The Heat’s ball movement has become the norm. Takeaways from Miami’s win in Cleveland
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 108-97 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday in Cleveland...
The Heat’s ball movement is sublime.
The midway point of the second quarter was fast arriving when Kendrick Nunn finally decided to go to work from the right wing. The point guard went to the elbow once, then backed out and sized up the defense again. He drove down the right side of the line, threw his butt into post player Tristan Thompson, spun and tossed in a left-handed hook shot at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
There was 6:26 left in the second quarter and the Heat (8-3) scored its first points out of isolation of the entire game.
Miami finished with 31 assists on 43 field goals. The unassisted field goals in the first half could be counted on one hand — there was Nunn’s hook shot, there was a pull-up three-pointer by Tyler Herro, there was a putback by Chris Silva and there was a breakaway layup by Nunn off a steal. Only Nunn’s hook and Herro’s three came out of a normal half-court set as the Heat assisted on 22 of its 26 field goals.
This is quickly becoming the norm for the Heat. Miami entered Thursday assisting on the second highest percentage of field goals in the NBA at 65.7 percent.
(Perhaps uncoincidentally, the Portland Trail Blazers, now with former Heat center Hassan Whiteside, ranked dead last at 43.2 percent.)
“They want to share the ball. They want to see somebody else have some success,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s a unique quality and they’re willing to make plays for each other or if the play isn’t for their moment, they’ll allow somebody else to play and understand that it’s a long game.”
The Heat has constructed a roster perfectly constructed for this style of play. Jimmy Butler, the one true potential All-Star, is averaging a career-high 6.6 assists per game. Post player Bam Adebayo is more than happy to bring the ball up and his 4.6 assists per game are second most among centers. No one is averaging more than 20 points per game and four players are averaging at least 4.5 assists.
On Thursday, four players dished out at least five assists and even post player Meyers Leonard, averaging less than an assist per game, handed out three in the first quarter.
“They should come every single game just because we share the ball so well and then we’ve got guys that can put the ball into the basket, so that always helps,” Butler said of the big assist totals. “Offense is always going to be OK.”
Kendrick Nunn’s slump is over.
Nunn may be an undrafted player, a 24-year-old rookie who spent last year playing in the G League, but Spoelstra didn’t think his miniature four-game slump earlier this month was evidence he was maybe turning into a pumpkin.
His slump ended all at once in the second half of a game against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, when he shrugged off a 1-of-11 start to finish with 20 points. On Thursday, the guard added two more firsts to his astonishing rookie season.
He finished with 21 points to give himself back-to-back 20-point games for the first time in his career and he added a career-high eight assists.
“I come out every night aggressive. That’s just my job. That’s what I do,” Nunn said. “Start of the game, I’m going to come out aggressive.”
His first quarter carried a lot of his performance Thursday. Miami charged out to an immediate 9-0 lead and Nunn opened the scoring with a three-pointer. The Heat’s lead grew as large as 17 points in the first quarter and Nunn finished the period with nine points, three rebounds and two assists.
He still scores in a variety of manners, which is the key to it all. With point forward Justise Winslow, Nunn has nominally been Miami’s starting point guard, but late in the games he works well playing off the ball with Butler as the distributor. He went 3 of 6 from three-point range Thursday and finished 10 of 16 from the field.
“You’re going to have tough stretches during the season and he will continue to have some,” Spoelstra said, “but he’s a mentally stable guy and he’s able to bounce back.”
Bam Adebayo can lock down anyone.
The Cavaliers (4-7) are far from their days of contention, but they still can trot out a formidable line of high-profile post players. Larry Nance Jr. is a dynamici athlete and dangerous rim runner. Fellow post player Tristan Thompson is one of the best offensive rebounders in the NBA.
The shining jewel is still Kevin Love and the post player still led Cleveland with 21 points. He was, however, outplayed by Adebayo at both ends of the floor.
Whenever the two post players shared the floor, Adebayo found himself guarding Love, which is an assignment taking a defender anywhere from the three-point line all the way down to the low block. Adebayo handled both assignments with aplomb and Miami outscored the Cavaliers by 25 points when Adebayo was on the court, the biggest margin of any player in the game. He even blocked Love once in a one-on-one post-up situation.
“He gives us a versatility that’s unique. Now we’re a little bit bigger with our front line because he can slide over and play a lot of perimeter players, stretch fours, he can play bigger fours,” Spoelstra said. “Whatever we face, we feel that he has the versatility that we can match that.”
Adebayo flirted with a triple-double for the first half and finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. His 15 rebounds all came on the defensive end. When he battled Love, he kept the five-time All-Star from scoring in bunches. When he battled Thompson, he kept the post player from doing what he does best — Thompson, who is averaging 4.8 offensive rebounds per game, only grabbed two offensive boards and three total.
Sometimes it’s as simple as who makes the threes.
The final three-point totals can tell the story: The Heat went 12 of 30; Celeveland went 8 of 32.
Miami scored eight more points on three-pointers and did so while attempting fewer shots. In the first half, the difference was especially pronounced -- the Heat went into halftime 9 of 17 from three-point range, while the Cavaaliers were a gruesome 1 of 15. Miami led 68-44.
“It’s easy as that,” Herro said. “Make shots and play defense, and that’s what happens.”
Eleven games into the season, the shooting is here to stay for this roster. The Heat ranks fourth in the league in three-point percentage.
The Heat continues to throttle bad teams.
One of Miamis most persistent issues last season was inconsistency against teams with losing records, particularly at home.
The Heat’s beatdown Thursday was exactly what a team with Miami’s aspirations should do. The win Thursday moves the Heat to 5-0 against teams currently with losing records and Miami’s average margin of victory in those games is 10.8.
Last season, the Heat was just 22-14 against teams worse than .500. Miami missed the playoffs by two games.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 10:06 PM.
