Another big game for Butler, double-double for Adebayo. Takeaways from another Heat win
Another game, another Heat win.
The Heat continued its fast start to the season with a 109-94 victory over the Pelicans (3-9) on Saturday at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat extended its winning streak to three games.
The victory also pushed the Heat’s record to 9-3, which is tied for the best start to a season in team history.
The game was tied at 61 with 6:30 remaining in the third quarter, but the Heat took control when it closed the quarter on a 17-4 run to take a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Pelicans ...
1. It wasn’t Jimmy Butler’s most efficient game. But as usual, he found other ways to make an impact.
At the end of the night, Butler’s finished with a stat line of 16 points, eight rebounds, 13 assists and three steals. The biggest blemishes for Butler were that he shot 4 of 11 from the field and finished with a season-high six turnovers.
Despite that, Butler finished with 16 points on 11 shots with the help of 7-of-7 shooting from the foul line. And even with his turnover issues, he still managed to record a team-high 13 assists.
Over the past three games, Butler has 32 assists and 10 turnovers.
Playing through an illness that had Butler listed as questionable up until tip-off, the Heat outscored the Pelicans by a team-best 22 points in the 38 minutes Butler played.
Some of Butler’s most productive minutes came in the fourth quarter, when he tallied four points, three rebounds and four assists in 8:26 of playing time. He finished as a plus-nine in the final quarter.
“Let’s just talk about when it really mattered, how many right plays did he make?” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s a quality that reminded me of Dwyane [Wade]. It doesn’t matter how the game was going through 40 something minutes. When it’s closing time, clutch time, Dwyane had an ability to do that, too. To put everything aside and just say OK, let’s go win this game and play your best minutes and have your biggest plays then. That’s what Jimmy was able to do. Every play that needed to be made, he made it.”
Butler has already proven multiple times this season that he has no problem finding other ways to impact the game when he’s not scoring points at a high rate.
In an Oct. 31 win over the Hawks, Butler finished with five points on 2-of-10 shooting, but also had nine rebounds, 11 assists, six steals and three blocks. In Thursday’s win over the Cavaliers, Butler had 14 points on 11 shots, but also contributed six assists, three steals and two blocks.
It’s becoming apparent there are going to be plenty of nights that Butler is not the Heat’s leading scorer despite being widely considered as the best player on the roster.
On Saturday, guard Kendrick Nunn was the Heat’s leading scorer. Nunn finished with 22 points on 10-of-19 shooting, with nine of those points coming in the fourth quarter.
“I missed about five easy open shots [in the first half],” Nunn said. “At halftime, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t lose my mind. I just stayed with it and once I hit those two shots to start out, I felt I was going to get in a good rhythm.”
2. Another game, another double-double for Heat center Bam Adebayo, who continues to prove he’s one of Miami’s best two-way players.
Adebayo finished Saturday’s win with 18 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, two steals and three blocks to record his third consecutive double-double.
Over the last three games, Adebayo is averaging 17.3 points, 14.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists. For the season, Adebayo is averaging 13.9 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks.
Adebayo is one of only three players averaging at least 13 points, 10 rebounds and four assists this season. The other names on that list: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Dallas’ Luka Doncic.
3. An opponent finally made threes against the Heat this season.
The Pelicans shot 16 of 35 (45.7 percent) on threes Saturday. It’s the best an opponent has shot from three-point range against the Heat this season.
The Heat entered Saturday holding opponents to a league-worst 28.6 percent shooting on threes. But the Heat also allows opponents to take a lot of threes, with teams averaging 37.5 three-point shot attempts per game (third-most in the league).
How much of the Heat’s success against the three is just luck? It’s hard to say, but it’s important to note that no team has held its opponent to 30 percent or worse shooting on threes since the Hawks limited opposing teams to 30 percent shooting from three-point range in the 1998-99 season.
So, chances are that opponents will make threes against the Heat at a higher rate as the season goes on. Limiting teams to around 33 percent shooting on threes seems doable, as the league leader in opponent three-point shooting percentage has finished around that number in recent seasons.
But under 30 percent seems unrealistic, even with the start the Heat has had.
“We’re trying to figure that out,” Spoelstra said when asked what the line is between allowing too many threes and making sure to protect the paint. “Yeah, we would love to be able to protect the paint better. We would love to make three-point looks a little bit more contested than the average. But it’s something I’m keeping a close eye on because we’re top in one area and the bottom in another. That’s a small sample size, but it’s a big point of emphasis for us.”
4. What a difference a year makes for the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena.
After finishing with an underwhelming 19-22 home record last season, the Heat has started the season with a 5-0 record at AmericanAirlines Arena following Saturday’s win over the Pelicans.
The Heat isn’t just winning at home, it’s blowing out teams at home. Miami’s five wins at AmericanAirlines Arena have come by an NBA-best average margin of 17.4 points per game.
Included in there is a 19-point home win over the Grizzlies, a 15-point home win over the Hawks, a 29-point home win over the Rockets, a nine-point home win over the Pistons and Saturday’s 15-point home win over the Pelicans.
The only remaining undefeated teams at home are the Heat, Celtics, 76ers, Raptors and Jazz.
Considering the Heat finished last season with its worst home record since going 9-32 at AmericanAirlines Arena to finish 2007-08 with a 15-67 overall record, this year’s 5-0 start at home is certainly a step in the right direction.
5. Both teams were shorthanded. Very shorthanded, which allowed the Heat’s two two-way contract players to get minutes against the Pelicans.
The Heat was without Justise Winslow (concussion), Derrick Jones Jr. (strained left hip), KZ Okpala (strained left Achilles), Dion Waiters (team suspension) and Goran Dragic (sick).
The Pelicans were without Zion Williamson (right knee), Josh Hart (left knee/ankle sprain), Darius Miller (right Achilles), Lonzo Ball (right adductor strain), Jahlil Okafor (left ankle sprain), Brandon Ingram (right knee soreness) and JJ Redick (left great toe sprain).
Between the two teams, 12 players were unavailable (five for the Heat and seven for the Pelicans).
“Overall, this was a good win because obviously to do it at home with guys out, Goran out tonight,” Spoelstra said. “Guys having to play bigger minutes. Everybody that played had to contribute and give us productive minutes.”
Without Winslow, Jones, Okpala, Waiters and Dragic, the Heat had 11 available players Saturday. The Heat’s two two-way contract players, forward Chris Silva and guard Daryl Macon, each played against the Pelicans.
Silva finished with nine points and eight rebounds in 14 minutes. Macon finished scoreless with one assist and two turnovers in five minutes.
The only available Heat players who did not get in the game were forwards Udonis Haslem and James Johnson.
Also, a weird stat from Saturday’s game: The Heat committed just six personal fouls against the Pelicans, which is the fewest fouls Miami has ever been called for in a single game. The previous franchise-low was nine fouls.
“They weren’t calling it either way, really. They let us play,” Spoelstra said of the officiating. “But then if there was any slightest infraction of a step or a travel or a dribble, they called all those. But I actually like that we didn’t let that get in the way.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 10:29 PM.
