Not again: Sacramento Kings fall to shorthanded Miami Heat while Jimmy Butler is suspended

The Kings have lost a number of games this season due to their maddening tendency to play down to the level of competition against shorthanded opponents.

They did it again Monday night against the Miami Heat.

Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kevin Love taught the Kings a lesson in Heat Culture, leading a depleted team to a stunning 121-110 victory before a crestfallen crowd of 17,832 at Golden 1 Center. 

[Missing players] didn’t stop Miami from doing what it has done for years under team president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra, executing a winning brand of basketball no matter who is on the floor.

Just last season, the Heat went to the NBA Finals with several undrafted players, including Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent and Haywood Highsmith. [Sac HC Mike] Brown was asked if there is a way to replicate the Heat’s culture, which is defined by professionalism, toughness, fitness, consistency and a next-man-up mentality.

“You can’t replicate it. You’ve got to have your own culture in my opinion. It’s hard to do the same thing that somebody else is doing, but the reality of it is, from top to bottom, they believe in toughness and they believe in playing hard and playing the right way.”…

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I do think they beat us to a majority of the 50-50 balls, so some of the effort, we need to be better, but they just played better than us.”—point guard De’Aaron Fox