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Miami guard Tyler Herro starred as the Heat humbled LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers 134-93 on Wednesday, leaving the Lakers looking for answers after their biggest defeat of the NBA season.
Herro scored 21 of his 31 points in the third quarter and finished with nine of the Heat's franchise record-equaling 24 three-pointers. Jimmy Butler added 17 points and Bam Adebayo had 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Heat, who set a franchise record with 42 assists as they kept their offense firing against the lethargic Lakers.
The Heat were already up by 17 at halftime, but Herro erupted in the third quarter, draining seven three-pointers to match the Heat record for most in a period. "This past road trip, we let two slip, and it was the energy ... it was just our energy was off," Adebayo said. "We came into this game with great energy, and you see what happened." The Lakers, coming off a 29-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, looked listless on both ends of the floor. "I'm embarrassed, we're all embarrassed," Lakers first-year coach JJ Redick said. "It's not a game where we had the right fight, the right professionalism.
There has to be some ownership," he added. "I own this, but there's going to have to be some ownership on the court." There were encouraging signs for James, who came in mired in a shooting slump and scored a team-high 29 points on efficient 12 of 18 shooting.
The league's all-time leading scorer also ended his streak of four straight games without a three-pointer, making one of his four attempts from beyond the arc. That trey was the 2,451st of his career, passing Kyle Korver for seventh on the league's all-time list.
That will be little consolation now that the Lakers have lost six of their last eight games. A frustrated James said it wasn't a matter of the game plan. "If you don't want to come to compete ... that's other issues," he said. "It's definitely embarrassing for sure."
