.”

With No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson still out after knee surgery, Nunn and Morant are two of the top early candidates for the Rookie of the Year award. Morant entered leading all rookies in scoring (18.7 points per game) and assists (6.4 assists) this season. Nunn entered ranked third in scoring among rookies (16.1) and second in assists (3.6).

One big stat in Nunn’s favor: Nunn entered second in plus/minus among rookies at plus-73. Morant entered as a minus-52.

Herro was impressive, too. The 19-year-old finished with 22 points, five rebounds and three assists.

With Herro and Nunn leading the way, the Heat’s rookies have combined to average a league-high 33.1 points.

5. Forward Derrick Jones Jr. was one of the bright spots for the Heat in Memphis.

Jones continued his recent string of quality play with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 31 minutes off the Heat’s bench. The athletic forward also stood out on defense, with a season-high four steals while disrupting the Grizzlies offense at the top of the Heat’s zone defense.

With Dragic and Winslow unavailable, Jones has played a big role off the bench. Over the past six games, Jones has averaged 9.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.2 steals in 29.2 minutes.