Miami Heat Close Strong Against Spurs To Win Second Straight After All-Star Break

The Miami Heat played the fourth quarter without their best player.

It didn't matter.

Despite Jimmy Butler sitting on the bench, the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 133-129 Saturday at FTX Arena. It was their second straight victory after the NBA All-Star break.

“A little bit of everything," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of sitting Butler. "He was a little bit sore, but we also wanted to see if this group could finish it out. I thought that was really important for that group to experience everything. We ran a lot of the offense in the fourth quarter through Bam and Tyler. Those are great experiences and really important for our team. It was good [for us to] close it out.”

Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 36 points while Butler and guard Tyler Herro each had 27. Kyle Lowry had 13 points and 10 assists.

“The first thing is, you just have to tip your hat to the Spurs and how they play," Spoelstra said. "They really attack you off the dribble. They are relentless. They never stop. They’ll end up having three or four drives in a single possession. That never happens in this league. It’s a unique style of play that you don’t see night in and night out, so it takes a while to adjust to it.”

“Look, we are one of the best teams in terms of protecting the paint and they had 30 in the paint on us in the first quarter. That was crazy. Even though they had guys out, they still got to that system and that style of play. They had us on our heels at several points during the game.”

The Heat return to action Monday against the Chicago Bulls.