For extended stretches Saturday night at Miami-Dade Arena, defense was optional, which for the Dallas Mavericks has become the story of a season gone sour.
For extended stretches Saturday night, the Miami Heat found themselves nearly as defenseless.
Finally, a stand was made, one that snapped a three-game losing streak and moved the Heat closer to the top seed in the Eastern Conference play-in round.
No, not exactly the type of game Erik Spoelstra would prefer, and not the type of postseason placement the Heat had targeted at No. 7 in the Eastern Conference, but the 129-122 victory at Miami-Dade Arena at least restored a healthier sense of order.
“I wouldn’t have necessarily drawn it up this way, but I also had a gut feeling,” Spoelstra said, “we were going to have to put some points on the board.”
Pushing to an early 18-point lead even with center Bam Adebayo sidelined by a hip bruise, the Heat improved to 41-37 with four games left in their regular season.
Jimmy Butler led the Heat with 35 points, supported by 20 from Cody Zeller, 18 from Kevin Love, 18 from Max Strus and 15 from Tyler Herro. Butler also had a season-high 12 assists.
“We knew we’d have to put some pressure on them offensively,” Spoelstra said.
Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 42 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, as Dallas fell to 37-41, assured of no better than a .500 season.
The Mavericks closed at .610 from the field, becoming just the fifth team to lose this season when shooting at least 60 percent.
“A win is a win,” Butler said. “I don’t like that they shot 61 percent. But I do like that we won the game,”
The Heat are idle until a Tuesday night game against the Detroit Pistons at the start of a three-game trip that leads to their April 9 regular-season finale against the visiting Orlando Magic.
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat led 44-31 after the opening period, surpassing their previous high of a 39-point first quarter earlier this season. They then led 76-64 at the intermission, after their highest-scoring half of the season.
But the defense continued to remain an issue, with the Mavericks closing within 102-96 going into the fourth quarter.
From there, 3-pointers from Herro and Kyle Lowry moved the Heat to a 112-101 lead with 9:06 to play.
But with Doncic in relentless attack mode, Dallas closed within 121-115 with 3:58 left, leading to Heat timeout.
That’s when Butler scored inside and then immediately scored after a steal to put the Heat up 10, only to see Tim Hardaway Jr. make it 125-120 and yet another Heat clutch game (one within five points any time within the final five minutes of the fourth quarter).
But Butler then restored order, as the Heat held on.
“Jimmy controlled the tenor and tempo of the game throughout the course of his minutes,” Spoelstra said.
2. Butler ball: Butler closed the first period with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, 3 of 3 from the line and 1 of 2 on 3-pointers, also with three assists in the period.
He was up to 22 points on 8 of 9 from the field and 5 of 5 from the field at the half.
Butler checked out for his second-half rest with 43.1 seconds left in the third quarter and the Heat up six, up to 26 points at that stage.
“We made shots, too,” Butler said of matching Dallas basket for basket.
He returned with 6:42 remaining and the Heat up 11, scoring nine of the Heat’s final 10 points.
He closed with just his third career game of 12 or more assists without a turnover.
“His competitiveness will always trump everything,” Spoelstra said.
3. Playoff race: With the victory, the Heat moved within 1 1/2 games of the idle No. 6 Brooklyn Nets.
The Nets, however, hold the tiebreaker. That means if the Heat win their four remaining regular-season games, to close at 45-37, the Nets would need only go 3-2 over their final five to secure at least No. 6.
In the race for No. 7, the top seed in the play-in round, the Heat moved 2 1/2 games ahead of both the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks. A 2-2 Heat finish would require Toronto (which holds the tiebreaker over the Heat, unlike Atlanta) to close 5-0 to bypass the Heat for No. 7.
4. New look: With Adebayo out, the Heat not only started Zeller in his place, but also replaced Love in the starting lineup with Strus.
That gave the Heat their 24th starting lineup of the season, rounded out with Butler, Herro and Gabe Vincent.
It was Love’s first game as a reserve since joining the Heat on Feb. 20.
Spoelstra said Adebayo simply was unable to make it to the court, due to the hip contusion sustained during Wednesday night’s loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Zeller particularly thrived in the pick-and-roll game with Butler, with his first 20-point game since 2019.
“He rolls hard as I don’t know what,” Butler said, “and you reward your big for that.”
Said Spoelstra, “Cody was really getting behind the defense.”
5. Love-ly: Love thrived in his sixth-man role, just as he did last season when he finished as runner-up to the Heat’s Tyler Herro for Sixth Man of the Year while with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The question now for Spoelstra could be how to find minutes for Adebayo, Zeller and Love in a power rotation that often has skewed small.
“Kevin, I just can’t say enough about his professionalism,” Spoelstra said of Love thriving in reserve. “And that might be the way we go the next four games.
“He gave us a great spark off the bench.”
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