On Wednesday night, the Miami Heat were defeated 128-120 by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were led by 28 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 23 from Chet Holmgren. The Thunder took advantage of two significant second-half surges.

Lu Dort scored fourteen points and Isaiah Joe contributed eleven, while Jalen Williams tallied nine rebounds, twelve assists, and nine points. In the last ten matchups, Oklahoma City has beaten Miami twice.

With 25 points, 11 boards, and 6 assists, Bam Adebayo was Miami’s leading scorer. Haywood Highsmith scored 19 points, which was a career high, while Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 21.

As a team, the Heat were led by Tyler Herro (17 points), Nikola Jovic (15 points), and Kevin Love (12 points). In the last minute, Miami went on a 10-0 run to pull within six points, but they would go on to lose the lead.

A 13-0 run to start the third quarter and a 17-0 run that began late in the third and continued five minutes into the fourth were the lynchpins of the Thunder’s victory. In the second half, Miami missed their first five shots before missing ten in a row during Oklahoma City’s second surge.

Despite playing in just 37 games this season, Miami used a total of 20 different starting lineups. In addition to Jimmy Butler (foot, toe) and Caleb Martin (ankle), Kyle Lowry (left hand sprain, Monday night’s game versus Houston) was also ruled out.

Despite the Thunder shooting 69.2% in the first half, they failed to take the lead, and Miami went into halftime leading 69–65. Looking back, it was clear that shouldn’t have occurred.

It was just the third occasion a team has shot 69.2% or better in the first half but still trailed at halftime since the NBA started digitally recording play-by-play data in 1996–97. There had been 130 such instances.

The Thunder’s shooting dropped in the second half, but they still managed to finish with 59%.