As important week begins for Heat, what can be gleaned from the first two scrimmages?
It’s hard to read too much into the Miami Heat’s first two scrimmages.
The Heat’s All-Star duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler has played a total of 11 minutes, with Adebayo held out of the first two exhibitions after arriving at the NBA’s Disney bubble last week and Butler given the second exhibition off.
With Adebayo and Butler limited through the first two scrimmages, the Heat’s projected starting lineup of Kendrick Nunn, Butler, Duncan Robinson, Adebayo and Meyers Leonard has yet to play together at Disney.
As for Nunn, he just made his restart debut in Saturday’s second scrimmage after arriving at Disney last week alongside Adebayo. And after just one team practice, Nunn showed some rust, as expected, with five points on 2-of-7 shooting in 18 minutes.
On top of all that, players who aren’t expected to be regulars in Miami’s rotation have played significant minutes late in these practice games. Solomon Hill, Chris Silva and Gabe Vincent have combined to log 53 fourth-quarter minutes during the first two scrimmages.
The Heat’s closes its three-game scrimmage schedule with an exhibition game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday at 2 p.m (Fox Sports Sun). It’ll represent the final opportunity for Miami to have a “dress rehearsal” scrimmage before it opens its eight-game seeding schedule Saturday against the Denver Nuggets.
Regardless of how the Heat handles Tuesday’s exhibition, this week of practices is important for Miami to integrate Adebayo and Nunn back into the rotation after the two starters went through just their second formal team practice on Monday since March.
“It is important,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the week ahead leading up to Saturday’s seeding game opener. “We’ve had to deal with whatever the circumstances have been, though. ... We’ll start to get everybody, the whole group, ready for Tuesday and go from there.”
While it’s a small sample size that is not representative of the Heat’s normal rotation, there are some things to be gleaned from Miami’s first two scrimmages at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista ...
▪ Center Kelly Olynyk was probably always going to have a spot in the Heat’s rotation for seeding games and the playoffs, but it might be a bigger role than many projected a few weeks ago. Olynyk has looked sharp during the first two exhibitions, averaging 19.5 points while shooting 56.5 percent from the field, seven rebounds and three assists in 25.6 minutes off the bench.
Olynyk has posted a plus/minus of plus-seven in 51 minutes.
“We’ve had a lot of guys stand out during camp. He has had one of the better camps,” Spoelstra said of Olynyk. “He’s in tremendous shape right now. He really worked at it in May and June. Before we stopped play, he was playing his best basketball of the season and he’s just continuing to play good basketball right now.”
▪ Heat rookie guard Tyler Herro looks to be past the ankle injury that forced him to miss 15 consecutive games just before the season was suspended in March.
The 20-year-old finished Saturday’s scrimmage with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field, seven rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes as he carried a big part of the offensive load with Adebayo and Butler held out. Herro has been used in an on-ball role in each of the first two scrimmages, continuing to prove he’s more than just a shooter.
“I definitely feel comfortable with the ball in my hands,” Herro said. “I’ve been working all quarantine just getting my handle a little stronger. My teammates, coaches also trust me with the ball. So I’m taking my time. I’m still young, learning as much as I can every day from coaches and vets. I’m just taking it one game at a time right now.”
▪ After missing 16 consecutive games prior to the league shutdown because of a sprained left ankle, it looks like Leonard is on track to return to his role as the Heat’s starting center when seeding games begin. Leonard, who has scored a total of three points on 1-of-6 shooting in 26 minutes in the first two practice games, has started in both scrimmages.
▪ The Heat’s on-ball defense needs to continue to improve. With Adebayo’s defensive presence unavailable for the first two exhibition games, it has exposed some of Miami’s shortcomings when it comes to containing penetration. It hasn’t helped that Butler has played just 11 minutes.
“It’s at the point of attack, containment, protecting the paint,” Spoelstra said. “That’s so important for us. Right before this break, we were really getting torched from the three-point line and everybody just assumed that we’re giving up those open threes. But it’s usually us getting beaten off the dribble, late to help and then now you get everything. We are who we are. We want to really get committed to containing the ball, containing the paint.”
Miami, which has finished with a top-10 defense in each of the past four seasons, enters the restart with the league’s 14th-best defensive rating this season.
▪ Veteran wings Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala should help on the defensive end. It seems like Spoelstra has used Crowder and Iguodala in the scrimmages similar to how he’ll play them when seeding games begin — as primary bench options. Crowder and Iguodala have played a total of 44 minutes and 41 minutes off the bench in the first two exhibitions, respectively.
▪ The Heat’s impressive ball movement has not disappeared. Miami, which enters the restart with the NBA’s seventh-best offensive rating, has recorded 50 assists on 68 made baskets during the first two scrimmages.
For the season, the Heat is assisting on the third-highest percentage of made shots in the NBA at 65.6 percent.
