Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) dribbles around San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) during the first half of the game on Monday, March 23, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla.
Alie Skowronski
askowronski@miamiherald.com
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 136-111 blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs (54-18) on Monday night at Kaseya Center. The Heat (38-34) now heads back on the road to begin a three-game trip with back-to-back matchups against the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Wednesday and Friday:
The Heat lost its fifth straight game to match its longest skid of the season, as its struggles against quality teams continue.
The Spurs entered with the NBA’s second-best record and the Heat entered with the NBA’s 16th-best record, and Monday’s game confirmed the large gap between the two teams.
The Heat, which is now 16-26 this season against teams that entered Monday with a winning record, trailed essentially from start to finish. Miami’s only lead of the night came at 3-2 just 30 seconds into the game.
From there, the Spurs took over and never looked back.
San Antonio closed the first quarter with a 38-31 advantage before extending is lead up to 20 points in the second quarter and entering halftime with an 18-point lead.
The Spurs didn’t let up, extending its lead to 30 in the third quarter on the way to a 25-point win.
The Spurs dominated nearly every area of the game, outscoring the Heat 60-40 in the paint, 25-19 at the foul line and 25-4 in second-chance points.
“We’re being tested right now,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re not the only team being tested. It feels uncomfortable, there’s no doubt about it. We definitely basically in every facet of the game were outplayed tonight.”
Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama controlled the game on both ends, finishing with 26 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and five blocks in 26 minutes.
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) shots over San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) during the first half of the game on Monday, March 23, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
Heat star center Bam Adebayo was limited to 18 points on inefficient 5-of-17 shooting from the field and 2-of-10 shooting on threes in 29 minutes.
Heat guard Tyler Herro added 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes, five rebounds and two assists in 26 minutes.
“When the going gets tough, we let go of the rope,” Heat guard Norman Powell said. “I think that’s what happens when we have losses like this. We get hit, get some adversity, miss some shots, and then just everybody starts worrying about what happened on offense and teams take advantage of it and keep punishing us. But yeah, when we get hit, we continue to fold.”
While the Heat has had a top-five defense for most of the season, it has struggled on that end of the court during this five-game skid. Miami has allowed more than 120 points in five consecutive games for the first time in franchise history.
“That’s the most disappointing thing right now,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s recent defensive issues. “We’ve fought hard to have a top-five defense all season long, and these are the moments of truth right now where it needs to be there. We have to be able to count on that.”
The Heat’s frustration boiled over a few times on Monday. Spoelstra was called for his first technical foul of the season for arguing a non-call on a Powell drive to the basket in the second quarter, and there was a quick exchange of heated words between Spoelstra and Adebayo when Spoelstra subbed out Adebayo in the second quarter.
“I love that about Bam. He and I were barking at each other,” Spoelstra said. “That’s why I love him. I think he loves me. But even if he doesn’t, I have to do what’s best for the team. I don’t want to just play him 24 straight minutes every half.”
Of Spoelstra managing his minutes, Adebayo said following Monday’s loss: “I don’t want to be in the play-in. So some of that is, yeah, he’s got to protect me from myself. But also i don’t want to be in the f—— play-in. So every game, I’m going to try to go out there and do the best I can to carry this team and force our way out of that.”
The only other time that the Heat dropped five straight games this season came in December. Miami has yet to lose six straight games this season.
“We’re going to have to figure it out, because it’s not going to get easier,” Adebayo said. “We’re going to have to really dig deep and figure out how to get this road trip. We’ve only got ten games left.”
Monday’s contest was one of the few games this season that the Heat has been fully healthy for, but it still ended in a blowout loss to one of the NBA’s top teams.
In fact, Monday marked just the sixth game this season that the Heat’s entire standard roster has been available for (not including Terry Rozier, who has been away from the team since his arrest in October).
Powell returned to play Monday after missing one game because of a calf injury. Powell, who played off the bench for the third time in the last four games he has been available for after starting in his first 49 appearances of the season, recorded a team-high 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the field and 4-of-11 shooting on threes in 30 minutes.
The Heat also got back Heat Jaime Jaquez Jr. (left hip tightness) and Andrew Wiggins (left big toe sesamoiditis) from injury on Monday. Jaquez missed the previous two games and Wiggins missed the previous eight games.
Jaquez totaled eight points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, two rebounds and six assists in 19 minutes.
Wiggins contributed nine points, three rebounds, one assist, two steals and one block in 20 minutes.
Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins (22) dribbles against San Antonio Spurs forward Julian Champagnie (30) during the first half of the game on Monday, March 23, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
The only Heat players out on Monday were the two-way contract trio of Vlad Goldin (G League), Trevor Keels (G League) and Jahmir Young (G League). Rozier also remained away from the team.
The Heat fell to 3-3 in games it has been fully healthy for this season.
The Spurs were also fully healthy for Monday’s contest. San Antonio was only without its three two-way contract players against the Heat.
A fully healthy roster led to some challenging lineup and rotation decisions for Spoelstra.
Spoelstra ended up going with a starting unit of Davion Mitchell, Herro, Pelle Larsson, Wiggins and Adebayo. It marked the sixth game this season that the Heat has opened with this lineup.
In limited minutes, this lineup has been a positive this season. The Heat entered Monday ouscoring opponents by 9.4 points per 100 possessions in the 41 minutes this group played together this season.
But the Mitchell-Herro-Larsson-Wiggins-Adebayo combination was not good together on Monday. The Spurs outscored the Heat by 14 points in the 12 minutes this group played together.
The Heat then used a bench rotation of Kel’el Ware, Jaquez, Powell, Kasparas Jakucionis and Myron Gardner against the Spurs.
The four available players who were not in the Heat’s rotation on Monday were Dru Smith, Simone Fontecchio, Nikola Jovic and Keshad Johnson. Fontecchio and Johnson entered the game in the fourth quarter when the Spurs were already well in control.
Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell (45) dribbles around San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox (4) during the first half of the game on Monday, March 23, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
Two negative trends continued for the Heat.
While Herro and Powell again began the game in separate units, they did play some minutes together on Monday. But those minutes again weren’t positive.
Entering Monday, the Heat had been outscored by 3.1 points per 100 possessions in the 207 minutes that Herro and Powell played together this season.
But since the All-Star break, the results have been even worse. Entering Monday, Miami had been outscored by 16.1 points per 100 posessions in the 64 minutes that Herro and Powell played together since the All-Star break.
That trend continued on Monday, with the Spurs outscoring the Heat by four points in the 12 minutes that Herro and Powell played together.
Ware also continued to struggle to produce positive minutes, as the Heat entered Monday having been outscored by 1.1 points per 100 possessions with him on the court this season.
The Heat again lost those minutes on Monday. San Antonio outscored Miami by five points in the 10 minutes that Ware played through the first three quarters before garbage time began in the fourth quarter of the lopsided contest.
Ware finished the loss with seven points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and two blocks in 22 minutes.
Miami Heat center Kel’el Ware (7) boxes out San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) during the second half of the game on Monday, March 23, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
Instead of moving closer to avoiding the play-in tournament, the Heat is moving closer to the bottom of the play-in.
With just 10 regular-season games left to play, the Heat (38-34) remains in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings. But Miami is now just one-half game ahead of the No. 10 Charlotte Hornets (37-34).
The Orlando Magic lost to the Indiana Pacers on Monday, which kept the No. 9 Heat one loss behind the No. 8 Magic (38-33). But Miami is really two losses behind Orlando because the Magic hold the head-to-head tiebreaker after sweeping the regular-season series 5-0.
The No. 9 Heat is also one loss behind the No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers (39-33) and two losses behind the No. 6 Atlanta Hawks (40-32).
“We’re still bunched up with all these teams in the East,” Spoelstra said. “Whoever can just show that collective grit right now has that opportunity, that golden opportunity. And the only way to develop that grit is you got to go through it, and we’re going through it right now.”
The NBA’s play-in tournament features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
The Heat, which has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the NBA’s play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons, needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot and avoid the play-in tournament.
“We’ve got ten games left,” Adebayo said. “We either do or we don’t, and you know how that can go. We’re just burying ourselves in a hole if we don’t figure it out sooner or later.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2026 at 9:37 PM.
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.