Tyler Herro’s 40 again not enough as Heat fall 120-113 to Bucks; Jovic injured

MILWAUKEE – The formula for this Miami Heat roster in the post-Jimmy Butler era to beat a team of the Milwaukee Bucks’ caliber is relatively basic: perfection.

Sunday night, the Heat got just about that from Tyler Herro, and it still wasn’t enough, while also suffering a debilitating injury to their rotation in what turned into a 120-113 loss to the Bucks at Fiserv Forum.

“It’s frustrating,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “but we’re making some progress and we just have to stay with it. We have to show collective grit and resolve.”

Falling again after holding a double-digit second-half lead, the Heat also lost forward Nikola Jovic to a hand injury that will require yet another rotation adjustment to a rotation already in the midst of adjusting from the Butler trade.

“I was shocked by the prognosis on it,” Spoelstra said, with a visit to a hand specialist to determine time missed, which could be extensive. “But we’ll see how long it will take and in the meantime other guys will have to step up.”

This wasn’t for a lack of wont or effort from Spoelstra’s team. There simply wasn’t enough to match what the Bucks offered, despite 40 points and 11 assists from Tyler Herro, 24 points and seven rebounds from Bam Adebayo, 12 points and 12 rebounds from Kel’el Ware and 20 points from Andrew Wiggins.

And that capsulizes what the Heat are at the moment, a team where even the best of Herro isn’t enough, similar to when he scored 40 and the Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks in their game before the All-Star break, now 0-3 in games Herro has scored 40 this season.

“Obviously, no one wants to lose and that’s where we’re at right now,” Herro said, with the Heat 1-5 since trading Butler. “We’re just continuing to try to find consistency at this point of the season, where we can just try to stack these wins right now.”

Damian Lillard led the Bucks with 28 points, with Giannis Antetokounmpo adding 23 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Closing time: The Heat led 37-23 at the end of the first period and 65-55 at halftime.

The Heat then pushed their lead to 11 midway through the third period, only to see the Bucks charge back within 87-85 with 3:45 left in a quarter that ended with the Heat up 93-85.

With neither Herro nor Adebayo on the court to start the fourth, the Heat saw the Bucks close within 95-93. Adebayo then returned, only to see Milwaukee go up 97-95, leading to a second Spoelstra timeout within 61 seconds.

Herro then returned to steady the Heat, with his three-point play forging a 100-100 tie.

Eventually a Lillard 3-pointer put the Bucks up 109-106, with a Herro 3-pointer, giving him his 40th point, tying it 109-109.

A Kyle Kuzma 3-pointer then put the Bucks up 112-109, with a driving Antetokounmpo layup making it 114-109 and a Brook Lopez dunk stretching the Milwaukee lead to 116-109, effectively ending it.

“It seemed like we couldn’t get a stop for a while.”

2. Down goes Jovic: The Heat lost Jovic for the second half and beyond, with the team announcing that halftime X-rays on his right hand showed a fracture of the second metacarpal.

“It happened in the first quarter,” Jovic said of the injury he initially played through. “As soon as I came in, I kind of bumped into Kuzma and I’m not sure exactly what happened. It just hurt a lot.

“I wouldn’t say I was shocked because it kind of got swollen quickly during the game.”

Jovic had emerged as a prime element of the power rotation, in reserve of Ware and Adebayo.

Jovic also had played as a closer in recent games, with his unique combination of size and ballhandling.

That had Spoelstra going with Kyle Anderson in place of Jovic in Sunday’s second half.

Among the options going forward is former starting power forward Haywood Highsmith, Jaime Jaquez Jr. or possibly veteran Kevin Love, who has been away from the team due to a personal matter.

“This team needs everybody right now,” Jovic said. “Other guys will step up and show what they can do with playing time.”

3. Guiding light: Herro again played both as primary scorer and primary playmaker, constantly in attack mode, up to 19 points and seven assists by halftime, when he stood 8 of 9 from the line.

He then completed his double-double before the midpoint of the third period.

It was Herro’s 78th consecutive regular-season game scoring in double figures. As a means of comparison, Jimmy Butler’s longest such Heat streak was 63 consecutive games. The franchise record is 294 by LeBron James.

Herro closed 12 of 27 from the field and 13 of 14 from the line, also with seven rebounds.

“Tyler’s skill level and confidence is getting to a point that he can do it against all the different coverages and he can do it with or without the ball,” Spoelstra said. “He can draw fouls now, which is important particularly on the road.”

4. Adebayo adding: If not for his fourth foul with 4:59 to play in the third period, Adebayo appeared to be on a similar scoring pace to Herro.

But that’s when his scoring and productivity effectively ceased.

“Frustrating,” Adebayo said of the whistle for his fourth foul. “I feel like some of it, it can go two ways. But, obviously, the second guy always gets caught. So for me, it’s playing without fouling.”

As it was, Adebayo’s sixth rebound moved him past Alonzo Mourning for second on the franchise all-time list, behind only Udonis Haslem.

“UD knows I’m chasing the record,” Adebayo said. “We ain’t got to say anything about it.”

Also, Adebayo now is within one double-figure scoring effort of tying Glen Rice for third on the Heat all-time list.

In addition, Adebayo’s lone steal tied Rice for fourth on the franchise all-time list.

5. Tight again: Spoelstra again went with a tight rotation, with Jovic and Duncan Robinson the initial primary reserves, with Terry Rozier not making it eight deep through the first half.

The rotation revision had Jaquez out of the mix for a second consecutive game. Jaquez’s last action was in the Rising Stars competition during All-Star Weekend.

Rozier was limited to 9:50 overall, closed with two points and shooting 0 for 4.