Klay Thompson’s corner three in the final seconds of overtime sank the Clippers 117-116, but the shot only mattered because Los Angeles spent the night teaching Miami how to come back. The Heat got a revival night. The Clippers got a pattern.

Start with the second quarter, when the Clippers outscored Miami 43-19 and the 20-point hole Miami later climbed out of took shape. A 20-point lead is supposed to be a closed door. Miami walked through it anyway, and Los Angeles kept holding it open.

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Thompson finished with 30, a season high, and eight threes. Fine. That is the feel-good half, and it is a great one for a guy whose signing and Riley’s Giannis gamble are still being litigated. It is also the kind of night the Giannis trade was supposed to make possible.

But the play that got Klay free came from Bam Adebayo, who set the baseline screen that sprang Klay free in the corner. Bam also had 35 points and 10 rebounds. The Clippers had a whole game to figure him out and still lost the corner.

Here is the take. The Clippers came in 1-6 and left 1-7. Darius Garland scored 26 and dished 7 assists, so this was not a night where the best player went missing. They had the game, and they could not close it.

That is the uncomfortable part for a team trying to find its footing. Losing to a better opponent teaches you something about the gap. Losing a game you led by 20 teaches you that the gap was never the issue, and that is much harder to fix with a trade or a lineup tweak.

The counterargument is easy. Comebacks happen, overtime is a coin flip, and Klay has always been a shooter who can cash a corner look. Sure. But a team that is already 1-6 and gives away a 20-point lead is losing games it controls, and that is a different problem from being outgunned.

I think that is the number worth sitting with. Bad teams lose when the other side is better. This team is losing when it is ahead, and that kind of loss repeats until someone changes what the closing minutes look like.

Miami gets the replay. Los Angeles gets the box score instead, with Garland’s 26 and 7 sitting there like a receipt for a game that got away.