Pace and points up around the NBA. Heat is following those trends, just in its own way
As teams around the NBA look to play faster and shoot more threes, the Heat knows who it is and who it isn’t.
“It’s a copycat league,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the Heat (3-2) closing out a four-game homestand Monday against the Kings. “You’re trying to do whatever you can to keep up with the best teams. I think that’s probably been the biggest thing — whatever you see last in the Finals. Golden State has been there four straight years. Teams are going to try to mimic that, right or wrong.
“For us, we try to find whatever is best for us. We definitely are not that. But we are a lot of other good things and we’re trying to maximize that.”
The Heat isn’t trying to replicate the Warriors’ style. The Heat doesn’t have a player like James Harden to put up threes like the Rockets. And it was obvious Saturday night, the Heat uses a different formula than the Blazers.
Behind a collective effort that featured six players scoring in double digits, the Heat outlasted the Blazers 120-11 on Saturday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Portland’s box score wasn’t as balanced, as All-Star point guard Damian Lillard finished with a game-high 42 points and just two others finished with double-digit points for Portland.
To put Lillard’s night into perspective, the Heat hasn’t had a player score 42 or more since Dwyane Wade finished with 42 points in a loss to the Jazz on Dec. 17, 2014.
The Heat doesn’t have one of the league’s top scorers, but the depth and versatility within Miami’s roster is its biggest strengths. The Heat has had four different leading scorers over its first five games, with only the Kings showing more variety at this early stage of the season with five different leading scorers.
Eight different Heat players are averaging double-digit points this season — Goran Dragic (19), Josh Richardson (17.6), Rodney McGruder (16), Wade (13), Hassan Whiteside (11.8), Derrick Jones Jr. (11.3), Kelly Olynyk (10.2) and Justise Winslow (10).
“We love our roster and the fact that we have great depth, and a lot of guys that can hurt you,” Spoelstra said. “It takes the right kind of mindset to be able to have those kind of contributions.”
But that doesn’t mean the Heat is not following the trends around the league. Miami is trying to play faster and shoot more threes this season, just at its own speed.
The Heat’s pace is up from averaging 96.2 possessions per 48 minutes last season to 102 possessions this season. And Spoelstra’s team is also shooting 34 threes per game, which is an increase from last season’s average of 30.6 three-point attempts.
“The league has changed. Everybody’s got to get used to this,” Wade said after Saturday’s win. “We didn’t even reach our goal tonight. We wanted to shoot 100 shots. We didn’t get there. We got close. It’s fast-paced. It’s get looks up, contested threes, open threes, rhythm threes. That’s just the game it is. You’ve got to adjust to it and probably the toughest for anybody to adjust in this locker room is probably our coach and he’s adjusted to it. He understands what we need to be competitive in this league. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Heat is trying to do it in its own way, with a deep roster that doesn’t feature a top-tier player but does feature so many good ones.
“You look around and see so many guys making impacts on the game at different times,” Wade said. “It’s fun to play out there. We’ve got a deep team. Tonight we had Wayne Ellington out there and Wayne didn’t even get in the game yet, so we’ve got another three-point shooter coming back. We’ve got a high-flying Derrick Jones Jr., who’s coming back. We’ve got a good team. We’re very deep. We’ve just got to use what we have.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2018 at 11:32 AM.