MIAMI — What could have been viewed as a tune-up before a pivotal stretch against Eastern Conference playoff teams proved to be anything but for the Miami Heat.
The San Antonio Spurs, despite playing on the road for a second straight night and sitting three of their top four scorers coming off a double-overtime win in Washington on Friday, gave Miami everything it could handle up until the final seconds.
Nonetheless, the Heat, led by 36 points from Bam Adebayo on the second night of their own back-to-back, clawed out a 133-129 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night at FTX Arena.
The Heat (40-21) remain at No. 1 in the Eastern Conference, ahead of the No. 2 Chicago Bulls heading into their Monday showdown in Miami. Chicago lost at home against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night to give Miami sole possession of first in the East.
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich will have to wait to tie Don Nelson’s NBA record for regular-season coaching wins, even as he got a push out of his Spurs (24-37) without guard Dejounte Murray, guard/forward Keldon Johnson and center Jakob Poeltl.
Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro each scored 27 points, Butler without playing in the fourth quarter. Kyle Lowry added 13 points and 10 assists. Adebayo also had seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
The Spurs got 22 points apiece from guard Devin Vassell, forward Keita Bates-Diop and former University of Miami star guard Lonnie Walker IV, as well as 19 points and 11 assists from Tre Jones.
The Heat come out of the All-Star break 2-0 after defeating the New York Knicks, 115-100, on Friday and won its last three games.
After meeting the Bulls on Monday, Miami plays Wednesday night at the Milwaukee Bucks, again the next night at the Brooklyn Nets and then has a home game on Saturday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday’s game:
— 1. Closing time: After Adebayo hit a buzzer-beating mid-range jumper at the end of the third, the Heat made what looked like a decisive push early in the fourth quarter.
Adebayo kept his scoring momentum going with an array of field goals from in close, Lowry and Herro hit 3-pointers, and the Heat pushed to lead by as many as 17 at 119-102.
The Spurs crept back to within 4 at the 2-minute mark, but Lowry drilled a 3 with 1:37 to play and Adebayo scored with a reverse layup on a fast break off a Gabe Vincent steal to restore order momentarily.
Even then, Herro missed a key pair of free throws, and Bates-Diop’s 3-pointer with 8.6 seconds remaining pulled the Spurs to within 2. Vincent hit two free throws that made it a two-possession game.
The Heat, after taking their first lead right before halftime, bumped that advantage up to 10, but the Spurs battled back quickly to tie and even pull ahead later in the period. Adebayo’s mid-range jump shot at the buzzer of the third gave Miami a 99-97 lead entering the fourth.
— 2. Slow to start: For the second consecutive night coming out of the All-Star break, the Heat were off early against a below-.500 opponent.
In New York on Friday, the Heat faced a 10-point deficit before they scored. On Saturday, it was a 12-2 hole to open that eventually inflated into a 16-point deficit.
The difference against the Spurs: It didn’t immediately get better within the opening period. While the Heat nearly pulled back to even at the end of the first quarter at Madison Square Garden, they were down, 40-28, after one on Saturday.
But the recovery occurred in earnest in the second quarter, as the Heat took their first lead, 61-58, which ended up being the halftime score, with 38.6 seconds left in the first half on a Butler layup plus a foul. Adebayo scored 10 points in the final stretch of the first half.
All five Spurs starters scored during the early run. Then, San Antonio went to a bench that included former Heat guard Josh Richardson and Walker and Richardson nailed a 3-pointer and a floater that each pushed the San Antonio lead up to 14. A Walker 3 ballooned the advantage up to 15 and an ensuing dunk made it 28-12.
— 3. Dedmon returns: The Heat’s Dewayne Dedmon returned in backup center duty after missing the previous three games with back spasms.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra noted pregame Dedmon was “definitely making progress,” had him warm up to determine readiness to play, and before Saturday’s tip, he was announced as available. Dedmon first entered at the 4:33 mark of the opening period.
Dedmon was key in Miami’s effort to recalibrate from the slow start. He made three of his first four field-goal attempts from in close, two of them which were accompanied by a foul and ensuing made free throw. He finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
With Dedmon back, Omer Yurtseven did not play Saturday after contributing 13-15 minutes in the three games Dedmon missed.
4. Robinson off the schneid: Heat forward Duncan Robinson, coming off a scoreless outing in New York on Friday, got the post-All-Star break monkey off his back when he hit a 3-pointer in the middle of the second quarter for his first points since the hiatus.
Robinson got off the schneid after an early miss on his first attempt from the beyond the arc early against the Spurs followed an 0-for-5 performance, all from 3, against the Knicks.
Robinson connected from deep again on his next 3-point try early in the third quarter.
Against the Spurs, Adebayo was also scoreless deep into the first half but scored for the first time with 5:25 left in the second quarter, an and-one basket inside after missing his first three attempts. He hit another pair of layups where he was also fouled later in the period as the Heat inched closer from the large early deficit.
5. Pop gonna Pop: Popovich has been known throughout his historic career leading the Spurs, especially in the past decade, to manage back-to-backs by sitting stars in one of the games on consecutive nights. After the Spurs needed two overtimes to win at the Wizards on Friday night and then traveled down to Miami for Saturday’s game, it would be no different.
Three of San Antonio’s top four scorers — Murray (knee), Johnson (lower back) and Poeltl (back soreness) — were held out against the Heat. Murray, who nearly averages a triple-double with 20.1 points, 9.4 assists and 8.4 rebounds per game, was the Spurs’ lone All-Star this season.
Murray, Johnson and Poeltl all played more than 40 minutes on Friday in Washington and combined to score 91 points in the 157-153 Spurs win.
