Heat demolishes Portland 142-82, sets franchise record for margin of victory

Takeaways from the Heat’s 142-82 demolition of the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday at Kaseya Center:

▪ The Heat took command early and showed absolutely no mercy, pounding the hapless Blazers with a flurry of threes, a franchise-record 41 assists and suffocating defense. In the process, Miami easily set a franchise record for largest margin of victory.

This was the fourth time in franchise history that Miami won a game by 40 or more. This was the first time that Miami won by a margin greater than 50, let alone the final margin of 60.

The previous Heat record for largest margin of victory was 43, in a 126-83 drubbing of the Clippers in the 1994-95 season.

“It feels good for the whole group,” Terry Rozier said. “We want to build on this moving forward and make a strong push.”

Down 5-0 early, the Heat immediately took control with a 19-4 run and led 29-19 after a quarter. But that was just the start of the stomping.

The Heat then unleashed a 13-0 stampede to start the second quarter.

By the time Haywood Highsmith hit his third three, it was 50-23.

By the time Bam Adebayo hit his eighth three-pointer in his past eight games, it was 64-36.

By the time Terry Rozier nailed consecutive threes, it was 72-36.

By the time Jaime Jaquez Jr. snaked to the basket late in the third, it was 102-56.

And by the time the third quarter ended, it was 107-63 and Miami had already tied its season high in assists, with 36.

The Heat’s most prolific scoring first half of the season ended with a 74-40 lead and a franchise record: Miami’s 24 assists before halftime were the most in a half in Heat history. The Heat’s 44 points in the second quarter tied for its most in a quarter this season.

Miami shot 10 for 19 on threes in the first half and closed 21 for 39.

Portland was 1 for 15 on threes in the first half and finished 5 of 31.

That told part of the story.

The other part: The Heat was sharp on defense, while the Blazers were often late and disorganized.

The drubbing continued after halftime; Miami outscored Portland 33-23 in the third quarter and led by 44 heading to the fourth. Miami then outscored the Blazers 35-19 in the fourth.

And by the time the night ended, Miami had topped the previous franchise record for assists (39).

Bam Adebayo had nine of Miami’s 41 assists; Jimmy Butler had eight and Terry Rozier six.

The only negative for the Heat: Nikola Jovic left for good in the third quarter with a right knee contusion. But it isn’t considered anything serious.

With the score lopsided, Adebayo left for good late in the third quarter, finishing one assist shy of a triple double (21 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists).

Erik Spoelstra ran two actions that gave Adebayo a chance to get his 10th assist before removing him. “I don’t want to be a total buzzkill out there,” Spoelstra said.

Adebayo, who hit his first four shots, scored 18 in the first half and finished the night 9 for 12 from the field in 26 minutes.

Rozier scored 14 of his 22 in the first half, and Haywood Highsmith scored a career-high 20 points, continuing his best offensive stretch of the season.

Thomas Bryant (26 points, 12 rebounds) also gave the Heat a big lift, and Jaquez was very good, with 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.

A big night wasn’t required from Butler, who missed Wednesday’s loss to Golden State with an illness. Butler, who was sniffling before the game, took only four shots and closed with eight points and those eight assists in 25 minutes.

Portland – playing without Jerami Grant, Malcolm Brogdon and three other rotation players — lost for the ninth consecutive time.

Next up for Miami: a 6 p.m. Sunday game in Washington.

▪ Several notable developments happened from three-point range.

From a team perspective, Miami shot 7 for 11 on threes in the second quarter while Portland shot 0 for 8, a big reason why the Heat outscored the Blazers 45-21 in the quarter and made this a runaway.

From an individual perspective, Adebayo’s blossoming three-point game continued.

His three-pointer late in the first half made him 8 for his past 12 on threes over the past 12 games. Another three in the third quarter made him 9 for his past 13 on threes. He missed his third and final three-point attempt.

Before this stretch, Adebayo had shot 9 for 76 on threes in his first 472 regular-season games.

Meanwhile, Highsmith saw his streak of seven consecutive made threes end when he missed a 25-footer to start the third quarter.

But he promptly hit his next three three-pointers during that Heat second-quarter drubbing. He finished the night 5 of 6 on threes.

Rozier entered shooting just 29.7 percent on three-pointers in his first 25 games with the Heat, compared with 35.8 percent with Charlotte earlier in the season and 36.4 in his career.

But Rozier -- who began the night 38 of 128 on threes in a Heat uniform -- hit 6 of 10 from distance.

Martin, who entered in a 7 for 38 slump on threes, made one of two.

And Butler hit a three to continue the most accurate three-point season of his career; Butler entered shooting 41.5 percent on threes, well above his 32.8 career average.

▪ Kevin Love was available after missing 14 games, but Spoelstra decided to give him another night off, and Thomas Bryant seized on the opportunity.

Miami outscored Portland 45 to 21 in the second quarter, and Bryant helped spearhead the Heat’s second-quarter shellacking, with 10 points on five for seven shooting.

He remained on an offensive roll during extended second half garbage time, finishing 11 for 16 from the field.

“Thomas really stepped up and provided really quality winning minutes,” Spoelstra said before the game when asked about Love’s expected return.

Spoelstra warned before the game that Love might not play as much on Friday as he usually does because he had been away from the team briefly for personal reasons, coupled with his return from an extended injury absence. As it turned out, he didn’t play at all.

Meanwhile, Tyler Herro missed his 17th consecutive game with a foot injury and Duncan Robinson sat out his fifth consecutive game with a back injury.

Herro, who has not played since Feb. 23, has entered the ramp-up phase in his recovery from right foot medial tendonitis. He went through a shooting workout following Thursday’s practice at Kaseya Center. Spoelstra said there’s no timeline for a return, but the Heat remains hopeful he will be playing before the end of the regular season on April 14.

▪ The Heat remained seventh in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Heat could have jumped Indiana and ended the night in sixth if the Lakers had won in Indianapolis. But the Pacers won, keeping the No. 7 Heat (40-33) one game behind Indiana (42-33).

No. 8 Philadelphia lost in Cleveland and is 1.5 games behind Miami.

The seventh seed plays the eighth seed in the play-in tournament. The sixth seed goes directly to the playoffs to meet the third seed, with the Knicks and Cavs vying for that spot.

The Heat, competing with Indiana and Philadelphia for the sixth seed and to avoid the play-in, will need to beat the 76ers next Thursday in Miami and the Pacers next Sunday, April 7 in Indianapolis to win tiebreakers with each. The Heat is 2-1 against the 76ers and 1-1 against the Pacers.

Cumulative head-to-head record would determine a three-team tiebreaker; Miami and Indiana are 3-2 against each other and the 76ers; Philadelphia is 2-4. But 76ers star center Joel Embiid could return from injury very soon.

▪ After bypassing the chance to trade Damian Lillard to the Heat, the Blazers continue to get mixed contributions from the players they chose to acquire instead.

As part of a three-team trade that sent Lillard to Milwaukee and several players to Phoenix, Portland received DeAndre Ayton, Toumani Camara, a 2029 Bucks first round-pick and Jrue Holiday, who was flipped to Boston for Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams III.

Ayton is averaging 15.8 points and 11.1 rebounds, but hasn’t made a tangible difference in winning. He had 18 points and eight boards Friday.

Camara, who missed Friday’s game with an injury, is averaging 7.5 points and 4.9 rebounds and looks like a potential rotation player.

Williams played in just six games before being lost for the season with a knee injury.

Brogdon, who also has dealt with injuries, is averaging 15.7 points in 39 games.

After an initial conversation in July, the Trail Blazers declined to seriously engage with the Heat on Lillard. So Portland never knew precisely what Miami would offer beyond Tyler Herro.

A package likely would have included two first round picks and several young players. Miami rejected Portland’s request for Adebayo.

Herro is averaging 20.8 points but has appeared in just 38 games.

Lillard is averaging 24.4 points for Milwaukee - down from 32.2 last season, when he needed to carry more of the offensive load for Portland. He’s shooting 42.6 percent from the field and 35.8 percent on threes.