Starters pulled, reserves shine, Herro has big night. Takeaways from another Heat OT win
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 134-129 overtime win over the Washington Wizards (14-29) on Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat (31-13) improved to 8-0 in overtime games this season ...
1. The Heat’s starters allowed a huge lead to slip away to begin the third quarter, and coach Erik Spoelstra turned to the bench. The reserves played a big role the rest of the way.
The Heat entered halftime with a 19-point lead after shooting 56.1 percent from the field and 8 of 15 on threes over the first two quarters.
But the game was far from over, as the Wizards began the second half on a 19-3 run to cut the Heat’s lead all the way down to three just five minutes into the third quarter. That led Spoelstra to pull all five starters with 6:41 to play in the third quarter in favor of Derrick Jones Jr., Goran Dragic, Tyler Herro, James Johnson and Kelly Olynyk.
“We talked about it at halftime. We really wanted to come out with a great sense of urgency,” Spoelstra said. “You’re not trying to throw a knock-out punch, it’s more about our disposition, our focus, our attention to detail, the energy, efforts, everything. I had to call timeout and then the tide was still going. We had a 21-point lead and it evaporated like that. So I just felt like it was appropriate to get the second unit in there and see if we can change the energy of the game.”
The Heat’s bench settled things. After Washington extended its run to 29-9 to take a one-point lead with 4:48 remaining in the third quarter, the Heat closed the period on a 12-4 run behind its five-reserve lineup to enter the fourth quarter with a seven-point advantage.
Which reserves helped the Heat take back control? In the third quarter, Herro scored nine points on 3-of-4 shooting on threes and Dragic scored seven points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field.
Spoelstra went with the five-reserve lineup for 10:28 of game time before putting the first starter back on the court with 8:13 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“I like it,” said Jimmy Butler, who was one of the five starters pulled. “If we’re not out there doing our job, then we don’t need to be out there on the floor. Especially if we’re hurting our chances of winning, which we were. I think the starting group, we have to be better.”
Heat starting center Bam Adebayo said: “That was something we deserved. We came out flat in the second half. We needed that to wake us up. The whole starting lineup came out flat. I’m a leader in that lineup and I didn’t take control of that. I’m glad he did it. It shows he doesn’t care how much you get paid or who you are. If you’re not doing your job, you’ve got to get off the court.”
The Wizards still didn’t go away, though, rallying from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a three-point lead with 1:35 to play. Johnson made a three-pointer with 35.7 seconds to play to force overtime.
After Butler scored 15 points on 3-of-9 shooting in regulation, he took charge in overtime with nine of the team’s 16 points in the extra period. Behind Butler, Miami won overtime 16-11 to escape with the five-point victory.
Butler finished with 24 points on 16-of-18 shooting from the free-throw line, seven rebounds and 10 assists in 34 minutes.
The Heat’s reserves combined to score 47 of the team’s 65 points over the second half and overtime. Dragic scored 14 points during this stretch to finish the game 22 points and 10 assists.
“The second unit, you really have to commend them for shifting the momentum,” Spoelstra said. “It’s a tough thing in this league, when the momentum shifts and then you try to get it back. Sometimes it can be elusive. But the second unit played some good basketball.”
Star guard Bradley Beal led the Wizards with 38 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
2. Just when it looked like Herro had hit somewhat of a “rookie wall,” Wednesday’s second half happened.
Herro entered Wednesday averaging 9.6 points on 38.7 percent shooting, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists over eight games in January. His plus/minus was also a minus-36 this month.
But after a three-point first half, Herro was one of the steadying forces for the Heat in a rough second half. He scored 22 points on 6-of-8 shooting on threes between the second half and overtime.
Herro, who turned 20 on Monday, finished the game with 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and 7-of-9 shooting on threes in 33 minutes. It marked the most points he has scored in a game since he finished a Dec. 8 win over the Bulls with 27 points.
“I would like to start with his defense,” Spoelstra said of Herro. “He brought a much more active and focused and committed effort on that side of the floor. That earned him more opportunities, more minutes. Then offensively, he’s a talent. He is. He’s fearless, he has skills, he can read defenses. He has a flare for the moment. Those things, we need and we want. But he still has to progress defensively, and I thought he played a complete game on both sides.”
Herro set a new Heat rookie record with seven made threes Wednesday, surpassing the previous mark of six made threes in a game set by Mario Chalmers in 2008 and Sasha Danilovic in 1995.
“He’s a good player,” Beal said of Herro. “You have to tip your hat off to him. He does his job really well. He has a team that wants him to shoot and that’s what he’s capable of doing, so he’s going to go out and do it. It’s amazing to see how young he is and how humble and grounded his mechanics are. It’s awesome to see that at a young age. He’s a good player.”
3. With Butler available after his one-game absence, the Heat used a 10-man rotation again.
While Spoelstra has used a nine-man rotation for the past few weeks, he used a 10-man rotation in Sunday’s loss to the Spurs and also in Wednesday’s win over the Wizards. The Heat went with a nine-man rotation in Monday’s overtime win over the Kings, but that was because Butler was out due to right hip soreness.
The 10 Heat players used: Butler, Adebayo, Meyers Leonard, Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn, Jones, Dragic, Johnson, Herro and Olynyk.
Olynyk was the one who was recently out of the rotation when Spoelstra was using nine. But Olynyk made the most of his minutes against the Wizards, with 14 points, five rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes.
In the second half and overtime, Leonard and Robinson played only five minutes, and Nunn played only nine minutes.
For most of overtime, Spoelstra relied on the lineup of Butler, Adebayo, Johnson, Herro and Dragic.
“They scored 129 points, so we needed some of our better defenders out there,” Spoelstra said. “I was trying to get minutes for [Johnson] and [Jones]. When you have JJ, DJ, Bam, Jimmy, it looks like we can defend.”
4. It’s safe to say Robinson is not hesitant to put up three-pointers these days.
During the preseason and even the first part of the regular season, Spoelstra publicly implored Robinson to take every (slightly) open three he got. And it took the second-year Heat forward some time to grow accustomed to that role.
But Robinson looks perfectly comfortable following his coach’s instructions now, with Robinson attempting 10 or more threes in seven of his last 10 games.
On Wednesday, Robinson finished with 13 points with the help of 4-of-7 shooting on threes in 16 minutes.
There’s a reason why Spoelstra wants Robinson to keep taking as many threes as he can. Among the 20 NBA players who entered Wednesday averaging seven or more three-point shot attempts per game, Robinson owned the second-best three-point shooting percentage at 42.6 percent behind only Wizards forward Davis Bertans (42.8).
Bertans finished with 24 points and shot 4 of 12 on threes Wednesday.
5. It took just 21 home games for the Heat to surpass last season’s win total at AmericanAirlines Arena.
With Wednesday’s win over the Wizards, the Heat improved to a league-best 20-1 at home this season. Miami finished last season with a 19-22 record at AmericanAirlines Arena.
With a mediocre 11-12 road record this season, the Heat’s home dominance is the driving force behind its position in the standings. Miami owns the Eastern Conference’s second-best record, behind only the Milwaukee Bucks.
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 10:24 PM.
