Takeaways from the Heat’s Christmas Day win. And the latest on Jimmy Butler’s ankle injury
The Miami Heat earned its first win of the season on Christmas Day.
The Heat (1-1) defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 111-98 on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena to bounce back from Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic.
It was a productive Christmas for the Heat, but it wasn’t a perfect holiday for one important reason: All-Star wing Jimmy Butler did not play in the second half because of right ankle stiffness.
After a dominant first-half performance from Miami, the Pelicans (1-1) took advantage of Butler’s absence and cut the Heat’s lead to six with 7:43 to play. Miami led by as many as 23 points in the first half.
The Heat responded to the Pelican’s late push with a 20-13 run to close the game and earn the victory.
The Pelicans were led by the duo of Brandon Ingram (28 points) and Zion Williamson (32 points and 14 rebounds), who combined for 60 points.
The Heat now has some time to rest and practice before its next game Tuesday against two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat and Bucks face off on back-to-back nights in Miami, with the second matchup coming Wednesday.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Pelicans on Christmas Day:
After an uncharacteristic and underwhelming offensive performance in the opener, the Heat looks to be back on track.
Miami shot 16 of 37 (43.2 percent) from three-point range against New Orleans after a subpar 7-of-20 outing from deep Wednesday. Friday’s shooting display was a better representation of the Heat’s offense, which averaged 13.4 made threes on 35.4 three-point attempts per game and finished with the second-best team three-point shooting percentage (37.9 percent) last season.
“I thought just our offense, in general, functioned a lot better,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said. “I thought the ball moved. Not to say that it didn’t the other day, but I didn’t feel we had great rhythm. I felt like we got a lot of action right in our wheelhouse that we were looking for on drives, and paint touches and sprays.”
Most of the Heat’s three-pointers came in the first half, with Miami shooting 13 of 21 on threes in the first two quarters. It tied a Heat record for the most made threes in any half in franchise history.
Miami cooled down in the second half, shooting 3 of 16 on threes in the final two quarters.
The Heat still outscored the Pelicans 48-30 from deep.
As expected, Robinson played a big part in the Heat’s three-point shooting display. Robinson shot 6 of 8 on threes in the first half and finished with a team-high 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting from behind the arc.
For those who wondered whether last season was an anomaly for Robinson, he’s off to a strong start this season in proving he’s indeed one of the NBA’s top shooters. Robinson, 26, is 10 of 19 on threes (52.6 percent) in the first two games.
The Heat also shot 50.7 percent from the field and finished with 29 assists on 38 made baskets. After a sloppy 22-turnover performance in the opener, Miami committed a more acceptable amount of turnovers, 17, on Friday.
The result was a much more efficient offensive performance.
The Heat scored at a pace of 100.9 points per 100 possessions in Wednesday’s loss, an offensive rating that would have ranked last in the NBA last season. But Miami scored at a rate of 115.6 points per 100 possessions in Friday’s win, an offensive rating that would have ranked second-best in the league last season.
“I would have to say the majority of our practices have looked like that, having that unselfishness and ball and player movement,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Heat’s offense in Friday’s win. “To the point in practice, it’s looked more often like that that I really question whether our defense is any good. That’s why it was probably disappointing for all of us to play the way we did offensively against Orlando. But it was much more to our identity tonight, there’s no question about it.”
The Heat’s defense was good, too, limiting the Pelicans to 39.7 percent shooting Friday. New Orleans scored just 19 points on 6-of-20 (30 percent) shooting in the fourth quarter.
Now the attention turns to Butler, who exited Friday’s game early because of an ankle injury.
Despite being listed as questionable on the injury report for Friday’s game because of a sprained right ankle, Butler started against the Pelicans. He recorded four points, six rebounds and five assists 16 first-half minutes.
But Butler’s ankle forced him to miss the second half. Butler never came out of the Heat’s locker room after halftime because of right ankle stiffness, and veteran forward Andre Iguodala started the third quarter in his place.
“It was a group decision,” Spoelstra said of holding Butler out of the second half Friday. “He sprained it in the Orlando game and even in the second half, he wasn’t moving the way he typically wants to and it just stiffened up. We really felt that the smartest decision right now is not to force it.”
Butler tweaked his right ankle during Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Magic, but he managed to stay in the game. He finished the opener with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds and seven assists in 36 minutes.
The good news for the Heat and Butler is they have three off days before their next game Tuesday against the Bucks.
The Heat’s second All-Star Bam Adebayo contributed 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting, four rebounds, two assists and two steals Friday.
The Heat used its second different starting lineup in the second game of the season, and it included 7-footer Meyers Leonard.
Spoelstra went with a starting lineup of Tyler Herro, Butler, Robinson, Adebayo and Leonard against the Pelicans. In Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic, Moe Harkless started instead of Leonard.
Why the switch in the second game?
The Herro-Butler-Robinson-Harkless-Adebayo combination wasn’t great in the regular-season opener, as the lineup was outscored 38-34 in 17 minutes Wednesday.
But the Pelicans’ size is what influenced Spoelstra’s decision, with New Orleans starting 7-footer Steven Adams, Ingram (6-9) and Williamson (6-7, 285). Harkless (6-7, 210) struggled to defend Williamson without fouling in last week’s Heat-Pelicans preseason matchup, as Harkless fouled out after just 14 minutes.
“New Orleans is so unique with the level of size and physicality that they bring on the frontline is just unusual in today’s NBA,” Spoelstra said when asked about his decision to insert Leonard into the starting lineup. “We just felt for this game that it was a better matchup, and I thought Meyers gave us some really good minutes. Just big size, space the floor for us on the other end, five hard fouls. He’s plugging the paint defensively, communicating the way he normally does.”
Leonard, who was available but did not play in the Heat’s season opener, finished Fridays win with nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from deep in 20 minutes.
The starting role isn’t new for Leonard, who started the first 49 games last season before spraining his ankle and falling out of the Heat’s rotation when the season resumed in the NBA’s Disney World bubble. Miami posted an impressive 34-15 record in those 49 regular-season games Leonard started.
There were also a few notable changes with the Heat’s bench rotation Friday, but the reserves continue to impress.
After Kendrick Nunn got the nod as the second guard off Miami’s bench in the opener, veteran guard Avery Bradley was used in that role against New Orleans. Nunn did not play Friday.
Bradley, who did not play Wednesday after signing a two-year, $11.6 million contract with Miami as a free agent this offseason, finished his Heat regular-season debut with an impressive stat line of 12 points, two rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Bradley was critical to the Heat’s late-game surge to seal the win, playing the entire fourth quarter. He recorded seven points, two assists and a steal while also playing as Pelicans sharpshooter JJ Redick’s primary defender in the period.
“I knew if I got my opportunity I was going to make the most of it and go out there and play as hard as a I can and leave everything on the floor,” Bradley said. “And that was my goal tonight, to play that way and live with any mistakes that I make.”
Why didn’t Bradley play in the opener?
“I probably would not have liked or planned to play him this many minutes,” Spoelstra said of the 28 minutes he played Bradley on Friday. “Look, it has been 9.5 months. We were looking at the big picture with this. He played so well that we just left him in there. We had a lot of timeouts and longer timeouts in this one. He also is an extremely high fitness level. He kept himself in great shape when we were in the bubble. But NBA games are different. He’s just working his way back into this, into the rhythm with a new team, finding a comfort level. So I wanted to bring him along slowly at the beginning of the year. Those plans kind of went out the window today.”
After using 10 players Wednesday, the Heat shortened its rotation to nine players in the first half of Friday’s game. Along with Bradley, Goran Dragic, Precious Achiuwa and Andre Iguodala played off Miami’s bench in the first half.
But Harkless entered as the Heat’s 10th man in the third quarter with Butler exiting the game at halftime.
Dragic again was effective as the Heat’s sixth man, finishing Friday’s win with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and nine assists in 27 minutes.
Achiuwa was solid with 11 points, three rebounds, two assists and a block in 20 minutes.
KZ Okpala and Chris Silva entered the game for Miami in the final seconds.
The Heat’s bench outscored the Pelicans’ reserves 47-21.
The Heat is a really, really good team on Christmas. And Spoelstra is perfect on the holiday.
With Friday’s win, the Heat improved to 11-2 in Christmas Day games. Miami has now won eight consecutive games on the holiday, with its last Christmas Day loss coming against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007.
In addition, Spoelstra now owns a perfect 8-0 record on Christmas Day as the Heat’s head coach. The only other head coach in the four major American sports leagues (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) with an undefeated record on the holiday (minimum five games) is Les Harrison, who has a 7-0 Christmas record.
“I wasn’t even aware of that,” Spoelstra said of his undefeated Christmas record. “It just shows you that we’ve had some really good teams here and teams that have earned the opportunity to play on Christmas. So much in our world has changed and it’s just great to be able to do this. I’m sure as I get back to my phone, I’m sure my family was able to see the game, my friends. Try to normalize this as much as we possibly can.”
Friday marked the Heat’s first Christmas Day game, which are usually reserved for the NBA’s best and most interesting teams, since a 2015 overtime win over the Pelicans at AmericanAirlines Arena.
This story was originally published December 25, 2020 at 2:51 PM.
