Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) shoots three point basket against Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell (2) during the first half at Crypto.com Arena.
Gary A. Vasquez
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
LOS ANGELES
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 138-117 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers (6-2) on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena to begin a five-game West Coast trip. The Heat (2-5) continues the trip on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome:
The Heat’s defense was expected to be among the NBA’s best after adding former NBA Defensive Player of the Year Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason. Instead, the Heat’s defense has been one of the league’s worse through the first two weeks of the season.
The Heat entered with the NBA’s 26th-ranked defensive rating this season, and it got worse on Monday.
The Lakers shredded the Heat’s defense for 138 points on 57% shooting from the field and 19-of-43 (44%) shooting from three-point range. It’s tied for the 12th-most points that the Heat has allowed in any game in franchise history.
“It’s not good enough,” a frustrated Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the team’s defense following Monday’s loss. “Our locker room knows it’s not good enough. We need to be just a whole lot more consistent defensively, regardless of whatever the scheme may be.”
Lakers star Luka Doncic, who entered averaging an NBA-high 37.7 points per game this season, continued his hot start to the season. Doncic was sensational, finishing with 42 points on 14-of-24 shooting from the field, 6-of-15 shooting on threes, 8-of-10 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds and 13 assists.
The Lakers scored 79 points in the first half, which is tied for the fourth-most points that the Heat has allowed in any half in franchise history.
But the Heat still managed to hang around behind hot shooting of its own, totaling 72 points on 59.5% shooting from the field and 11-of-21 (52.4%) shooting from three-point range in the first two quarters to enter halftime just in a seven-point hole.
The problem is the Heat’s defensive issues spilled into the second half, as the Lakers began the third quarter on a 11-0 run to push their lead up to 18 points just 1:42 into the period.
The Lakers’ lead grew to 21 points later in the third quarter, and they never looked back. Los Angeles led by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter.
“We had no chance, even when it was a seven-point game in the first half, going into the locker room,” Spoelstra said. “You score 72, you’re not expecting to be down.”
Even in a lopsided loss, Antetokounmpo turned in an impressive stat line of 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and 10-of-15 shooting from the foul line, 12 rebounds and seven assists in 34 minutes.
Antetokounmpo’s Heat co-star Bam Adebayo scored just four points in Monday’s half before going on to finish with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 shooting on threes, nine rebounds and four assists.
But the Lakers’ leading duo of Doncic and Austin Reaves was better.
With Reaves closing with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range, two rebounds and five assists, Doncic and Reaves combined for 69 points on 24-of-39 (61.5%) shooting from the field and 10-of-20 (50%) shooting on threes.
“We’re not playing hard enough,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’ve got to play harder. We’ve got to have some pride. We’ve got to have some pride. Individual pride, first of all. And then we’ve got to keep one another accountable and trust one another defensively. Right now we don’t trust one another. We’re not giving that extra effort.”
Adebayo added: “We got to figure this out. Nobody is going to come save this ship. We got to dig ourselves out of this hole. And obviously, when we get tired of touching that hot stove enough, we’re going to figure it out. We’ve shown flashes of how we can be a great defense.”
Three-point defense remains an issue for the Heat’s defense. Miami has allowed opponents to shoot 41% from three-point range this season, which is the second-highest opponent three-point percentage in the league.
This is not a place the Heat is used to being, as it has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in nine of the last 11 regular seasons.
“I need to do a better job of getting this group to defend to our potential,” Spoelstra said. “We’re all accountable to this, everybody in that locker room, the players and the staff alike, we have to figure it out and we’re fully capable of doing it.”
It was another rough night for the Heat’s starting lineup.
The Heat has now gone with the starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Antetokounmpo and Adebayo in each of the first seven games this season.
This group has been bad to start the season, as this lineup was outscored by an eye-opening 30.1 points in 53 minutes together over the first five games.
The Heat’s starters showed some encouraging signs in Friday’s home win over the injury-depleted Indiana Pacers, posting a plus/minus of plus 20 in 13 minutes together.
But the Heat’s starting unit again struggled on Monday. Miami’s starters were outscored by eight points in 12 minutes together against the Lakers.
The worst stretch of the night came when the Heat’s starters were outscored by 14-2 during the first 4:09 of the third quarter. That allowed the Lakers to turn a seven-point halftime lead into a 19-pont advantage just a few minutes into the second half.
Along with Adebayo and Antetokounmpo, Thompson and Mitchell were the other two Heat starters that finished with double-digit points.
Thompson closed with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting on threes.
Mitchell ended the night with 15 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting on threes and seven assists.
Wiggins was quiet with seven points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting from behind the arc.
The Heat’s starting group has now been outscored by 13.3 points per 100 possessions in 77 minutes together this season. Among the 12 lineups around the NBA that has played at 60 minutes together this season, Miami’s starting unit has the fifth-worst net rating.
“The starting group, it’s almost like we’re going through the motions,” Antetokounmpo, said. “We can be better.”
Heat rookie Ryan Conwell was the first guard used off the bench on Monday after beginning the season out of the rotation. But Conwell wasn’t in the rotation to begin the second half.
With Mitchell running into early foul trouble after picking up his second foul with 5:43 left in the first quarter, Conwell entered for Mitchell at that point.
It’s the earliest that Conwell has entered a game this regular season, as he did not play in the first half of the Heat’s first six games prior to entering Monday night’s contest midway through the first quarter.
Conwell, who logged just 17 minutes of playing time over the first six games of the season, made his first two shots of Monday’s game. He hit a corner three in front of the Heat’s bench off an assist from Thompson just a few minutes after entering for his first stint and then made a 7-foot fadeaway jumper early in the second quarter.
Conwell finished Monday’s loss with five points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, one rebound and one assist in eight minutes.
Conwell, who the Heat traded up to acquire with the 37th overall selection in the second round of this year’s draft, was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Bobby Portis Jr., Pelle Larsson and Tim Hardaway Jr., Nikola Jovic and Dru Smith.
Most notably, Conwell played ahead of Smith in the first half.
Smith played double-digit minutes off the Heat’s bench in two of three games before Monday’s contest, but didn’t enter Monday’s game for his first stint until there was 3:25 left in the third quarter..
However, Smith was playing ahead of Conwell after halftime. Smith ended up logging 11 minutes in the second half, and Conwell didn’t enter for his first action of the second half until there was 1:22 left in the fourth quarter of the blowout.
“The second half, we went to the zone and Dru is one of our best guys in the zone,” Spoelstra said of turning to Smith instead of Conwell in Monday’s second half. “But I thought Ryan gave us some good things in the first half.”
Mitchell wasn’t the only Heat player who ran into early foul trouble against the Lakers’ high-powered offense, as the officials became a big part of Monday’s first half.
Along with Mitchell, Thompson and Portis also were called for two fouls in the first quarter. As a result, the Lakers closed the opening period with 13 free-throw attempts.
In addition to the Heat’s early foul trouble, it was left without challenges after using its second and final challenge with 6:34 left in the second quarter. The Heat won both challenges, but teams don’t get more than two challenges per game.
Also, Adebayo was called for a technical foul for arguing with the officials and Doncic was called for a technical foul for clapping at an official in the second quarter.
In the second half, Thompson was whistled for his fourth foul with 9:07 left in third quarter.
The good news for the Heat is the West Coast trip should get easier from here.
The final four games of the trip come against the Clippers on Wednesday, Golden State Warriors on Thursday, Sacramento Kings on Sunday, and Utah Jazz on Tuesday, Nov. 10.
The Lakers and the Warriors (5-3) are the only two opponents currently with a winning record this season.
In fact, the Clippers (1-6), Kings (1-6) and Jazz (1-6) entered Monday with an ugly combined record of 3-18 this season.
This story was originally published November 3, 2026 at 12:34 AM.
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Miami Herald
Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.