After Heat’s fourth straight win, Wade says this is ‘what we’ve been trying to get to’
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 126-110 blowout win over the Cleveland Cavaliers (16-50) on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena:
1. Just a few days after one of the Heat’s best defensive performances of the season in Wednesday’s win over the Hornets, Miami (31-34) turned in one of its best offensive performances of the season.
The Heat tied a season-high in points (126) and team shooting percentage (57 percent) against the Cavaliers. Miami also shot 12 of 25 on threes and dished out 31 assists.
All of this while committing just 12 turnovers.
When it was done, the Heat had posted a season-best offensive rating of 135.5 on Friday. To put that into perspective, it marks Miami’s best offensive rating since recording a 139.3 rating in a win over Charlotte on March 3, 2014. LeBron James scored 61 points in that game.
“I think we’re playing together more,” Heat point guard Justise Winslow said. “I think the ball is moving and teams are being forced to pull triggers, whether it be a close out or blitz or jumping on a shot fake because you’re late. It’s a mixture of things. But I think just now we’re playing together and the ball is moving a lot.”
Yes, Friday’s performance came against the team with the league’s worst defensive rating. But it’s also a continuation of the Heat’s recent offensive surge.
Since Feb. 27, Miami owns a league-best offensive rating of 118.5 during a six-game stretch that it’s gone 5-1 in. The Heat is also shooting an efficient 50.8 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three-point range during this span.
Who’s performing well over the past six games? It’s been a team effort, with seven players averaging double-digit points — Goran Dragic (19.7), Kelly Olynyk (18.3), Josh Richardson (17.2), Dwyane Wade (14.8), Winslow (14.5), Bam Adebayo (11) and Hassan Whiteside (11).
“It’s amazing what you can accomplish in this league if you don’t care who the leading scorer is, who’s getting the most shots, who’s getting the shine,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Everybody can benefit when your team is playing well and you’re truly enjoying someone else’s success. It’s a lot of fun and you’re seeing that right now with our group.”
Wade agrees.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to get to,” Wade said. “It’s something that obviously coach has been preaching. I know I’ve said it once or twice. I know [Udonis Haslem] has said it as well. You know, strength in numbers. At this time of the year, the numbers really don’t matter. It’s about having team success.”
For a Heat team that’s ranked 25th in the league in points scored per game (106.1), 20th in team shooting percentage (45.3), 25th in turnovers per game (15.1) and 23rd in offensive rating (107.2 points scores per 100 possessions), the past week has represented quite the turnaround.
“I truly believe that you build momentum, you build an identity, you build your habits and you trust it,” Spoelstra said. “The hardest thing to do is to trust it regardless of what that result is. And we’ve been playing good basketball for a while. We just weren’t able to close out some of those tough games, but that doesn’t mask that we were doing a lot of things to put us in a position to win. But it’s nice, obviously, to get the result.”
2. The Heat’s young core of Adebayo, Richardson and Winslow continues to shine.
Here are their stat lines from Friday’s win over the Cavaliers …
Adebayo: 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, seven rebounds and two assists in 25 minutes.
Richardson: 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting on threes in 35 minutes.
Winslow: 16 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in 35 minutes.
There are a lot of good things happening for the Heat during this winning stretch, but the play of its young core is at the top of the list.
During the Heat’s current four-game winning streak, Adebayo is averaging 11.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists, Richardson is averaging 16 points on 45.3 percent shooting, and Winslow is averaging 14 points, six rebounds and 6.3 assists.
“I think [Winslow] and J-Rich are really starting to gain confidence as leaders of this team,” Spoelstra said. “You can hear their voices, they’re commanding and directing and leading the team, along with Dwyane and UD. But their impact from that standpoint is just as big as what they’re doing on the floor. But the two of them are really emerging right now, gaining a lot of confidence.”
3. The Heat is finally healthy. For the first time this season, with just a month remaining in the regular season, the Heat had its full roster available Friday.
That includes Dragic, who returned Friday after missing the previous three games with a strained left calf. Just like the other four games he’s played in after coming back from right knee surgery, Dragic was used off the bench against the Cavaliers. The 32-year-old finished with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting in 16 minutes.
Dragic is averaging 14.6 points on 48 percent shooting in 19.9 minutes in five games since returning from knee surgery.
Those around the organization have said throughout the season it’s hard to judge the group until it’s healthy. There have been injury issues all year, whether it was Dion Waiters missing the first 35 games of the season as he recovered from ankle surgery or Dragic missing 31 games after knee surgery. Well, now we get to see what a healthy Heat team is capable of as it fights to make the playoffs.
“That’s the ideal scenario that rarely happens in this league for anybody,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s full health. “But a lot of things are starting to come together right now. We still need to get guys in better rhythm. Goran was really chomping at the bit to get out here, and you see that he brings something off the dribble that we need. But he’s going to need some more game minutes. But, boy, it’s fantastic to have him back.”
4. In one of the game’s highlights, Rodney McGruder scored seven points on one possession.
How did it happen?
With 5:35 to play, McGruder hit a three-pointer while Kevin Love fouled him. Love’s foul was called a flagrant-1 and McGruder made the free throw to score his fourth point of the possession. Then with the Heat getting the ball back because of the flagrant, McGruder converted on another three with 5:13 on the clock to complete the seven-point possession.
This sequence pushed the Heat’s lead from nine to 16 in less than 30 seconds.
“That’s the fastest you can get buckets in this league,” Spoelstra said with a smile when asked about the seven-point play. “Rodney has just been grinding. He’s been playing really good basketball for over three weeks, a month. He’s doing so many things that our basketball club needs. And even as we get guys back, as you can expect, he’s making me find time for him out there.”
5. With the win, the Heat remains in the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot.
No. 9 Orlando and No. 10 Charlotte also won Friday to stay one game behind Miami. The Heat is two games behind the seventh-place Nets and 2.5 games behind the sixth-place Pistons.
“How could you not have fun right now in a playoff hunt, in a playoff race?” Spoelstra said. “I don’t mean this to be critical at all, but [the Cavaliers] are just in a different place than us. I mention it all the time, some of these teams that we’re playing, can you put yourself in their shoes with what it’s like to play in games that do not have significance? That’s dreary in this league. But to be in a playoff race, every game has context and pressure and meaning to it. That’s a lot of fun. I want our guys to have fun with this.”
Friday marked the start of the Heat’s important five-game homestand. It also marked the easiest game of the homestand, with matchups following against the Raptors, Pistons, Bucks and Hornets. After this stretch at AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami closes the season with nine of its final 13 games on the road.
This story was originally published March 9, 2019 at 12:15 AM.
