Heat regain their offensive footing, load up on 3s in 131-109 victory over Hawks

MIAMI – The post-Jimmy Butler reality for the Miami Heat remains similar to the reality of when Butler still was around: Make your 3s, win the game.

So after a dreadful performance from beyond the arc in Monday night’s road loss to the Atlanta Hawks, when his team was 7 of 40 on 3-pointers, Erik Spoelstra this time saw the other side of the equation from his team in a 131-109 victory Wednesday night over the Hawks at Kaseya Center.

This time, the Heat not only closed 23 of 42 on 3-pointers, but also received quality support for Tyler Herro, whose 24 points proved enough to help the Heat open their four-game homestand with a victory.

With Spoelstra again shaking up his rotation, the Heat got 24 points off the bench from Duncan Robinson and 14 in reserve from Haywood Highsmith on a night they shot  season-best .592 from the field, in their second-highest-scoring game of the season.

Factor in 20 points from Davion Mitchell, 20 from Bam Adebayo and 15 from Andrew Wiggins and the Heat moved to 1-2 in the season series against the Hawks, in position to still square what could prove to be a crucial postseason tiebreaker.

Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday night’s game:

1. Closing time: The Heat led 29-28 after the first period, with it tied 65-65 at halftime.

The Heat then closed the third quarter with a 19-4 run to take a 107-93 lead into the fourth, the type of lead Spoelstra’s team has had trouble protecting this season.

Mitchell sparked the third-quarter surge with three 3-pointers and then kept going from there, with his fifth 3-pointer, early in the fourth, tying his career high for a game.

From there, the Heat pushed their lead into the 20s in the fourth quarter, this time able to preserve a late lead.

Mitchell closed 7 of 9 from the field, including 5 of 5 on 3-pointers, also with six assists.

2. Back at it: After shooting 0 for 9 on 3-pointers on Monday night in Atlanta, Herro made his first three  3-point attempts Wednesday night, with the second a 26-foot heat check in transition.

Herro was up to 17 points by halftime, after scoring just 11 on Monday night in Atlanta and up to 21 going into the fourth.

It was Herro’s 80th consecutive regular-season game scoring in double figures. As a means of comparison, Butler’s longest such Heat streak was 63 consecutive games. The franchise record is 294 by LeBron James.

With Wednesday night’s four 3-pointers Herro is now three from tying his career high of 203 set in 2022-23.

3. Duncan can: After shooting 2 of 8 on 3-pointers the previous two games, Robinson this time opened 4 of 5 from beyond the arc, with 14 points by the intermission.

It was the first time Robinson made more than three 3-pointers in a game since the Jan. 21 home loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, a span of 14 appearances.

Robinson was up to 19 points entering the fourth quarter.

Robinson had not scored more than 15 in his previous 13 appearances.

He closed 9 of 16 from the field, including 6 of 13 on 3-pointers.

4. More adjustments: A pair of rotation adjustments carried over from Monday night’s game in Atlanta, with Kyle Anderson getting the early minutes of sidelined forward Nikola Jovic and Alec Burks getting the minutes of Terry Rozier.

But Spoelstra then veered from Monday’s script, with Highsmith inserted for the first time in five games.

Earlier, Spoelstra had sent Jaime Jaquez Jr. to the scorers’ table in the first period when it appeared Wiggins had asked out after bumping knees. Wiggins, though, stayed in, with Jaquez not entering until midway through the second period, fifth off the bench.

Burks, Anderson and Jaquez then gave way to a tighter second-half rotation, with Highsmith carrying his solid play over the second half.

5. Late decision: Adebayo was questionable until 40 minutes before tip due to a calf contusion sustained in Monday night’s loss in Atlanta.

He did not grab his first rebound until 42 seconds into the second half and did not get to the line until 7:27 remained in the third period.

He closed 9 of 12 from the field, with nine rebounds, one shy of moving past Rony Seikaly for the franchise lead in career double-doubles.