ATLANTA — A microcosm of the season, as in the Miami Heat don’t have a shot?
It certainly felt that way in Monday night’s 98-86 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena, when a made shot practically was reason for celebration and a converted 3-pointer practically an abstract.
In falling to 1-6 since trading forward Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors, the Heat this time did not have All-Star guard Tyler Herro carrying the load and therefore found themselves unable to shoulder the load for a second consecutive night.
“Look, what you need right now, you need an incredible amount of stubbornness. You got to be stubborn,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“You absolutely got to be stubborn and persistent in what we’re trying to do. We’re not getting the result we want. But there’s things that are trending in a better direction. You got to quiet all the noise and just not listen to anything, not read anything. But that’s just the deal right now. We’re closer than what it feels like.”
With Herro limited to 11 points a night after scoring 40 in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat got 23 from Andrew Wiggins and little else of substance on offense.
And while rookie center Kel’el Ware was there to clean up some of the misses with his 15 rebounds, there proved to be too much that needed sanitizing, with the Heat closing at .321 from the field and 7 of 40 on 3-pointers.
“It just looked like we had a lid on the rim,” Spoelstra said. “We could not knock down some of the open ones, even the guys that are our better shooters on the team. But you just have to stay with it. We’re closer than what it feels, and that’s the hard part.”
The upshot is a 26-30 record, now beyond the Hawks in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, a play-in spot that would require two play-in wins just to make the playoffs as a No. 8 seed.
Next up for the Heat is a four-game homestand that opens with the Wednesday night rematch against the Hawks.
Five Degrees of Heat from Monday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The Hawks led 23-22 at the end of the first period, with the Heat at .273 from the field and 1 of 11 on 3-pointers in the period. Atlanta then moved to a 50-42 halftime lead, as the Heat fell to 3 of 23 on 3-pointers.
From there, the Hawks pushed to a 13-point lead midway through the third period, before the Heat closed within 73-65 going into the fourth.
Atlanta again pushed its lead into double-digits early in the fourth before the Heat closed within six, only to again fall short.
“I thought this had a chance to be just a really gratifying win,” Spoelstra said. “Just in the mud, ugly to be able to prove that you can win a game on the road without making shots at your normal level. But we weren’t able to do it.”
2. Rotation alteration 1.0: With Nikola Jovic’s broken hand requiring at least one rotation adjustment, it was another rotation twist that proved most notable.
When it came to a fill-in for Jovic, who broke his right hand in Sunday night’s loss in Milwaukee, Kyle Anderson got the call, just as he did in Sunday’s second half.
The Heat had to get creative in the power rotation, with Ware called for a second foul with 5:13 left in the opening period.
That led to more either/or with Bam Adebayo and Ware than side-by-side play.
Anderson closed with 14 points and five rebounds.
“He was doing some really good things out there,” Spoelstra said of Anderson. “He’s a smart player. He really helps you defensively just with his IQ, his playmaking, his rebounding. And offensively, he helped generate some open looks with his ability to pass.”
Adebayo closed with 14 points and five rebounds.
“Obviously, still having tall players still helps,” Adebayo said. “For us, it’s being in a collective spirit and understanding that we got to get a win.”
3. Rotation alteration 2.0: But what came next was more of a shakeup, with Alec Burks entering late in the first period in the spot Terry Rozier typically had entered.
With Rozier in the midst of a protracted slump, Burks got the call with 2:46 left in the opening period, after being held out Sunday against the Bucks.
From there, Jaime Jaquez Jr. also was returned to the rotation, entering with 8:11 to play in the second period, his first action in the three games since the All-Star break.
Jaquez was limited to that single stint, closing with two points.
The revised rotation still had Haywood Highsmith and Pelle Larsson out of the mix.
Burks closed with five points on 1-of-12 shooting.
“It’s just one of those things right now. We’re searching,” Spoelstra said. “It’s not an indictment on anybody necessarily. I feel for the guys that haven’t been able to play — Jaime the couple games before this and Terry. It’s not anyone’s fault. We’re all in this together. But we do need to find something. So, I’ll continue to use the depth of our roster, however we feel like we need to.”
4. Regression to the mean: With no backcourt support whatsoever in this one, all-or-nothing from Herro turned into a continued volley of missed shots, closing 4 of 19 from the field and 0 for 9 on 3-pointers.
“I thought we got good shots,” Herro said. “We just got to make shots. The second night of a back-to-back, it’s not going to be perfect.”
With Duncan Robinson unable to provide spacing with misses of his own and Davion Mitchell hardly a floor spacer, it was open season for Atlanta’s defenders to load up on Herro without consequence.
Robinson closed 1 of 6 from the field, including 1 of 5 on 3-pointers.
5. Wiggins can: Wiggins was the lone Heat player to make a 3-pointer in the first half, at 3 of 5 from beyond the arc over the opening two periods, with the rest of the Heat roster 0 for 18.
Wiggins was up to 13 points at halftime, with no teammate with more than seven, and had 20 through three quarters, when no teammate had more than nine. Wiggins stood 4 of 7 on 3-pointers through three periods, with the rest of his teammates 2 of 27.
To his credit, Wiggins has more than carried his share of the load relative to expectations after being acquired for Butler.
Wiggins finished 6 of 14 from the field, 7 of 7 from the line.
“Every game you learn more, every game is a lesson,” Wiggins said. “So you learn, you move on and you get better.”
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