Butler, Adebayo, Herro lead Heat past Spurs -- Miami’s fourth win in five games

Five takeaways from the Heat’s 116-104 win against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center:

▪ The players that comprise what Erik Spoelstra has called the Heat’s “Big Three” were very, very good. Jimmy Butler delivered his 16th career triple double (19 including the playoffs) on an exemplary night.

Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo led the way through three quarters, and Butler then broke open a one-point game with nine points and an assist early in the fourth, propelling Miami on an 18-8 run to open the final quarter.

Butler had his 12th regular-season triple double as a member of the Heat and 15th with the Heat overall. The 12 regular season triple doubles are the most in franchise history – three more than the Heat total for LeBron James, who is second on that list.

His final numbers on Wednesday: 17 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, three steals, a block and no turnovers. (He also picked up a technical foul in the fourth for complaining to an official.)

Herro added 24 points and Adebayo 20.

Butler’s fourth quarter was a work of art.

With the Heat ahead 78-77 after three, Butler began the fourth with a nifty pass to Jaime Jaquez Jr. for a layup, then hit a whirling, swirling layup of his own. Soon after, Butler hit a three, pushing the lead to eight and then slithered for another layup.

Then he knocked away a Spurs pass, ran out in transition and threw an alley-oop to Adebayo, putting the Heat up 10.

The three-pointer gave Butler at least one three-pointer in 10 consecutive games, the longest streak of his career. He entered having made 16 of his last 28 three-point attempts.

Butler closed 5 for 12 from the field and 6 for 6 from the line.

The fact that Butler was in the game to start the fourth marked a change in approach this week by Spoelstra, who tinkered with his rotations and lineups.

“We look and feel a lot different when he’s in attack mode and imposing his will on both ends of the floor,” Spoelstra said. “He was so active defensively, basically a one man zone. He was patrolling, looking for any kind of mistake an offense would make. That speeds teams up. We do have quickness. When he gets activated like that, it looks like we can be in two places at once.”

Meanwhile, Herro topped 20 points for the first time in nine games, shooting an efficient 10 for 15 from the field.

He nailed 4 of 7 threes, extending his streak of games with multiple three-pointers to 13, the second longest of his career and four short of his personal high.

This was a very good all-around game for Herro, who had seven assists (including five to Adebayo) and six rebounds.

The Herro/Adebayo pick-and-roll has been working brilliantly, and Herro said: “We got away from it a little bit and that’s not smart. We have to” keep doing it.

As for Adebayo, he defended rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama with verve on one end, and played well offensively on the other, closing 10 for 14 from the field.

Miami, which scored 38 points in the fourth quarter, extended its one-point fourth quarter lead to 19 before a 10-0 Spurs run made the final score respectable.

The Heat - seventh in the East - won for the fourth time in five games and moved to 28-24. The Spurs dropped to 10-41. Miami improved to 22-7 when scoring at least 110 points.

Butler said something interesting afterward: “We may have gotten lost a little bit trying to be individuals instead of being a group... We’re back to having fun. We understand who we are.”

▪ There was the obligatory offensive drought.

This time, it was a rancid stretch in which Miami opened the second quarter missing 13 of its first 16 shots - including its first nine three-pointers of the quarter.

That helped turn an eight-point Heat lead into a 44-38 deficit. But Herro and Adebayo helped right the ship, and Miami went to half ahead 53-51 despite shooting just 4 for 20 on threes in the first half.

But the Heat shot 8 for 18 on threes in the second half.

Duncan Robinson shot 1 for 6 on threes after shooting 1 for 5 on threes in his first two games back from concussion protocol. But Robinson hit a key three in the fourth and had a big steal during the Heat’s 18-8 run to open the fourth quarter.

After seemingly snapping out of his shooting slump against Orlando, Terry Rozier was again off on his jumper, closing 5 for 15 (2 for 7 on threes) on a 13-point night. But the Heat values what has quickness and activity have helped create.

“Tyler and Terry will build an even better connection with more games, film sessions and a few practices,” Spoelstra said. “You see the speed, quickness and skill they each have.”

▪ Adebayo and Wembanyama seemingly brought out the best in each other in a fascinating center matchup.

Each had 12 points in the first half, then opened the second half with consecutive baskets – Adebayo taking a pocket pass from Herro for a driving layup and foul from Wembanyama, and then the Spurs young prodigy nailing a three-pointer over Adebayo.

A couple minutes later, Wembanyama then hit another three, followed soon after by two more Adebayo dunks.

Wembanyama finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds – his 25th double double as a rookie. He shot 7 for 13 from the field and 3 for 5 on threes.

The 6-9 Adebayo - at a six-inch height disadvantage against the rookie phenom - sometimes fronted Wembanyama and did a good job keeping him in check.

Wembanyama missed a few makeable ones early, with Adebayo and Love providing resistance. But he shook free for a dunk during a Spurs second-quarter spurt, and that seemed to spark him for a time.

“Wemby is like crazy, how talented and big he is,” Spoelstra said. “Bam and K-Love did a very good job positionally” against him.

Adebayo, named to the All Star team, entered averaging 20.6 points and 10.3 rebounds and shooting 50.4 percent from the field.

Wembanyama, who looks on his way to being an All Star at some point, entered averaging 20.4 points and 10.3 rebounds but shooting 46.2 percent, a byproduct of poor three-point shooting (30.1 percent).

“He’s going to be great in this league,” Adebayo said.

Adebayo finished Wednesday with five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

▪ The Heat’s new starting lineup (its 27th different opening quintet this season) was fine for a second consecutive night.

On Tuesday, the starting unit of Butler, Adebayo, Herro, Rozier and Caleb Martin outscored Orlando by 14 points in 16 minutes together.

On Wednesday, they outscored the Spurs 18-16 in the first half but were outscored by three to open the third quarter.

Several reserves played well alongside Butler during that run to start the fourth quarter.

Jaquez had 10 points and three rebounds, shooting 4 for 6 from the field on his most efficient night from the field since returning from a groin injury six games ago.

▪ Life is about to get tougher.

The Heat’s next five games are against teams well above .500 – Boston on Sunday (2 p.m., ABC), at Milwaukee on Tuesday and at Philadelphia on Wednesday before the All Star break.

That’s followed by games at New Orleans and Sacramento, two more teams holding playoff seeds.

And after a game in Portland, that four game trip ends in Denver, where the Heat rarely wins.

So that’s six of the next seven against winning teams. And keep in mind that Miami is 9-16 against teams that entered Wednesday with a winning record.

As for remaining doormats on the schedule, Miami still has three games remaining against Detroit, two against Washington and two against Portland.

Incidentally, this concluded the 38th time in Heat history that Miami played home games on consecutive nights. The Heat has won both games 12 times, split the pair 17 times and lost both 9 times.

With the win, Miami moved to 10-2 in its last 12 games against the Spurs.

Asked what has turned for this team (with four wins in five games after seven losses in a row), Adebayo said: “We rallied around each other, just being positive. That’s helping us in a big way, coming to work happy, positive mindset. Everyone willing to sacrifice. That’s been helping us.”