Miami Heat come up short against San Antonio Spurs

SAN ANTONIO – At some point, you just need more.

Because against quality, even when playing at pace, the absence of the scoring of Norman Powell and Tyler Herro becomes too much to overcome.

The long and the short of the Miami Heat’s 107-101 loss Thursday night to the San Antonio Spurs at Frost Bank Center was the Spurs had 7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama in the middle and the shorthanded Heat lacked too much on the perimeter.

Against the Charlotte Hornets, the wing deficiency could be overcome, as the Heat showed Tuesday night at Kaseya Center in winning in the absences of Powell and Herro.

But against a Spurs team now off to a franchise-record 5-0 start, the challenge was far more stout . . , and lengthy, with Wembanyama closing with 27 points and a season-high 18 rebounds.

The Heat hung tough early, when big man  Bam Adebayo scored the majority  of his 31 points, but even with 24 points from Andrew Wiggins and 18 from Simone Fontecchio, they could not overcome an uneven night from their bench.

“They just kind of controlled the game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And look, the bottom line is we were kind of uneven all night long.”

A two-day break now follows before a back-to-back set on Sunday and Monday against the Lakers and then Clippers, on a trip that  concludes Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets.

Five Degrees of Heat from Thursday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Spurs led 33-31 after a first quarter that saw the Heat commit seven turnovers, with San Antonio then taking a 59-58 advantage into the intermission.

Wayward shooting and turnovers then began to take their toll, with the Heat down 87-72 at the end of the third quarter, the Spurs fueled by a 13-0 run to end the period.

From that 15-point deficit and 14-point third quarter, the Heat staged a 17-1 run to open the fourth quarter and move ahead 89-88 with 7:25 to play, forcing a Spurs timeout.

But consecutive 3-pointers, the second by Wembanyama, staked the Spurs to a 96-91 lead with 4:57 to play, the Heat playing from behind the rest of the way.

“Regardless of how you get there, it’s about making winning plays. going down the stretch,” Spoelstra said. “And there were those couple winning plays and one or two other possessions we could have gotten stops with another rotation, another effort. And then you just grind it and you come away with a win when you’re not playing well. That’s the key takeaway.”

2. For real: Adebayo as a spacing big man?

That proved to be the case early, as he drew Wembanyama to the perimeter with a pair of early 3-point conversions.

The first of those 3-pointers extended his career-best streak of games with at least one to 17, dating to last season.

“Working on my game, trusting my shot. All my teammates believe,” Adebayo said. “They’ve been working out with me, they see that I can get hot. Just keep moving from there.”

Adebayo then went at and around Wembanyama for his next two baskets, before pausing for his third 3-pointer of the night, up to 17 points at the intermission.

Adebayo’s final points of the first half came on a driving windmill dunk against Wembanyama.

Adebayo later tied his career high with a fourth 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.

“Bam is growing his game every single year, and that’s another aspect that’s been happening now for a year and a half,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo’s 3-point shooting. “And that will help us.”

3. Fontecchio factor: Fontecchio basically had a 3-for-all going on in the first half, opening 3 for 3 on 3-pointers and 3 for 3 from the line for his first 12 points.

His points proved pivotal, with Jaime Jaquez Jr. not the bench boost he had been in the previous three games, limited to just two first-half points.

“He’s ignitable, and you have to scheme for him,” Spoelstra said. “You have to know where he is, and that helps everything we do. When he knocks down one, it’s like a snowball rolling down a hill for him.”

For all the Heat bench had accomplished through the season’s first four games, this wasn’t one of those nights in the scoring column.

4. Right at him: The Heat did not shy away from Wembanyama, throwing plenty of twists at the 7-5 big man, including even daring to switch 6-foot Davion Mitchell onto him at times.

Spoelstra said at the morning shootaround he didn’t necessarily work up Wemby Rules, with only two meetings against the Spurs a season, but ample forethought clearly went into the matchup.

“What he’s earned for sure right now is the great player rules,” Spoelstra said.

Wembanyama nonetheless closed the first half one rebound shy of a double-double, with 14 points and nine rebounds . . . and kept going from there.

“Obviously, you can see how high his release is,” Adebayo said. “But the thing is making him take uncomfortable shots, getting him out of his rhythm.”

5. Limited choice: The Heat had to go small at the close almost by default, with it not a good night for Kel’el Ware or Nikola Jovic.

Ware went scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting, at a -20 in his 21 minutes, although he did have seven rebounds.

Jovic closed 0 for 5 from the field with just one rebound in his nine minutes.

“Well, it’s not necessarily just aggression and scoring,” Spoelstra said of the two. “It’s like, ‘OK, this is this type of game. This game is a little bit less fluid. Alright, how else can we make an impact on the game?’

“For Kel’el, it might be 12 rebounds and three changed shots at the rim, playing with energy or whatever. Just whatever, just impact that unit where it’s a positive. Niko, he had a great transition layup and he missed his first layup. And then that kind of changed his energy now for the rest of the game.”