MIAMI – In the heat of the moment, it felt like the Dallas Mavericks had the tea leaves working in the favor and the necessary momentum in Sunday night’s 
game against the Miami Heat.
Then, the tables rapidly turned, everything quickly shifted, and the Mavs wound up losing to the pesky Heat in overtime, 123-118, before a sellout crowd of 19,714 at the Kaseya Center. The unfortunate loss snapped the Mavs’ season-high four game winning streak and sent them preparing for Monday night’s game in Atlanta with a 9-8 record.
The Mavs appeared on the verge of winning this game in regulation, but two critical items derailed that chance. First, Kyrie Irving spilt a pair of free throws with 8.2 seconds remaining which put the Mavs ahead, 114-112, instead of putting them ahead by three points and forcing the Heat into converting a much longer shot just to get the game into overtime.
Following a Miami timeout, Heat guard Jimmy Butler somehow got an easy look at the basket and dunked it to tie the score at 114 with 4.3 seconds to go. Then, a long three-pointer by Spencer Dinwiddie went halfway down and rimmed out, sending the two squads into the five-minute overtime session.
Asked if the Mavs let one slip away, Irving said: “It’s just things that happen in competitive space where you wish you can get things back – a missed free throw, a missed communication or a chance to ice the game on that stop where they needed a two. But that would just be giving excuses for ourselves.
“We felt like we had a great chance to win this game before it even got to that stretch. But we’re learning.”
On this night, it was a difficult lesson for the Mavs to learn as they entered this contest as one of the hottest teams in the NBA. But the Heat, who were playing their first game since last Monday, snuck in through the back door and did what was necessary to get a win.
“This is a good Miami Heat team,” Irving said. “They were well-rested and they got a chance to really get into me defensively, get into all of us, turn the ball over down the stretch and they made some clutch plays down the stretch, so you got to give them credit.”
The Mavs enjoyed a 118-117 lead in overtime after an offensive rebound and dunk by Dereck Lively II. But Miami tallied five straight points – on a three-pointer by
Bam Adebayo and a bucket by Butler – and surged ahead, 122-118, with 1:38 left.
The Mavs, who played without the injured Luka Dončić, could have inched closer, but Irving misfired on two three-point attempts and P. J. Washington also missed a three-pointer. Alec Burks connected on a free throw with 12.2 seconds left to account for the game’s final point as Miami ended this contest on a 6-0 run.
Dallas was just 10-of-40 from beyond the three-point arc, including only 3-of-17 in the fourth quarter and overtime period. Coach Jason Kidd said the difference in overtime was that his players settled for the three instead of working to get a shot closer to the basket.
“We had a lot of threes,” Kidd said. “We were down four and we just thought we had to get it all back at once.
“I think (the Mavs should have) just been patient and continue to work the game. If they give you the two, take the two. But we had great looks. They just didn’t go down for us.”
Irving led the Mavs with 27 points and six assists, Washington finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Naji Marshall had 20 points and five boards. Also for the Mavs, Klay Thompson contributed 15 points and six rebounds, Lively collected 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Daniel Gafford finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks.
Miami was led by Butler (33 points, nine rebounds), Adebayo (19 points, 11 boards) and Tyler Herro (18 points, 10 rebounds). In addition, the Heat got 15 points from Alec Burks and 14 points from Pelle Larsson.
The points off the bench by Burks and Larsson didn’t sit well with Irving.
“You can say it slipped away from us, but we obviously know there’s a tale of the tape that we got to go back and look at and see where we can improve, especially on the controllables like offensive rebounds and just keeping them off the free throw, keeping them out of our paint and giving up easy ones to some of their roles players,” Irving said. “I think that was the difference tonight.
“They had some players come off the bench where they were highly efficient.”
Burks was 5-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-8 from three-point territory, and Larsson was 6-of-8 from the field and 1-of-2 from downtown for the Heat (7-7).
“Burks, he shot the ball extremely well from the corner, and then also Bam knocked down a couple of threes,” Kidd said. “Again, we’ve got to contest, we got to close out and make them drive, but we just didn’t do that on a consistent basis.”
It was a first half which saw an inordinate amount of fouls being called, and most of them didn’t go Dallas’ way. The Mavs were whistled for 16 fouls in the first half
and the Heat turned that into 21 free throw attempts, and they made 13 of those.
Miami was charged with 10 first-half fouls. In fact, Butler (8-of-12 free throws) attempted more charity tosses in the opening half than the Mavs (7-of-8), and he finished the game converting 11-of-16 free throws.
“We talked about it pre-game of keeping them off the free throw line,” Kidd said. “We know that’s something that they can do extremely well.
“Butler, in the first half, had 12 (free throw attempts), so we weren’t doing what we were supposed to. In the second half I thought we started to get a little tempo going and we put ourselves in position on the road to win a game.”
However, that play by Butler which forced overtime took its toll on the Mavs.
“I was really on the backside trying to focus on that,” Marshall said. “I didn’t see what happened, but I’m sure it was a little brain fart.
“But like I said, next time we’ll learn from our mistakes and be better the next game.”
A 20-5 run by the Heat b
ridging the first and second quarters pushed Miami ahead, 38-28, with less than 10 minutes left before halftime. But the Mavs countered with an 11-1 run, thanks to a three-point play by Washington, a tip-in by Gafford, and a pair of three-point plays by Irving to tie the game at 39-all with 7:20 to go in the first half.
Miami led, 56-51, at intermission and 89-84 after three quarters. After that, the Mavs took charge and were in prime position to win down the stretch of regulation play.
But that late bucket by Butler and that 25 percent shooting from the three-point line by the Mavs was something Dallas couldn’t overcome. Especially since the Heat converted 14 of their 41 three-pointers.
“Sometimes that’s the basketball gods,” Irving said. “You got to keep that right elbow pointed and stay confident. But again, we had some controllables that we just didn’t take care of tonight and that led to them feeling confident down the stretch and being able to make those extra effort plays.
“They won a lot of the 50-50 battles, so, if we can control, keep them off the glass, control them to one possession, I feel like we come out of here with this W. But again, you got to give credit to a scrappy Miami Heat team. They play well on their home floor, and you can tell they really wanted this one, but we wanted this one, too. It just didn’t go our way.”
X: @DwainPrice
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