"That's been the deciding factor in a lot of our games," Bam Adebayo told reporters Monday. "It's the 3rd qtr, honestly. Not 1st half, 4th, it's the 3rd. We let our foot off the gas, let teams back in it to be interesting. It's cost us games."
The Miami Heat squandered a 13-point halftime lead in the third quarter, losing the frame by 20 points-the second time this season and the 20th time in franchise history they've lost the third by 20-plus.
If you eliminate the third quarter from Monday's loss, the Heat outscored Sacramento by 19. The biggest thing that matters, however, is the final tally-and their inability to string together quality basketball for 48 minutes has been the biggest reason why.
In six games, the Heat's third quarter NET Rating is a league-worst minus-35.5, 0.5 points per 100 behind the Utah Jazz (-35.0), 0.9 behind Portland (-34.6) and over 17 behind Brooklyn (-18.2), the fourth-worst.
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