Record-setting quarter leads Heat to blowout win, 5-1 start. Takeaways from Heat-Rockets
The Miami Heat not only beat what has been one of the Western Conference’s best teams in recent seasons. The Heat crushed them.
With the help of a record-setting first quarter, the Heat cruised to a 129-100 blowout win over the Houston Rockets (3-3) on Sunday at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami is 5-1 to begin the season.
The Heat now hits the road for a three-game West Coast trip that begins Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets.
Here are five takeaways from Miami’s blowout win over Houston ...
1. This is what the Heat envisioned when it added four-time All-Star wing Jimmy Butler this past offseason.
Butler was a force on both ends of the court Sunday, finishing with 18 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and four steals. The Heat outscored the Rockets by 29 points with Butler on the court.
Butler started the game strong, with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, five rebounds, five assists and two steals in the first quarter.
After taking a total of 21 shots in his first two regular-season games with the Heat, Butler looked for his shot more against Houston with 15 shot attempts.
“I thought he was a force in the first quarter,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “You could just feel his energy. He had a different kind of offensive aggressiveness tonight in that first quarter to set the tone. But he doesn’t care. He really doesn’t care what his scoring average is, he doesn’t care how many shots he gets up.”
Six Heat players finished with double-digit points against Houston.
Forward Duncan Robinson finished with a career-high 23 points and seven made threes. Center Meyers Leonard finished with 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting.
It was an inefficient night for Houston’s All-Star backcourt of James Harden (29 points) and Russell Westbrook (10 points), who combined for 39 points on 9-of-25 shooting and 13 turnovers.
2. Sunday’s first quarter was arguably the Heat’s best quarter in franchise history.
The Heat outscored the Rockets 46-14 in the opening quarter. It marked the most points the Heat has scored in a first quarter and the largest margin the Heat has ever won a first quarter by in franchise history.
“I looked up and it actually surprised me, the score at one point,” Spoelstra said.
Sunday’s first quarter goes down as the Heat’s third-highest scoring quarter in franchise history. At the top of that list? A 48-point fourth quarter against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1989.
But Sunday’s first quarter does go down as the largest margin the Heat has ever won a quarter by in franchise history, surpassing a first quarter Miami won by 28 against the Knicks on Jan. 22, 2007, according to Basketball Reference.
“I wish I could bottle that up,” Spoelstra said of Sunday’s first quarter. “But obviously, guys have really been working to try to get to our identity and then bringing a great deal of energy and commitment to the defensive end. This is obviously one of the most challenging teams to defend in the league. You have to do things with great thought, technique. But the effort has to be there.
“That energy was electric in the first quarter, and we were able to play off of a lot of those misses and turnovers in the open court. I think we had 14 in transition after the first quarter. Then we were able to just carry it on from there.”
Aside from all of the impressive records, it was the way the Heat dominated the Rockets in the first quarter that really stood out. Ball movement and in-your-face stingy defense led the Heat to its impressive start.
The Heat shot 16 of 23 (69.6 percent) from the field and 5 of 8 on threes in the period. Miami also recorded 14 assists on its 16 made baskets in the quarter.
Meanwhile, the Rockets shot just 5 of 21 (23.8 percent) from the field and 2 of 15 on threes in the quarter.
It’s also worth noting the Rockets entered with the league’s second-worse defensive rating. The Heat sure took advantage of Houston’s struggling defense.
“We set the tone in the first quarter,” Robinson said. “We competed very well on the defensive end. ... When we are locked in is when we force turnovers and rebound well. We are just at our best when we play unselfishly and are sharing the ball. We as a team take a lot of pride in our defense and if we do that then the offense will follow.”
3. In the middle of the Heat’s wild first quarter, forward James Johnson made his season debut.
Johnson entered Sunday’s game off the bench with 3:25 remaining in the first quarter. He scored his first points of the season just over a minute later on a dunk with 2:05 remaining in the period.
Johnson finished the game with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, four rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes.
“Like riding a bike,” Johnson said of what it felt like to play in his first NBA game since last season’s April 10 finale against the Nets.
Johnson’s minutes on Sunday are certainly notable, considering he spent the past month working toward meeting the team’s conditioning standards regarding body fat and weight. He was sent away on the eve of training camp on Sept. 30 and did not return to the team until Oct. 11 after failing to meet the Heat’s conditioning requirements.
“Buying in, doing what I’m supposed to do every day at practice and staying locked in mentally,” Johnson said of working his way back to game action. “And when the opportunity is given, take advantage.”
Johnson was on the Heat’s active roster for the first time this season in Thursday’s road win over the Hawks, but he did not play in the game.
While Sunday was an encouraging step for Johnson, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s now going to be a consistent part of the Heat’s rotation again. His playing time came with forwards Justise Winslow (lower back tightness), Derrick Jones Jr. (left groin strain) and KZ Okpala (left Achillies strain) all unavailable against the Rockets.
4. The Heat’s ball movement was impressive Sunday. It has actually been impressive all season.
After recording 23 assists on 26 first-half made baskets against the Rockets, the Heat finished the night with a season-high 38 assists on 47 made baskets.
Miami’s 38 assists on Sunday is tied for the second most it has ever finished a game with, matching the 38 assists it had against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 11, 2000. The franchise record is 39 assists against the Philadelphia 76ers on Feb. 15, 1997.
“It comes down to sharing the ball,” Butler said. “We share the ball. Somebody is open, they’re always going to get the ball. Nobody is complaining about the shots that they take. We’re in it together.”
Ball movement has been a big part of Miami’s offense this season. The Heat is averaging the fourth-most assists in the league this season at 27 per game.
Center Bam Adebayo turned in another high-assist game with five assists against the Rockets. He’s averaging 5.2 assists this season, which is the second-most in the league among centers behind only Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
“The guys are unselfish,” Spoelstra said. “It starts with your best players subscribing to that. And they’re having fun sharing the ball and enjoying somebody else scoring. That’s really difficult to get to in this league.”
5. Guard Dion Waiters was on the Heat’s active roster for the first time this season Sunday. But he was not on the team’s bench during the game.
Waiters was in the arena working out during the game and did not play against the Rockets.
Waiters, 27, was on the active roster Sunday for the first time since serving his one-game suspension in the Oct. 23 season opener for “conduct detrimental to the team.” He returned to practice Wednesday and also practiced with the team Saturday.
Waiters is in the third season of a four-year, $52 million contract he signed with the Heat in the summer of 2017. He has a $1.1 million bonus in his contract for appearing in at least 70 of Miami’s 82 games this season, but he has already missed the first six games of the season.
Waiters is expected to travel with the team to Denver on Monday for the start of the Heat’s three-game West Coast trip.
This story was originally published November 3, 2019 at 8:30 PM.
