Adebayo’s 26 points and 15 rebounds lead Heat to dominant 147-116 win over Jazz
SALT LAKE CITY —
Bam Adebayo had 26 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Miami Heat to a 147-116 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
Nikola Jovich added 23 points and Pelle Larsson had 20 as the Heat matched their most points in a game this season. Miami beat Denver 147-123 last month.
The Heat, who are 2-2 on their five-game West Coast road trip, narrowly ended its streak of nine straight games permitting 117 points or more.
Jusuf Nurkic had 17 points, 12 assist and 10 rebounds to become the first player in Jazz history with three consecutive triple-doubles. He had only one triple-double in his career before this streak, and the last one came on Jan. 16, 2019, while playing for portland.
Brice Sensabaugh scored 23 points for theJazz, which has lost six of seven. Keyonte Georgefinished with 19 points.
The Heat took the lead for good with 6:44 left in the first quarter and cruised to a 73–52 lead at halftime.
Miami made 19 three-pointers compared to the Jazz’s seven and outrebounded Utah 64 to 34.
Up next
Heat: Play at Phoenix on Sunday night.
Jazz: Host the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night.
SALT LAKE CITY — To a degree, the Miami Heat’s five-game western swing stood in the balance Saturday night against the Utah Jazz.
After a 1-2 start to the stretch of five road games in seven nights, Erik Spoelstra’s team stood in jeopardy of returning to South Florida with a losing record.
Instead, with a 147–116 victory, the Heat moved to 24–22, avoided falling to No. 9 in the Eastern Conference, and potentially could wind up with a winning trip, with the Phoenix Suns, Sunday’s opponent in the trip’s final, to be without sidelined guard Devin Booker because of an ankle sprain.
Of such absences, the Heat know plenty, again playing in the absences of Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware and Davion Mitchell, and now with concerns with rookie point guard Kasparas Jakucionis.
Herro (ribs) and Ware (hamstring) already are back in Miami, with Mitchell likely to miss his third consecutive game Sunday with his shoulder contusion.
So this time the Heat did it by committee, with contributions throughout the rotation.
Center Bam Adebayo set a double-double tone, with 26 points and 15 rebounds, continued his recent revival, this time 4 of 10 on 3-pointers.
There were also 23 points from Nikola Jovic, 20 from Pelle Larsson, 17 from Andrew Wiggins, as well as 13 from Norman Powell and 12 from Jakucionis.
The only downside of the loss was Jakucianis having to be helped off the court in the final minutes after going down behind the Heat basket after being elbowed in the Heat.
With the loss, the Jazz fell to 15-31, getting a 17-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound double-double from center Jusuf Nurkic.
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday night’s game:
- Game flow: The Heat led 35–34 after the first period and 73–52 at halftime.
The Jazz clawed within 15 early in the third period, before the Heat pushed back to a 22-point lead, ultimately taking a 108-89 lead into the fourth.
From there, the Heat again pushed their lead into the 20s, allowing, on the first night of the back-to-back set, Adebayo to take the remainder of the night off with 5:32 to play.
For the Jazz, the close of the game was seemingly devoted to getting Nurkic his third consecutive triple-double.
- Breaking glass: The Heat held a 19–1 edge on offensive rebounds in the first half, outscoring Utah 19–4 on second-chance points over the opening two periods.
To put those 19 first-half offensive rebounds in perspective, consider that the Heat had 12 and 14, respectively, in their previous two games, and recently had five and nine in consecutive games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns.
The Heat closed with 26 offensive rebounds to the Jazz’s seven.
The Heat entered 17th in the NBA at 11.4 per game.
- Fouls, fury: Returning to what previously had been problematic, Larsson was forced to the bench with two fouls in the opening 1:54. For Larsson, fouls had haunted him throughout his rookie season, after being obtained by the Heat in the 2024 second round out of Arizona.
But rather than allowing the whistles to stifle his game, Larsson returned on the attack in the second period, with eight points in the period to help spark the Heat to their 21-point halftime lead.
He also again demonstrated his improved 3-point stroke, closing 3 of 6 from beyond the arc.
- Stepping in: With Mitchell sidelined, Jakusionis, before he was hurt, thrived in his fourth career start, playing in attack mode both off the dribble and on the glass.
It was a solid bounce back after being restricted to three points and only 11 minutes in Thursday night’s loss in Portland.
Jakucianis scored nine points in the first 5:22 of the third period, which made it the highest-scoring quarter of his rookie season.
He closed 4 of 6 from the field, including 2 of 3 on 3-pointers, with five rebounds, his night ending in the locker room ahead of his teammates.
- The Jovic-coaster: After a brutal outing Thursday in Portland that had him introspective at Saturday morning’s shootaround, Jovic was exponentially better Saturday – which was actually an upgrade.
Jovic was up to 11 points by halftime, playing with an aggressive streak that had him with six free throws over the opening two periods.
Jovic again played as backup center, with Ware missing his fourth consecutive game. He closed 6 of 12 from the field.
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