The Miami Heat finished their winless three-game road trip with a 122-114 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (2-1) on Monday night at Fiserv Forum. Here are five things to learn from the game.

The Heat will now go back to Miami, where they will start a homestand of three games against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday: The Heat have started the season with a record of 1-3 for the second year in a row.

The outcome of Monday’s game wasn’t all that surprising considering that the Bucks started its top three scorers in Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and Khris Middleton, while the Heat were without one of their top players.

The Heat have struggled to get off to a fast start for the second year in a row, as evidenced by the fact that they opened the season with a record of 0-3 on their first road trip of the year.

After taking the lead with 2 minutes and 23 seconds remaining in the first quarter, the Bucks were never in a position where they were down again. The Heat were losing by 10 points going into halftime and eventually found themselves trailing by as many as 25 points. The Heat did not give up and made a late run of 27-10, cutting their deficit from 25 points to eight points with 3 minutes and 33 seconds left in the game’s fourth quarter.

Throughout the majority of that run in the fourth quarter, Miami’s starting lineup consisted of Tyler Herro, Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson, Nikola Jovic, and Orlando Robinson. After then, Duncan Robinson made a floater, which cut the Heat’s deficit to six points with 1:22 left to play in the game.

When Giannis Antetokounmpo was able to finish over Orlando Robinson for a and-one layup with 1:16 left, it gave the impression that the Bucks had finally put an end to the Heat’s chances of winning. Antetokounmpo made both free throws to finish off the three-point play for Milwaukee, which resulted in the Bucks taking a nine-point lead.

With 28.6 seconds left to play, a three-pointer made by Duncan Robinson brought the deficit back down to six points. After that, on the next possession, the Bucks committed a five-second penalty, which allowed the Heat to continue playing.

The Heat’s hopes of completing the comeback were dashed when Herro attempted and missed a three-point shot with 18.9 seconds remaining, and Antetokounmpo retrieved the defensive rebound to end the game.

The most intriguing plot point going into the game was that Lillard would be facing the Heat for the first time since he made his trade request to Miami over the previous summer. Lillard, who was instead traded to the Bucks by the Trail Blazers of Portland a month ago, finished with 25 points, five rebounds, and four assists in the game.

Lillard was one of three Bucks players that finished with double-digit points, headed by Antetokounmpo’s 33 points who led the way for the Bucks. Before making a significant run in the fourth quarter, the Heat had a difficult time generating an effective offense due to the fact that starting center Bam Adebayo was sidelined with a hip injury.

The offensive rating of the Miami Heat came into Monday’s game ranked 21st in the NBA, and it did not improve at all during the contest. Through the first three quarters of the game, the Heat had a poor shooting performance from beyond the arc, making only six of their 23 attempts for a percentage of 26.1 and taking only seven shots from within the restricted area. Tyler Herro, a guard for the Heat, finished with a game-high 25 points despite his team’s loss.

He shot an impressive 12 of 21 from the field and 9 of 10 from the free throw line. The free throw that Herro attempted on Monday but did not make brought an end to his streak of making 48 straight free throws. The Heat record for most consecutive free throws made is 50, which he finished two short of matching.

That mark was set by Glen Rice in 1994. Jimmy Butler’s early-season shooting struggles persisted, as he finished Monday’s loss with 13 points, four rebounds, four assists, and 29 minutes of court time. He shot just 4-of-11 from the floor. Through the first four games of the Heat’s season, he has a field goal percentage of just 32.5, shooting just 13 of 40 from the field.

In the last period of the game, coach Spoelstra elected to keep the same starting group on the court, which included Herro, Richardson, Jovic, Duncan Robinson, and Orlando Robinson. This lineup was successful in making a late game comeback. The Heat have struggled with injuries since the beginning of the season.

Unfortunately, the sad trend that saw the Heat finish the previous regular season with the second-most missed games in the NBA due to injury (289), based on Spotrac’s injury tracker, has persisted into the early going of this season for the Heat. Every one of the first four games of the Heat’s regular season has been played with multiple starters and rotation players missing from the team.

On Monday, the Heat were missing starting center Bam Adebayo (left hip contusion) as well as two players who are projected to be significant components of the bench rotation in Haywood Highsmith and Caleb Martin (both left knee sprains and tendinosis, respectively).

As a result of Adebayo’s hip injury, which he sustained after taking a “hard fall” during Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he was sidelined for the very first time this season. Before Monday’s game, Spoelstra stated of Adebayo, “When we got into town yesterday it was pretty sore and it didn’t get much better today.

” Spoelstra was referring to Adebayo’s ailing knee. On Monday, Martin sat out of action for a third consecutive game due to ongoing knee soreness that he attributes to offseason training. Highsmith, who sprained his knee during the preseason, has not yet participated in a game this year due to the injury.

As a result of the Heat’s injury woes, the team has been forced to employ three different starting lineups across the first four games of the season. Thomas Bryant, the Heat’s customary backup center, started in place of Adebayo alongside the team’s four other usual starters, Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, and Kevin Love.

However, there was some good news to report: After recovering from an injury, guard Josh Richardson played his first game of the season. Richardson rejoined the Heat in Milwaukee and played against the Bucks after sitting out the first three games of the season due to a foot injury and stayed in Miami for the first two games of the trip. The foot injury caused Richardson to miss the first three games of the season.

Richardson got his first action of the season on Monday when the Heat made their first substitution with 6:02 left in the first quarter. He scored his first points of the season on a jump shot from 14 feet away with 10:05 left in the second quarter. Richardson made his first appearance off the bench on Monday. Richardson ended the game with six points, three rebounds, and two assists while playing 23 minutes off the bench in the team’s loss.

He shot just three of seven from the floor. When asked how he can assist the Heat before their game on Monday, Richardson responded, “Just a little bit of ball-handling and a little bit of pace.” “I believe that, defensively, I am able to do some things to help us.

But for the most part, it’s just about getting into a rhythm and testing the waters because I didn’t really have a preseason either. Just attempting to get back into the groove of things at this point. After missing one game each due to rest and shoulder injuries, Jimmy Butler and Kevin Love both returned to action on Monday.

Both Love and Butler did not play in the team’s defeat in Minneapolis on Saturday. The Heat were once again need to adjust their bench rotation as a result of the injury shuffle. As a result of Richardson’s return and Adebayo’s absence from his first game of the season, the Heat utilized a new bench rotation on Monday.

The Heat went with a four-man bench rotation that included Richardson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson, and Orlando Robinson. Adebayo was the player that missed his first game of the season. Richardson and Orlando Robinson were the two players who joined the bench unit as new members.

Richardson is projected to be a regular, but Orlando Robinson played as the backup center to cover the vacuum left by Kobe Bryant when Bryant was put into the starting lineup to replace an injured Adebayo. Richardson is expected to be a regular. In Monday’s loss, Orlando Robinson, who has not been a regular member of the Heat’s rotation to start the season, finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists while playing a total of 26 minutes.

In addition, Heat forward Nikola Jovic, who is in his second year with the team, entered the contest with 7 minutes and 23 seconds remaining in the game and the Bucks already held a lead of 17 points. RJ Hampton, Dru Smith, and Jamal Cain were among the Heat players that were available and active on Friday, but they did not participate in any games.

It is noteworthy that Smith did not participate in the rotation on Monday’s game, given that he participated in each of the first three games of the season and logged double-digit minutes in each of the two games prior to Monday’s contest.

However, Smith was taken out of the lineup as a result of Richardson’s comeback. The Heat are scheduled to play their next two games at home, but after that they will embark on another lengthy road trip. This three-game journey, which culminated in a loss on Monday, marked the beginning of a stretch of 16 games, 12 of which will be played away from home.

And this difficult stretch of the schedule consisting of 16 games is off to a poor start for the Heat, as they have a record of 0-2 so far during this stretch of action. After this, the Heat will play three consecutive games at home in Miami. However, in one week the Heat will embark on another road trip that will consist of four games, beginning with a contest against the Memphis Grizzlies on the 8th of November.

The Heat have played the most road games of any NBA club during the first 17 games of the season, with a total of 12. This is the most away games played by any NBA team during this span. In order for the Heat to climb out of this early-season hole, they will need to overcome the challenges presented by their upcoming schedule over the following four weeks.