By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo: (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)
Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro led the team with 32 points, but that wasn’t enough to take down the Los Angeles Clippers. The Heat lost to the Clippers 109-98.
The Heat were without Jimmy Butler, who is still serving his suspension. Bam Adebayo didn’t play tonight due to lower back.
The Heat played well in the first and second quarters. However, the third quarter was one of their biggest problems this season.
Those issues came back to haunt them on Monday when James Harden lit up the quarter by scoring 13 of his 26 points. The Heat were committing turnovers and silly fouls, leaving their opponents wide open.
In addition, it’s tough to stop Harden in a one-on-one isolation. Harden finished the game by also adding 11 rebounds.
Harden May stole the show in the third quarter, but the Clippers wouldn’t have won this game without Normal Powell and Ivica Zubac.
Powell led the Clippers with 29 points. Meanwhile, Zubac recorded a double-double with 22 points and a season-high 20 rebounds.
The Heat fell to 20-18. Herro played terrific, but he needed more help from his teammates. The only teammate who contributed was Kel’el Ware.
Ware had a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds in 32 minutes off the bench.
The Heat committed 16 in this game.
“Trying to limit the mistakes is key,” Herro said. “Trying almost to play a perfect game is what we needed tonight. Defensively, I thought we were not bad, but some turnovers allowed them to get run outs on the other end, getting easy buckets.”
The Clippers have won five of the last six games against the Heat, and Kawhi Leonard has won his last 14 games against the Heat.
The Heat will continue their west coast trip and set to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night in the Crypto.com arena.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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