Heat stunned at buzzer and fall to Rockets, 123-122, despite Bam Adebayo's 32 points and 21 rebounds

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Mar 21, 2026

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March is not when an NBA team wants to get creative with its losses.

And yet here stand the Miami Heat, staggered by a four-game losing streak that now includes Saturday night’s 123-122 loss to the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center.

Last Saturday, an awful start led to a home loss to the Orlando Magic.

Tuesday night, blitzed in the fourth quarter by the Charlotte Hornets.

Thursday night, done in by 60 points from the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic.

And this time within a tick of victory before Houston’s Amen Thompson, the Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest product, scored on a put-back winning basket with two-tenths of a second to play.

So no, not good, not good at all.

Instead of pushing their way out of the play-in race, now in jeopardy of falling to the bottom of that second-tier race.

This time, not even 32 points and a career-high 21 rebounds from center Bam Adebayo were enough, nor were 25 points from Tyler Herro, 19 from Pelle Larsson and 19 from Simone Fontecchio as the Heat played in the injury absences of Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Instead, the night belonged to Thompson and Rockets forward Kevin Durant, who scored 27 points and in the process passed Michael Jordan for fifth on the NBA all-time scoring list.

And it doesn’t get any easier for Erik Spoelstra’s team, with Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs up next, on Monday night at Kaseya Center.

Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday night’s game:

— 1. Game flow: The Heat went up 12 early but trailed 32-29 at the end of the opening period and then 64-63 at halftime.

Adebayo and Herro then continued to roll in the third period, which ended with the Heat up 96-87, the Heat ending the period on an 8-0 roll.

From there, what grew into an 11-point Heat lead was followed by a 15-0 Rockets surge to a 106-102 Houston lead.

The Heat fought back within 119-118 with 26.8 seconds to play on a 3-pointer from Fontecchio and a basket from Larsson.

Eventually, the Heat stood down 121-118 with 12.7, calling time.

The Rockets then intentionally fouled Adebayo with 8.6 seconds to play, with Adebayo making both free throws to make it a one-point game.

Then, after a Heat steal on the Rockets’ ensuing inbound play, Fontecchio scored on a Houston goaltend for a 122-121 Heat lead.

But not over, with the Heat swarming Durant into a miss only to see Thompson sneak in for his put-back for his 23rd and 24th points, the final buzzer then sounding.

— 2. Alternate means: With Powell sidelined by calf tightness after a three-game return from seven games off due to a groin strain, Wiggins missing his eighth consecutive game with a toe issue and Jaquez his second in a row due to hip tightness, Spoelstra again had to spin his wheel of lineups.

This time it landed on Adebayo, Herro, Larsson, Fontecchio and Davion Mitchell.

The lineup lost its only previous start.

It was the seventh start of the season for Fontecchio, who had been on the injury report earlier in the day due to back spasms. He got off to a solid start, with 10 first-quarter points, closing 5 of 9 on 3-pointers.

— 3. And so ...: The injuries and absences returned a familiar face to the rotation, with Nikola Jovic playing as 10th man, his first appearance in 14 games, since he last played in the Feb. 20 road victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

Jovic had missed 11 games due to lower-back injury management, then held out by coach’s decision in his first two games cleared to return.

Jovic showed his rust, going 0-for-3 in his lone four-minute stint.

Also lacking trust was backup center Kel’el Ware, who initially was limited to a single five-minute first-half stint, going scoreless.

Ware then returned only for the final play, when the Rockets won it, with Ware closed -15 for the night.

— 4. Adebayo again: Adebayo already had a double-double when he dunked with 5:41 left in the second period, securing his 10th rebound on that sequence.

It was Adebayo’s 22nd double-double of the season and second first-half double-double this season.

He was up to 20 points and 13 rebounds by the intermission, by that stage already extending his streak of games with at least 20 points to a career-best 11. His previous longest such streak was 11 in a row in November 2023.

It was the third 20-rebound game of Adebayo’s career.

— 5. Durant watch: Durant entered 26 points from passing Jordan for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, entering behind all-time scoring leader LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant and Jordan.

Spoelstra, who coached Durant as a Team USA assistant during the 2024 Paris Olympics, said he continues to marvel at the 37-year-old veteran.

“He’s timeless,” Spoelstra said. “He really is. He’s just been exceptionally consistent in what he does. I think he would be a great example for young players coming into the league to study how he prepares, works at his craft.

“He can be 60 years old and he can get 25 in an NBA game. He’s always going to be able to get to his spots.”