Heat loses drive along with its driving force

The Miami Heat woke up one day and realized it was December.

The party that followed its surprising NBA title run was over, the champagne bubbles long since popped and the confetti swept away. To make its hangover worse, Shaquille O’Neal tore cartilage in his left knee and underwent surgery Nov. 19, a procedure that’s expected to keep him out of the lineup until the new year.

No amount of aspirin or orange juice was going to cure that headache anytime soon.

For Coach Pat Riley, losing O’Neal was bad but not drastic enough to doom the season. Although O’Neal’s age and injury history make it likely he won’t hurry back, the Big Aristotle might actually benefit from resting now and preserving his strength for the playoffs.

Riley was less sure about the return of the urgency, opportunism and scrappiness that fueled the Heat’s championship drive last spring. A stretch of six losses in seven games dropped the Heat to 4-8 and reinforced Riley’s belief that his team was suffering from a post-championship letdown.

He’s certainly qualified to recognize the symptoms.

“I think some of it definitely had that earmark,” he said before the game against the Clippers. “We just weren’t ready for training camp. Guys weren’t in the best of condition. So I thought the first week of the season was a washout.

“Obviously, we’ve gotten hammered in some games pretty hard, but I think we’re getting it now.”

All they got Tuesday at Staples Center was a 101-97 loss to the Clippers, who are healthy and whole and won for the third time in four games.

Despite the finest efforts and 33 points by playoff most valuable player Dwyane Wade to halt the Clippers’ third-quarter runaway, the Heat lost for the 10th time in 17 games. Seven of those losses have been by 15 points or more, including margins of 42, 22, 20 and 24.

Clearly, whatever ails the Heat hasn’t been cured yet.

“For a lot of us, it was the first time winning a title and understanding how to defend it and what to expect,” said Antoine Walker, who scored seven points and had five rebounds as the first man off the bench. “Teams are gunning for us. We’re starting to understand how hard we have to play.”

Although Walker said before Tuesday’s game that he believed the Heat had turned a corner by winning three of four games against Charlotte, Philadelphia, Detroit and Memphis, the Clippers pushed them back around the bend.

It will be a long way back without O’Neal, whose absence has forced the Heat to change its lineup and style.

“Without him, we’re not much of a post-up team so we’re playing a lot of pick and rolls. We slow the tempo down,” Riley said.

“We’re concerned about our possessions. We’re trying to take care of the ball and trying not to turn the ball over. There’s been some good things. We just want to continue to sustain the good things.”

The Heat couldn’t sustain those advances against the Clippers and showed how desperately it misses O’Neal on defense. When the Clippers began to pound the ball down low, Miami had no answer, unable to stop Elton Brand from scoring 10 of his team-high 33 points in the second quarter.

“Elton was incredible, so efficient,” Riley said. “He did us in.”

The Clippers opened the third quarter with a 19-6 spree, hitting from outside, down low and every possible variation. They began to dominate the boards too and ultimately had a 47-43 edge.

Each time the Heat showed some life, usually led by Wade, the Clippers had a resounding response. Wade’s three-point shot closed it to 88-84, and his pressure free throws cut the Clippers’ lead to 92-91 with 1:21 to play. A layup by Wade sliced the Clippers’ margin to 97-95 with 17.3 seconds to play and to 99-97 with 11.4 to play, but the Clippers held firm.

“I felt that we played well enough to win. Unfortunately, we had some breakdowns at the wrong time,” Heat forward Udonis Haslem said. “We fought our way back in but just couldn’t get over the hump.”

Gary Payton blamed mental errors for the Heat’s loss. “Our defense went down a little bit, but we did what we had to do,” he said. “We missed shots today but we still could have won the basketball game.”

But they didn’t, and the hangover lingers.

“We were fighting from behind most of the second half. We came back a few times, had an opportunity,” Riley said before lamenting his team’s decision to take 25 three-point shots, about twice as many as he would have liked.

“Just one play behind. Just could not shoot the ball well from outside tonight.”There will be many more nights until O’Neal returns, maybe more just like this one.

“There’s a long way to go,” Walker said. “It’s a marathon. You have to understand that. And playing without Shaq is huge for us because we base so many things around him. There’s a lot of adjustments without him, but we have to do it for the next month and a half.... We need to get back to playing basketball the way we can play it.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com