Heat extends win streak to seven behind Butler’s big night. Takeaways from victory over Nets

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 122-115 win over the Brooklyn Nets (6-6) on Thursday night at Kaseya Center during its quick one-game stay at home. The Heat (8-4) now hits the road again to begin a five-game trip on Saturday against the Chicago Bulls at United Center:

After a 1-4 start to the season, the Heat is riding a seven-game regular-season winning streak for the first time in nearly six years.

The Heat started slow, beginning 1 of 11 from the field and 1 of 6 from three-point range. But the Nets couldn’t take advantage of the Heat’s slow start, as Brooklyn’s biggest lead in the first quarter was six points.

The Heat bounced back from its sluggish offensive start to close the first half with 60 points behind 8-of-20 (40 percent) shooting on threes, ending the second quarter on a 14-0 run to turn a six-point deficit into an eight-point halftime lead.

After Heat star Jimmy Butler’s 16-point first half, he then completely took over with an 18-point third quarter as Miami took the first double-digit lead of the game. The 18-point period matched Butler’s highest-scoring regular-season quarter in a Heat uniform.

Behind Butler’s excellence, the Heat led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter and entered the final period ahead 95-83.

With Butler on the bench to begin the fourth quarter, the Heat extended its lead to as many as 17 points behind eight quick points from Duncan Robinson in the first five minutes of the period.

Butler then re-entered with 5:29 left in the fourth quarter and the Heat held off the Nets despite a late push. Brooklyn cut the deficit to seven in the final minutes, but that’s the closest the Nets got.

Butler finished the win with a season-high 36 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field, 2-of-5 shooting on threes and 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line to go with five rebounds, three assists, one steal and three blocks as he relentlessly attacked mismatches in the post against the Nets’ switching defense.

“The great option for us was getting it in Jimmy’s hands and getting the proper spacing by doing it early in the clock and allowing him to create advantages,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He was able to get to the rim, get to his spots and that forced some reactions and other guys were able to play off of that.

“And then in other moments, there were some other really good ball movement possessions, fast possessions, possessions where we had them on their heels and Duncan was the recipient of a lot of those plays.”

Robinson added 26 points on on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 shooting from three-point range.

Heat center Bam Adebayo closed with 20 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block.

Mikal Bridges and Lonnie Walker IV each scored a team-high 23 points for the Nets.

The Heat, which entered with the NBA’s 23rd-ranked offensive rating, recorded a season-best offensive rating of 131.2 points scored per 100 possessions on Thursday. Miami scored 122 points on 51.9 percent shooting from the field, 15-of-25 (42.9 percent) shooting from three-point range and 23-of-24 (95.8 percent) shooting from the foul line while committing just nine turnovers against Brooklyn.

Thursday’s victory snapped the Heat’s five-game losing skid to the Nets, which dated back to the 2021-22 season.

Thursday’s victory also, of course, marked the Heat’s seventh straight win after a bad 1-4 start to the season. It marks the Heat’s first seven-game winning streak in the regular season since putting together a winning streak that ended at seven games in January 2018.

On Saturday against the Bulls in Chicago, the Heat will look for its first eight-game regular-season winning streak since January 2017.

“That’s the NBA season,” Robinson said when asked about the Heat’s current seven-game winning streak after a rough start to the season. “Games come and go and vibes can change in a locker room very quickly.”

Butler appears to now be in his usual All-NBA form after a relatively slow start to the season.

Through Butler’s first eight appearances this season, he averaged 18.5 points per game on 42.2 percent shooting from the field. That’s not great for Butler’s high standards, especially since he averaged 22.9 points per game on 53.9 percent shooting from the field last regular season.

But Butler has looked more like himself in the last two games.

After scoring a season-high 32 points in Tuesday’s road win over the Charlotte Hornets, Butler set a new season-high with 36 points on Thursday. Butler is averaging 34 points per game on 22-of-33 (66.7 percent) shooting from the field in the last two games.

“At this point, whatever it takes to win,” Butler said.

Spoelstra said he wanted Butler’s usage rate to go up with guard Tyler Herro out because of a sprained ankle and that’s exactly what has happened.

Butler’s usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) was 22.4 percent in his first eight appearances of the season. His usage rate has spiked to 34.3 percent in the last two games.

Butler attempted a season-high 14 free-throw attempts in Tuesday’s win over the Hornets and a season-high 19 field-goal attempts in Thursday’s win over the Nets.

It’s also worth noting that Butler continues to make threes at an efficient rate. He’s now shooting 11 of 23 (47.8 percent) from three-point range this season after shooting 26.6 percent on threes in his first four regular seasons with the Heat.

“These guys, they actually believe I’m a 50 percent three-point shooter,” Butler said with a grin. “Damn, I love my teammates for that. Take them whenever you’re open, which I will do. If that’s what translates to wins, then we got to take them and I got to make them.”

After missing the last 10 games with left knee tendinosis, Heat forward Caleb Martin made his return.

Martin, who last played in the Heat’s season opener on Oct. 25, entered for his first stint of the game action in three weeks with 22.2 seconds left in Thursday’s first quarter.

Martin then hit his first shot attempt a few minutes later, a corner three-pointer with 9:37 remaining in the second quarter.

Martin closed Thursday’s win with six points on 2-of-3 shooting from three-point range, one rebound and two assists in a bench role.

It wasn’t Martin’s usual workload, as he logged 12 minutes in his return. But as long as he stays healthy, expect Martin’s minutes to tick up with each game as a big part of the Heat’s bench attack.

“I thought he fit in great,” Spoelstra said of Martin’s comeback game. “I don’t think he tried to overdo those 12 minutes. We had a pretty good understanding of what it would look like. He just fits in very seamlessly.”

Martin’s play was a positive sign, considering he hardly looked like himself on either end of the court the last time he played when he was limited two points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field in 20 minutes of the bench in the season opener. He then missed the next 10 games with lingering knee pain before returning Thursday.

The only Heat players unavailable for Thursday’s game were Herro (sprained right ankle), Jamal Cain (G League assignment) and R.J. Hampton (sprained right knee).

The Nets were without Armoni Brooks (G League assignment), Noah Clowney (G League assignment), Keon Johnson (G League assignment), Ben Simmons (lower back nerve impingement), Cam Thomas (sprained left ankle), Dariq Whitehead (G League assignment) and Jalen Wilson (G League assignment) for Thursday’s game in Miami.

With Martin back in the mix and Kevin Love playing as the backup center, Thomas Bryant and Dru Smith were out of the Heat’s bench rotation.

The Heat used a bench rotation of Josh Richardson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Love and Martin on Thursday and they produced mostly positive minutes.

Richardson posted a plus/minus of plus 5, Jaquez finished as a plus 4 and Love closed as a plus 16. Martin was the only Heat reserve who didn’t finish in the green, ending the night as a minus 5.

Jaquez scored the most points and played the most minutes among Heat reserves on Thursday, continuing his impressive rookie season with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting on threes, four rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes.

And Love was again productive in his fourth game as the Heat’s backup center after beginning the season as the starting power forward. Love finished Thursday’s win with seven points, nine rebounds and four assists in 16 minutes while posting a team-best plus/minus.

“I think the transition that he’s made at this stage of his career, most former All-Stars can’t or aren’t willing to do it,” Spoelstra said of Love. “And he’s really a star in that kind of role.”

As for those left out of the bench rotation, Smith was a notable omission after appearing off the bench in the previous four games with both Herro and Martin out, and logging double-digit minutes in three of those four games.

Bryant also did not play, receiving his second DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season after opening the season as the Heat’s backup center.

Instead, Love again played as the Heat’s backup center on Thursday. Even in the Heat’s previous two games when Bryant did play, he only logged a total of eight minutes because most of the backup center minutes went to Love in those contests.

After a quick one-game stop at home for Thursday’s win over the Nets, the Heat is right back on the road again.

Fresh off its 4-0 trip, the Heat now hits the road again for a five-game trip following Thursday’s victory.

The Heat is in the middle of a 10-game stretch that includes nine road games and has the team on the road for 17 of 19 nights. And those two nights at home are now in the past.

The Heat will travel to Chicago on Friday to begin its five-game trip with back-to-back matchups against the Bulls on Saturday and Monday. Then the Heat heads to Cleveland for a game against the Cavaliers on Wednesday before wrapping up the trip in New York with games against the Knicks on Nov. 24 and Nets on Nov. 25.

“We’re ready for it,” Robinson said of getting back on the road. “I think we showed on that last road trip that we’re capable of winning. So there’s no excuses from this group. It was awesome to play here, but we’re excited to go back out on the road and hopefully stack some wins on the road.”

When it’s all done, the Heat will have played 12 road games in its first 17 games of the regular season. That’s the most road games for any team in the NBA through Nov. 25.