Pacers even the score with 119-110 victory, scuttling Heat hopes of .500

INDIANAPOLIS — The Miami Heat weren’t looking for anything ostentatious Sunday, seeking nothing more than closing their six-game trip at .500 and evening their overall record at .500.

Ultimately, even that degree of modesty proved out of reach Sunday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, falling 119-110 to the Indiana Pacers in the teams’ rematch of the Heat’s Friday victory.

So a 2-4 trip and a 5-7 record a dozen games in, with a schedule that hardly eases, with the Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks and Milwaukee Bucks up next.

Like those three opponents, the Heat continue to struggle to gain their footing through the season’s opening weeks, unable to sustain.

“We feel like we’re making some strides of figuring out what our identity is to win basketball games,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But it’s also OK to be disappointed with the end result of this road trip, what the record was on it. Both things can be true.”

With Jimmy Butler missing his fourth consecutive game with the ankle sprain sustained during the trip’s fourth stop, the Heat’s offense lacked efficiency and cohesion, again struggling on point-blank shots at the rim.

The Pacers close with a 62-28 advantage on points in the paint.

“They really set the tone with that type of aggressiveness,” Spoelstra said. “Those sometimes can be deflating plays if you miss layups and it ends up being a four or five-point swing.

“But those things happen. If you’re generating them, I’m good with it. But if we miss them, we can’t lag back and then it turns into an open shot going the other way.”

The Heat got 28 points from Tyler Herro, 24 from Bam Adebayo and 20 from Duncan Robinson, but it wasn’t enough on a night the Pacers got 34 from center Myles Turner.

“I think we’re still building our identity,” Herro said, “and we’ll be alright.”

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Closing time: The Pacers led 28-20 after the first quarter, with the Heat then closing within 52-49 at halftime, after closing the second period with a 7-0 run.

From there, the Pacers utilized a 14-2 run early in the third period to move to a 16-point lead, before going into the fourth quarter up 85-75.

“They came out with a little bit more urgency than us,” Herro said, “and we talked about that before the game. We needed to come out with more urgency. The same energy and effort that we brought Friday night wasn’t going to be enough tonight, and we saw that pretty much throughout the whole game.”

With Herro converting a pair of 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter, the Heat moved within 89-85 early in the period and then tied it 97-97 with 5:15 to play on a Robinson 3-pointer.

From there, back-to-back 3-pointers by Tyrese Haliburton then put Indiana up 103-97.

“He has a knack for the timely play,” Spoelstra said of Haliburton’s consecutive threes. “But when you leave it to that, where everything has to go perfect down the stretch, that’s sometimes what you’re susceptible to.”

The second of consecutive Herro 3-pointers got the Heat within 112-107 with 1:41 to play, only to see Haliburton counter with his fifth 3-pointer of the night, effectively ending it.

2. Solid again: Adebayo appears to have found his offensive footing after his uneven start to the season.

After scoring more than 20 points just once in the Heat’s first nine games, he ended the trip with 20 points against the Pistons, 30 against the Pacers on Friday night, and then Sunday’s performance.

Sunday also included a pair of 3-pointers for Adebayo, who entered 7 of 26 from beyond the arc.

“I want the wins,” Adebayo said. “Scoring is cool, but like I said, I’m a two-way player, supposed to affect the game on both sides. For me, it was good to see the basketball go in, but it don’t feel good when you lose.”

3. Another one down: Already without Butler, the Heat lost Jaime Jaquez Jr. in the third period, when he headed to the locker room after misstepping on the foot of Pacers point guard T.J. McConnell and turning his right ankle.

That ended Jaquez’s night after 15:26 of action, closing with two points on 1-of-6 shooting, with four assists and three rebounds.

“That’s one of the craziest ones,” Spoelstra said. “He just happened to be backpedaling back and stepped on McConnell’s foot.”

Jaquez has been particularly important for the Heat when Butler has been off the court. He was in his fourth game back after missing three due to gastroenteritis.

“Definitely surprised,” Jaquez said of the injury. “I shot the shot, was ready to get back on defense, and then I took a little jump and backpedaled back and twisted my ankle. It didn’t feel great.”

X-rays came back negative.

“It’s one of those things, man, you just get unlucky sometimes,” the second-year forward said. “But I’ve been in this situation before. Sprains are nothing new to me. Hopefully rehab it and then get back as soon as possible.”

4. Rotation alteration: After five games of getting rotation minutes, particularly early in games, first-round pick Kel’el Ware was out of the Heat mix on Sunday night.

Instead, Nikola Jovic, again in a protective mask to protect the broken nose sustained Tuesday in Detroit, took most of the minutes in the power mix in the reserve rotation.

Ware had gone scoreless in his four minutes, all in the first half, in Friday night’s victory over the Pacers.

“Just a little bit more of they were playing smaller lineups,” Spoelstra said of Ware’s absence. “Niko had done some good things at the five. It’s not at all an indictment on him.”

5. Up next: The game opened the first of the Heat’s 15 back-to-back sets this season, with a Monday home game against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Heat’s first game since Nov. 5 at Kaseya Center, where they stand 1-3 this season.

While the Heat had to travel back to on Sunday night, the 76ers have been in South Florida since Friday night’s 98-86 loss to the Orlando Magic, practicing Sunday at the Kaseya Center.

“They made the schedule,” Adebayo said of the rest disadvantage. “It’s our job to play. Can’t really talk about the schedule, where we’re going, what we’re doing. The next game is most important right now.”

The game will be the Heat’s first this season in their new Blood Red “Culture” uniforms, to be played on their City Edition court.

The 76ers are listing center Joel Embiid as questionable, due to illness. Philadelphia already is without guard Tyrese Maxey, due to a hamstring strain.

This is the teams’ first meeting since the 76ers defeated the Heat in the opening game of last season’s play-in round, the game Butler suffered the knee injury that had him out the balance of the postseason.