ZERO TO HERRO: Hot-shooting Heat torch Lakers by 41

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Miami guard Tyler Herro starred as the Heat humbled LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, 134-93, on Wednesday, leaving the Lakers looking for answers after their biggest defeat of the National Basketball Association season.

Herro scored 21 of his 31 points in the third quarter and finished with nine of the Heat’s franchise record-tying 24 three-pointers.

Jimmy Butler added 17 points and Bam Adebayo had 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Heat, who set a franchise record with 42 assists as they kept their offense firing against the lethargic Lakers.

The Heat were already up by 17 at halftime, but Herro erupted in the third quarter, draining seven three-pointers to match the Heat record for most in a period.

“We came into this game with great energy, and you see what happened,” Adebayo said.

The Lakers, coming off a 29-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, looked listless on both ends of the floor.

“I’m embarrassed, we’re all embarrassed,” Lakers first-year coach JJ Redick said.

“It’s not a game where we had the right fight, the right professionalism.”

“There has to be some ownership,” he added.

“I own this, but there’s going to have to be some ownership on the court.”

There were encouraging signs for James, who came in mired in a shooting slump and scored a team-high 29 points on efficient 12 of 18 shooting.

The league’s all-time leading scorer also ended his streak of four straight games without a three-pointer, making one of his four attempts from beyond the arc, which was the 2,451st of his career, passing Kyle Korver for seventh on the league’s all-time list.

That will be little consolation now that the Lakers have lost six of their last eight games.

Redick said the Lakers are struggling on both ends with “base level game plan stuff.”

But a frustrated James said it wasn’t a matter of the game plan.

“If you don’t want to come to compete, that’s other issues,” he said.

On Friday, the Lakers face the Atlanta Hawks, who snapped the Bucks’ seven-game winning streak with a 119-104 victory in Milwaukee.

Jalen Johnson scored 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Atlanta and De’Andre Hunter added 20 points off the bench as the Hawks notched their fifth straight victory.