A standout defensive effort, Jovic shines and other takeaways from Heat’s road win over Lakers

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 110-96 win over the Los Angeles Lakers (17-18) at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night to snap a two-game skid and improve to 2-2 on its five-game West Coast trip. The Heat (20-14) now heads to Phoenix to close the trip against the Suns on Friday:

The Heat won this ugly game because of its ability to force turnovers. Timely hot shooting down the stretch also helped.

The Heat is one of the NBA’s best at forcing turnovers, entering with the league’s seventh-highest opponent turnover rate (percentage of opponent possessions that end in a turnover) at 14.6 percent this season.

That strength led the Heat to Wednesday’s win, as the Lakers turned in a sloppy performance that included 22 turnovers.

A large chunk of them came in the first quarter, when the Lakers committed 10 turnovers. Los Angeles had more turnovers than made shots (6) in the opening period.

The Lakers’ turnover problems continued throughout most of the game, committing five turnovers in the second quarter, five turnovers in the third quarter and two turnovers in the fourth quarter.

The Heat finished with a season-high 14 steals, as Kyle Lowry came away with a team-high four steals. And Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo each finished with three steals.

Throw in the fact that the Lakers started 3 of 26 (11.5 percent) from three-point range and it was a real struggle for Los Angeles.

“We’re just at our best when we’re active,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about the defensive display. “Not being flagrant with it or irresponsible with it, but the activity level was there. Obviously, you’re playing a game against the Lakers. It’s on ESPN, so the multiple efforts were there, making them miss moments. The deflections, I thought Kyle at the beginning of the game really kind of set the tone with his activity level and then everybody else joined the party there. That’s definitely been one of the more important things to our defense is when we’re active.”

But the Heat still had trouble pulling away from the Lakers because of its own inefficient offensive performance, totaling 72 points on 39.1 percent shooting from the field, 10-of-31 (32.3 percent) shooting on threes and 8-of-13 (61.5 percent) shooting from the foul line through the first three quarters.

That had the Heat only ahead by five points entering the fourth period despite the Lakers’ 20 turnovers and 3-of-23 shooting from three-point range in the first three quarters.

That’s when the Heat finally got hot to cruise to the double-digit win.

Led by 11 fourth-quarter points from Duncan Robinson on 3-of-6 shooting from deep, the Heat totaled 38 points on 14-of-24 (58.3 percent) shooting from the field and 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) shooting on threes in the fourth quarter to pull away and pull ahead by as many as 16 points down the stretch.

“We definitely made some plays in that fourth quarter,” Spoelstra said.

Robinson scored 11 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter. He was 0 of 6 on threes before hitting three threes in the fourth quarter.

“We were joking with him in the locker room that somebody forgot to tell him that the game started at 7 p.m. and he showed up at halftime,” Spoelstra said with a smile when asked about Robinson’s clutch performance.

Behind the Heat’s barrage of late threes, Miami outscored Los Angeles 48-12 from behind the three-point line on Wednesday. The Lakers shot just 4 of 30 (13.3 percent) from behind the arc in the loss.

And while limiting its own turnovers to 10, the Heat also outscored the Lakers 22-6 in points off turnovers on Wednesday.

Those two big advantages were enough for the Heat to come away with the road win.

The Lakers became the first team this season to shoot worse than 15 percent from three-point range and have more than 20 turnovers in the same game. Only one team accomplished that unfortunate feat last season and that was the Brooklyn Nets in a Jan. 17, 2023 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

The end result for the Heat on Wednesday was its season-best single-game defensive rating of the season at 93.2 points allowed per 100 possessions.

Miami leaned heavily on its zone defense for the second straight game and it worked on Wednesday. The Heat allowed just 0.79 points per possession on 47 zone possessions against the Lakers.

“Just being more active, being more disruptive in the passing lanes, rebounding the ball and really just making it tough on their guys in getting to their spots and stuff like that,” Herro said. “Definitely more disruptive than two days ago against the Clippers.”

The Heat used an eight-man rotation on Wednesday and all eight players finished with double-digit points led by a team-high 21 points from Herro.

Adebayo added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Kevin Love totaled 10 points and a season-high 14 rebounds.

“We’re at our best when everybody is a live option and we’re accessing all the different parts of our menu and our offense to keep other teams off balance,” Spoelstra said. “That was definitely the case tonight.”

Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 29 points, 17 rebounds, six assists, three steals and five blocks.

But it was an off night for Lakers star LeBron James, who closed with 12 points on 6-of-18 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting from three-point range. James did still contribute six rebounds and nine assists, though.

Second-year forward Nikola Jovic was one of the brights spots for the Heat.

As the Heat continues to deal with injury issues, Jovic made his third start of the season and produced positive minutes.

Jovic finished two rebounds short of recording the first double-double of his NBA career, closing with season-highs in points (15), made field goals (6), made threes (3) and minutes (28) to go with eight rebounds. The Heat outscored the Lakers by three points when Jovic was on the court.

One of Jovic’s most impressive moments of the night came early in the first quarter, when he grabbed a defensive rebound and pushed it down the court for a transition layup over a few Lakers defenders for a coast-to-coast sequence.

Jovic has spent most of the season out of the Heat’s rotation, as Wednesday marked only his eighth appearance of of his second NBA season. And as the Heat moves closer to full health, Jovic could again be pushed out of the rotation.

But Wednesday’s performance was a sign of growth for the 20-year-old Jovic, who the Heat drafted with the 27th overall pick out of Serbia last year.

“Niko has been making progress and I’ve said that before,” Spoelstra said. “You can’t judge it on whether he’s been playing in every game.”

Josh Richardson returned from injury, but the Heat remained without three rotation regulars.

The Heat again played without Jimmy Butler (right foot irritation), Haywood Highsmith (concussion protocol), Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain) and Dru Smith (right knee surgery). Butler is a fixture in the Heat’s starting lineup, and Highsmith and Martin have been consistent members of the rotation when healthy.

Wednesday marked the second straight game that Butler and Highsmith have sat out, and the fourth straight game that Martin has missed.

But Richardson was available against the Lakers after missing the previous four games with a back issue. He closed Wednesday’s win with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes in 20 minutes off the bench, including eight impactful minutes in the fourth quarter.

Richardson called the recovery from his back injury “frustrating” and called it an ongoing “day-to-day process.”

“I felt good tonight,” Richardson said. “The question is how I’m going to feel in the morning.”

With the Heat still missing a chunk of its rotation, the Heat went with a starting lineup it had previously used only once before this season.

The Heat opened Wednesday’s game with a lineup of Lowry, Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Jovic and Adebayo. It marked the second game this season that the Heat has used this starting group, with the previous time coming in an Oct. 28 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first week of the schedule.

Lowry, Herro and Adebayo are regulars in the Heat’s starting lineup, but Jaquez and Jovic were plugged in because of the team’s injury issues.

Jaquez made his 10th start and, as previously noted, Jovic made his third start of the season.

While this wasn’t a new starting lineup for the Heat, it’s worth nothing that injuries have led Miami to use a league-leading 19 different starting lineups this season and one against the Lakers on Wednesday that had only started one game together before.

The Lakers were without Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell and Gabe Vincent because of injuries.

Jaquez’s second game back home felt a little bit different than the first one.

Jaquez, who grew up in nearby Camarillo, Calif. and played college basketball at UCLA, again received a loud applause from the Los Angeles crowd when he was introduced as a starter on Wednesday just like he did before Monday’s game against the Clippers at Crypto.com Arena.

But Wednesday’s game carried some extra meaning for Jaquez, who grew up a Lakers fan and idolizing Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

Making it especially memorable for the Heat rookie, Jaquez opened the game as James’ primary defender all while closing the win with 16 points, eight rebounds, one steal and one block.

Jaquez even hit a spinning turnaround jumper over James in the fourth quarter.

“I’m going to have that video and I’m going to show that to my kids, when I have kids,” Jaquez said of that shot over James.

Jaquez’s trip back home to Los Angeles included time at UCLA, games in front of family and friends and a win over the Lakers.

Jaquez, 22, was even gifted the UCLA Wooden alumni jacket by his college coach Mick Cronin during the Heat’s four-day stay in Los Angeles. He wore the jacket to Wednesday’s game.

“It’s been a great homecoming,” Jaquez said. “I think I’ve gotten a lot of love from the fans at all the games. I’ve gotten to see my family and friends. It’s been pretty special.”