Grizzlies sit starters and still roll 101-93, as Heat fail to reach .500

The takeaway from these first two months of the Miami Heat’s season has been the lament of being less than whole.

The lesson Monday night from the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum is that doesn’t always matter.

Sitting leading men Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane, among others, on the second night of a back-to-back set, the Grizzlies foiled the Heat’s bid to return to South Florida at .500.

Instead, despite being mostly whole, the Heat were unable to follow up on their dramatic Friday night overtime victory over the Boston Celtics, falling 101-93.

“It was a disappointing loss, for sure,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Pounded in the paint, the Heat ended their trip at 2-2, with their record falling to 11-13.

“I would say this is probably the first game of the year where it just looked like we were flat, in mud, for a large portion of the game,” Spoelstra said.

The Grizzlies, who had only one regular starter in the lineup, center Steven Adams, who had sat out Memphis’ Sunday road victory over the Detroit Pistons, rode the season-high 28 points of fill-in guard Tyus Jones.

“They did what they were supposed to do,” Heat forward Jimmy Butler said, “had a couple men down and came out and competed extremely hard and played extremely well.”

Tyler Herro led the Heat with 23 points and 13 rebounds. But otherwise there hardly was dominance from the rest of the team’s leading men, with Butler closing with 18 points, Bam Adebayo 15 and Kyle Lowry 10.

The game opened a back-to-back set for the Heat that concludes Tuesday night at FTX Arena against the Pistons.

“You have an opportunity to be .500 and go home and try to get over .500,” Adebayo said of the Pistons game, had there been a victory in Memphis. “Now we’re still digging out this hole.”

Five Degrees of Heat from Monday’s game:

1. Closing time: The Heat went up 11 early, took a 32-27 lead into the second period, but then trailed 58-51 at halftime.

The Heat then went into the fourth quarter down 82-77, with the Grizzlies then moving to their first double-digit lead, at 89-79, less than two minutes into the final period.

The double-digit edge continued for the next several minutes, with the Grizzlies going up 97-86 with 3:06 remaining.

“Even when we were able to get some footing, we just weren’t able to take control of the game,” Spoelstra said. “You do have to credit them. They play with an aggressiveness and an edge, got us on our heels on so many of those defensive possessions.”

2. Paint power: Although the Heat held their own on the offensive boards, with a 9-4 edge in that aspect, they were outscored 64-24 in the paint.

It wasn’t as much the big-muscle game of the Grizzlies, but rather Memphis getting to the rim in transition and off the drive.

The Grizzlies’ bench, even with Memphis’ depleted roster, was part of that attack mode, outscoring the Heat bench 24-11.

“That’s about as simply put as you can state it,” Spoelstra said of the Grizzlies winning the game in the paint. “They dominated us in the paint. We typically do that well. We were not able to contain dribble penetration, cuts, offensive rebounding, pick-and-rolls to the paint. I mean, that just looks like a misprint, 64 points in the paint allowed. And it felt like they could have had quite a few more.

“And even on the other side, we’ve really been assertive and aggressive offensively, putting pressure on teams, getting into the paint, breaking the defense down, making those extra efforts to get those attacks. We just weren’t able to do it on either side of the floor.”

3. Herro ball: Unlike Friday night’s victory in Boston, when the Heat got balance among their scoring leaders, this often was Herro or bust.

Herro not only was in attack mode, but also was aggressive on the boards, with 12 in the first three quarters.

He closed 8 of 20 from the field, but just 3 of 11 on 3-pointers.

He also exited disappointed.

“I didn’t think we were aggressive enough, I didn’t think we put enough pressure on them,” Herro said.

“Obviously, the last game on a long road trip is never easy. Everyone wants to get home, especially on a back-to-back. But that’s no excuse. As professionals, we got to come in here and do our job no matter what.”

4. Sizzling start: Caleb Martin made his first four 3-point attempts, as part of the Heat’s 6-of-7 start on 3-pointers.

Martin scored 12 points in his initial nine-minute stint. He entered averaging 11.2 points per game. Martin was up to 14 by halftime, closing with 16.

But after that 6 of 7 open behind the arc, the Heat went 8 of 33 on 3-pointers the rest of the way.

“For the most part, our 40 3-point attempts, I would say a lot of those were open, they were right plays,” Spoelstra said, “but we have to establish our attacking game.

“One way or another, it’s attack first, paint pressure first, rim pressure. We were not making the necessary efforts and spacing and doing things with a burst, with an energy to get them on their heels, certainly not the way we were the previous games on this road trip. And that proved to be pretty costly.”

5. One man down: The NBA announced an hour before tip-off that referee Marat Kogut would not be available due to a non-Covid illness. That left Scott Foster and JB DeRosa as a two-man officiating crew.

The Heat lost their lone previous game that Kogut had officiated (a home game against the Boston Celtics). The Heat entered 0-2 in games officiated by Foster and lost the lone previous game they had officiated by DeRosa (a road loss to the Indiana Pacers).

The NBA moved from two-man to three-man officiating crews when the Heat entered the NBA in 1988-89. Only during the playoffs is an alternate official on site for games.