Miami Heat go to wire vs. Phoenix Suns in summer league
LAS VEGAS — At a time when the score stands secondary, there were several comforting takeaways for the Miami Heat from Monday night’s 73-70 loss to the Phoenix Suns at the NBA2K24 Summer League.
Jamal Cain, on the bubble for a roster spot, played with an aggressive bent, scored in double figures for the third time in as many appearances over the past week with the Heat summer roster. He closed with 18 points, shooting 3 of 5 on 3-pointers.
“I tried to be aggressive with my open looks,” he said.
Drew Peterson, the undrafted forward out of Southern Cal, showed the shooting stroke that got him into the Heat offseason program, standing as a potential roster replacement option for Max Strus. He scored 13, going 3 of 5 on 3-pointers. His final 3-point attempt could have put the Heat ahead with one second to play.
“I had space,” he said. “It looked good early on.”
And even with an uneven start, center Orlando Robinson left another solid impression, finishing with 15 points and nine rebounds, albeit also with six fouls and six turnovers.
“He’s going to continue to fight,” said assistant coach Caron Butler, who is guiding the Heat summer roster.
While the loss likely eliminated the Heat from contention for the event’s championship, with only the top four teams among the 30 advancing to the two-round playoff over the weekend, it offered further insight into what could work going forward for the Heat and what still needs work.
That latter category included 2022 first-round pick Nikola Jovic, who was largely ineffective, closing 0 for 6 from the field, including 0 for 4 on 3-pointers, with just one rebound and no assists in his 18:53.
Five Degrees of Heat from Monday’s summer-league game:
1. Jovic back; Jaquez out: Jovic played though the sore left foot that kept him out of most of Saturday’s fourth quarter and then Sunday’s practice.
Still out was first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr., who also missed Saturday’s game with the sore left shoulder sustained Wednesday in the second of the Heat’s two summer-league games in Sacramento.
The Heat opened for the second consecutive game with a starting lineup of Jovic, Robinson, Cain, Peterson and Dru Smith.
The Heat then were scoreless at the game’s first timeout, down 8-0 with 6:22 left in the first period.
Guard Jamaree Bouyea, who had missed Saturday night’s game with an ankle sprain, then entered and converted a 3-pointer. Boyea closed with seven points, nine rebounds, nine assists.
2. From deep: Cain converted a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive attempts in the first quarter, a significant moment considering his most likely path to an eventual standard contract is as a 3-and-D player.
He later converted a late step-back 3-pointer to tie it 70-70 with 1:38 to play.
“We told him he had to be ready,” Butler said of Cain, with Jaquez out and Jovic sore. “He made some amazing plays down the stretch.”
Cain closed out the regular season going 4 of 4 on 3-pointers against the Orlando Magic, then ineligible for the playoffs on his two-way contract.
Undrafted out of Oakland University in 2022, Cain missed the Heat’s first summer-league games with an ankle sprain.
3. Alternate view: After scoring 36 points in Saturday’s victory over the Boston Celtics’ summer roster, Robinson this time did not score until 5:36 remained in the first half, uneven early against a more physical Suns front line.
Robinson stood with four points on 2-of-4 shooting at the intermission, with five rebounds and four turnovers.
To his credit, Robinson then came out with a more aggressive bent in the second half, albeit while also dealing with foul issues, up to six before the end of the third period (players get 10 in the 40-minute summer games before fouling out).
“That pretty much was my fault,” Butler said of Robinson’s fouls, saying he had Robinson playing too aggressively on defense.
4. Looking on: Among those who sat across from the Heat bench were team owner Micky Arison and Heat CEO Nick Arison.
The appearance was not related to the Heat’s trade pursuit of Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, but rather because of the NBA Board of Governors’ meeting Tuesday.
Heat Erik Spoelstra watched from alongside those two.
Former Heat assistant coach David Fizdale, now a Suns assistant, sat across from the Phoenix bench. Former Heat forward James Jones, the Suns’ general manager, watched from the baseline.
In attendance in the game being played concurrently at the other UNLV gym was Strus, who took in Cleveland’s summer-league game alongside Cavaliers teammate Donovan Mitchell.
5. What’s next: The Heat now have a two-day break before closing out preliminary-round play with a back-to-back set.
They next play Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern against the summer roster of the Milwaukee Bucks, the franchise they eliminated in the first round of this past season’s playoffs.
The Heat then play Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern against the summer roster of the Denver Nuggets, in a meeting of the franchises that played in this past season’s NBA Finals.
From there, the Heat will have one or two more games, depending on tournament seeding.
