Heat get crushed in all facets after quick start, falling to 44-23 on the season.
In a Wednesday night affair featuring arguably the top two teams from each conference, a dominant two-way effort from the Phoenix Suns propelled their 111-90 victory over the Miami Heat at FTX Arena, snapping the Heat’s four-game home win streak.
The Heat, without Jimmy Butler (illness), got off to a robust 25-14 start, but the Suns — on a second night of a back-to-back — outscored the Heat 97-65 the rest of the way. Miami shot 29.5 percent in the second half and 39.8 percent in total, knocking down 10-of-33 (30.3 percent) from 3-point range after beginning 8-of-16 from distance.
Wednesday marked the fifth time all season the Heat scored 90 or fewer points, all of which have resulted in losses. Conversely, it was the seventh time all season that Phoenix held an opponent to 90 or fewer points, all resulting in wins.
Duncan Robinson finished with a Heat-most 22 points — 15 coming in the first half — on 7-of-15 shooting from the floor and 6-of-11 from 3-point range. Tyler Herro’s seven-game streak of 20-plus points was snapped Wednesday, tallying 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
Bam Adebayo had 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting with six rebounds, five assists, one block and a steal. Kyle Lowry added five points, five rebounds and a team-most 10 assists.
The Suns, who had six players that recorded double figures in the scoring department, shot 45.5 percent and 29.7 percent from distance.
In his first game back from being placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, Devin Booker recorded 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from deep, in addition to eight rebounds, nine assists, two steals and two blocks. Deandre Ayton and JaVale McGee dominated on the interior. Both recorded double-doubles: Ayton’s 21st and McGee’s ninth.
Ayton forged 19 points and 10 boards on a near-perfect 9-of-10 shooting while McGee totaled 11 points with a team-most 15 rebounds (seven offensive) in the winning effort.
Mikal Bridges had 21 points with nine rebounds, draining nine of his 13 field goal attempts. Cam Payne notched a double-double of his own — his third of the season — with 11 points and 10 assists in the absence of Chris Paul.
The Heat got trucked on the glass — getting outrebounded 64-46, their worst rebounding effort since Dec. 4 versus the Milwaukee Bucks, where they finished a minus-18 (tying a season high) on the glass. The Suns corralled 14 offensive boards that turned into 14 second-chance points.
Miami drops to 44-23 and are still two games ahead of the Bucks and 2.5 ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers for the top-seed in the East. Phoenix, meanwhile, improves to a league-best 53-13.
Robinson’s third triple gave Miami the early 12-5 lead. Lowry’s hit ahead pass to a wide open Vincent widened it to 20-10 with 7:33 remaining in the first quarter — prompting a Suns timeout. Lowry had five assists over that span.
Phoenix’s 13-0 run — capped by McGee’s reverse lay-in — gave them the 27-25 lead. Back-to-back lay-ins from Oladipo made it 37-33 in the Heat’s favor with 7:05 left in the opening half. Robinson’s fifth triple of the half increased it to 43-37.
Though Phoenix climbed back into it and led at the break, 57-55. Miami shot 50 percent from the floor and 44.4 percent from 3-point range; the Suns, who were plus-12 in the rebounding category in the first half (27-15), shot 46 percent and was just 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from distance.
The Suns opened the second half on a 12-3 run, taking the 69-58 lead. McGee’s three-point play extended it to 80-65 with 4:20 to go in the third. Phoenix never looked back, as Shamet’s 3-pointer followed by McGee’s Dirk Nowitzki-esque fadeaway bloated Phoenix’s lead to 96-76 with 10 minutes to go.
Jae Crowder’s triple made it 106-80 with 4:07 remaining, and that was essentially all she wrote. The Heat would score 10 additional points within that final four-minute span — seven of those but Omer Yurtseven — but it didn’t amount to much as Miami suffered one of its worst home losses of the season against the best team in the NBA this season.
Next up: The Heat continue their seven-game homestand with the first leg of a back-to-back on Friday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tip-off will be at 7:30 p.m. ET.