What defensive issues? How defense led the Heat past the Raptors, and more takeaways
The Heat was in search of a better defensive effort, and that’s exactly what it got to start 2020.
After a poor defensive month in December, the Heat (25-9) began January with one of its best defensive performances of the season in an 84-76 win over the Raptors (23-12) on Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Using a 2-3 zone look for most of the night, Miami limited Toronto to 31.5 percent shooting from the field and 6-of-42 shooting on threes.
The Heat didn’t turn in its most efficient offensive performance of the season in the victory, shooting 40.7 percent from the field. Big man Bam Adebayo led Miami with a team-high 15 points and 14 rebounds.
It was a close game throughout, but the Heat was able to pull away with a strong fourth quarter. Miami outscored Toronto 21-16 in the final period to take control.
“Definitely,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked if Thursday’s grind-it-out win can help the Heat moving forward. “Going through a bunch of these experiences against good competition with stress and they become possession games where any kind of mistake on either side can be very costly.
“You have to play at an extremely high level from a competitive standpoint. But you also have to keep your head. You can’t be so over emotional about the officiating or the way the game is going that you’re not executing on either end with precision.”
Center Serge Ibaka led the Raptors with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Raptors were without Marc Gasol (strained left hamstring), Pascal Siakam (strained groin), Norman Powell (left shoulder), Dewan Hernandez (sprained right ankle) and Matt Thomas (finger) Thursday. The Heat was without forward Justise Winslow (lower back bone bruise).
Miami is now 16-1 at home this season after finishing with a 19-22 record at AmericanAirlines Arena last season.
The Heat is right back at it Friday, closing the home-road back-to-back set with a matchup against the Magic in Orlando.
Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Raptors ...
1. The Heat began January with arguably its best defensive performance of the season.
Miami posted the league’s 22nd-best defensive rating for the month of December (allowed 111.1 points per 100 possessions). But to begin January, Miami stayed in its zone defense for most of the night and made things extremely tough on Toronto, which entered with the league’s 13th-best offensive rating.
It was the Heat’s best defensive performance of the season, statistically. Miami finished with a season-best defensive rating of 85.4 on Thursday against Toronto, just one game after recording a season-worst defensive rating of 125.5 in Monday’s loss to Washington.
“Just how disruptive we were,” Jimmy Butler said when asked what stood out about the Heat’s defensive effort against the Raptors. “We always rebound the ball pretty decently. I think that we were in the passing lanes, getting our hands on a lot of them and getting deflections. We were locked in, we really were.”
The Heat also held the Raptors to just 76 points, which is the fewest points an opponent has scored against Miami since it limited Charlotte to 75 points in a win last season on March 17.
The last time the Raptors were held to 76 points or fewer? A 96-76 loss to the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena on Nov. 8, 2015.
Some of Thursday’s defensive success had to do with the Raptors simply missing shots and missing key players. But the Heat also deserves credit for holding the Raptors to season-worst shooting percentages of 31.5 from the field and 14.3 from three-point range.
Toronto made just 6 of 42 threes Thursday. It’s the fewest threes the Raptors have made in a game when attempting more than 35 threes in franchise history.
“These are the ones that we like because it definitely shows what you’re made out of and how you can win in so many different ways,” Butler said. “We can always count on guarding. If you’re not making shots, you take care of the ball, you rebound and you guard. I think coach loves this ‘W’ and we love this ‘W’ here. It was a good one. It showed what we’re capable of on the defensive end.”
While it’s just one game, it’s an encouraging start to 2020 for the Heat. Spoelstra put his players through a two-and-a-half hour training camp-like practice focused on defense Wednesday afternoon, and the Heat responded with one of its best defensive performances of the season a day later.
“Ultimately, it was about disposition, effort and commitment to that side of the floor,” Spoelstra said. “But to be honest, we didn’t drill one possession of zone yesterday. So, there you go.”
The Heat owns the NBA’s 12th-best defensive rating this season.
2. The fourth quarter is Tyler Herro’s time.
The 19-year-old rookie guard scored eight points in the fourth quarter against the Raptors. Herro finished the game with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Even in his first NBA season, Herro has come alive late in games. He has scored 131 fourth-quarter points this season, which is second on the Heat behind only Butler’s 132 fourth-quarter points.
And Herro has been pretty efficient scoring those points, too. He’s shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 39.2 percent on threes in the fourth quarter this season.
Add all of this up, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that Herro is tied with Winslow for the top fourth-quarter plus/minus on the team at plus-18. Herro has also played a team-high 293 minutes in the fourth quarter this season.
3. Will the Heat ever lose two games in a row this season? It hasn’t happened yet.
The Heat responded to Monday’s loss to the Wizards with a win over the Raptors on Thursday, improving to a perfect 9-0 in games after a loss this season. Now 34 games in, it’s the longest into a season Miami has gone without recording consecutive losses in franchise history.
After its nine losses this season, the Heat has an Oct. 29 home win over the Hawks, a Nov. 7 road win over the Suns, a Nov. 12 home win over the Pistons, a Nov. 25 home win over the Hornets, a Nov. 29 home win over the Warriors, a Dec. 6 home win over the Wizards, a Dec. 14 road win over the Mavericks, a Dec. 18 road win over the 76ers and Thursday’s win over the Raptors.
The Bucks and Heat are the only teams in the NBA that have not lost consecutive games yet this season.
4. It was another inefficient shooting night for Butler, but he continues to do pretty much everything else well.
The four-time All-Star scored eight points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field Thursday. But he still helped the Heat with 12 rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
This is nothing new for Butler, as he has already shot worse than 35 percent in 10 games this season. The 30-year-old is shooting 42.4 percent from the field, which would be his worst single-season shooting percentage since he made 39.7 percent of his shots in the third season of his career in 2013-14. He’s also shooting 27.6 percent on threes, which would be his worst single-season three-point shooting percentage since he made 18.2 percent of his threes as a rookie in 2011-12.
But Butler has made up for his shooting struggles with his ability to get to the free-throw line and pretty much do everything else on the court well. He’s averaging the third-most free-throw attempts in the NBA at 9.7 per game, and a career-high in rebounds (6.8) and assists (6.6).
Butler also owns a team-best plus/minus of plus-219 this season, which is the 10th-best plus/minus in the NBA.
“No, I don’t,” Spoelstra said if he has any concerns with Butler’s outside shooting this season. “Look, I know that that’s what everybody will look to, quite naturally. There’s going to be ebbs and flows with the season.
“I think that’s what young players should learn coming into the league of what a max player actually means. It’s not about stats, it’s not about that final number on the box score, it’s not about whatever 2K numbers you can get. It’s not. It’s about how your team functions and are you winning because of a player. There is no debate about this, he’s having an incredible impact on our winning, on our bottom line. That’s why we chased him so hard as a max player. That should be the definition from here on out. But it’s not. It gets clouded and to often it becomes about stats or people that can pile up a bunch of stats even at a young age. But they’re empty stats and they don’t impact winning.”
5. Veteran guard Goran Dragic helped breathe life into a struggling Heat offense in the second quarter.
Miami scored just 18 points on 7-of-22 (31.8 percent) shooting in the first quarter, ending the period down 20-18.
But Dragic helped lift the Heat’s offense in the second quarter, with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 shooting on threes in the period. With Dragic leading the way, Miami scored 24 points on 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) shooting in the second quarter.
Dragic scored all 13 of his points for the game in the second quarter, going scoreless in the second half.
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 10:02 PM.
