Another humbling Heat loss, this time 119-96 to Embiid-less 76ers

In the charcuterie of a Miami Heat season that has included plenty of spoiled cheese and rancid meats, Erik Spoelstra’s team might have taken unappetizing to a new level Wednesday night.

Desperate for a solid start of a six-game homestand, and gifted with the injury absence of Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, the Heat offered one of their least-palatable efforts of the season, a 119-96 loss at Miami-Dade Arena that made it five defeats in their last six games.

Offering both sluggish offense and impotent defense, the Heat allowed the 76ers to bounce back from their two-point home loss Monday night to the Heat.

With the loss, the Heat moved closer to a postseason play-in reality, possibly even as a road team, as the New York Knicks, Friday’s opponent at Miami-Dade Arena, continued to distance themselves in the Eastern Conference.

“We’ve shown that we can be the very best against anybody anywhere,” Spoelstra said, “and then we’ve also shown this.

“It’s a sustainability that we have not been able to wrap our hands around this season. We’re going to continue to work at it until we do.”

While the Heat got 20 points and eight rebounds from center Bam Adebayo and 16 points from Jimmy Butler, they ultimately were no match for the 76ers’ perimeter play of Tyrese Maxey and James Harden.

“It’s been up and down the whole season, you can’t explain it,” Adebayo said.

Nonetheless, Spoelstra said the Heat have enough.

“All the answers that we want are in that locker room,” he said.

Making it worse, Butler left for the locker room with 10 minutes to play due to knee soreness.

“Just a little bit of knee soreness,” Spoelstra said. “We were down 25 at that point. He was just going to try to loosen up, get a little bit of treatment. If we would have gotten it to under 10, I’m sure he would have been right back.”

Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday’s game:

1. Closing time: The Heat led 38-34 at the end of the opening period but then trailed 71-53 at halftime. After closing within 11 in the third period, the Heat went into the fourth down 96-77.

“I honestly feel like we have too many mental lapses in the middle of the game,” Adebayo said.

From there, it got worse, with Spoelstra down to his final two timeouts after calling time with his team down 25 with 10:08 to play, and then burning another of those timeouts with the Heat down 106-83 with 7:27 to play.

“We just weren’t able to execute the way we wanted to, and certainly not be able to sustain it,” Spoelstra said. “Anytime we had any kind of run, it usually led to a tough, contested shot, that led to a breakout going the other way.”

Or, as Adebayo said, “We didn’t get any stops and that’s what hurt us the whole game.”

2. Bad news: Everything that is and has been bad about the Heat’s offense manifested in the second quarter, when the Heat shot 5 of 19 from the field and 1 of 8 on 3-pointers.

Lacking true point guard play in the absence of Kyle Lowry, the Heat had three assists and five turnovers in the quarter, with Butler without even a shot in his 7:28 in the quarter.

It again was another struggle for fill-in starting point guard Gabe Vincent, who closed 2 of 11 from the field and 0 for 7 on 3-pointers.

“We scored 38 in the first quarter and I thought we did some really good things,” Spoelstra said, “and in the second quarter they totally flattened us out.”

3. Threes again: When the Heat opened 4 of 8 on 3-pointers, there was a sense of picking up where they left off with Monday night’s 15 of 37 3-point shooting in Philadelphia.

Instead, from that 4-of-8 start, the Heat then missed their next 13 attempts from beyond the arc.

Going in, Spoelstra said, “For the most part this year, we’ve gotten good, clean looks from three. . . . I like a lot of the shots we’ve gotten. We just have to continue to build more consistency to our attacks.”

The Heat closed 7 of 28 from beyond the arc, compared to the 76ers’ 15 of 39.

“We took some tough, contested shots,” Spoelstra said.

4. Herro’s struggles: It might not be the same as baseball sluggers throwing off their swing during Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby, but Heat guard Tyler Herro remains off since exiting in the first round of the 3-point contest during All-Star Weekend.

In his four appearances since the All-Star break, Herro has shot 5 of 15, 10 of 23, 3 of 13 and then Wednesday night’s 4 of 15.

“I have to get to the film,” Spoelstra said. “Because each game has been different.

“Overall, the consistency and sustainability of our offense, that’s what we have to get to.”

5. No Embiid: Embiid was ruled out less than an hour before the game, due to a sore left foot.

Wednesday’s game opened a back-to-back set for the 76ers that concludes Thursday night in Dallas.

That had the 76ers opening with former Heat forward P.J. Tucker at center, in a small-ball opening unit. Tucker closed with five points and three rebounds in 19 minutes.

Embiid had gone for 27 points and 12 rebounds in Monday’s matchup against the Heat.

It was yet another game when the Heat lost to an opponent lacking a leading man.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s an exhale, but we have not seized those opportunities the way we should have, so far,” Spoelstra said.

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