Heat offense bounces back in blowout win over Thunder. Takeaways, details and reaction
After a slow start to the season, especially on offense, the Miami Heat got exactly what it needed Monday.
A blowout win behind an efficient offensive performance.
The Heat cruised past the Oklahoma City Thunder 118-90 on Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami improved to 3-3 this season.
The Heat, which entered with the NBA’s third-worst offensive rating through its first five games, scored 118 points on 56.8 percent shooting from the field and 16-of-34 shooting on threes. Miami also finished with 34 assists on 46 made baskets.
The result was the Heat’s best single-game offensive rating (116.8 points per 100 possessions) of the young season.
“The ball was really moving,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Guys were helping each other get open, sacrificing for each other, screening for each other, passing to open teammates. Everybody felt that they were in a better rhythm. It’s not a coincidence when you put those details into it and your willing to help each other out to generate your kind of offense, it’ll tend to look better.”
Miami closed the third quarter on a 24-3 run to blow the game open and enter the fourth quarter with a 25-point lead. The Heat’s lead grew to as many as 35 points in the final period.
The Thunder (2-4) shot just 36.7 percent, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring a team-high 18 points.
Next up for the Heat is an Eastern Conference finals rematch against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Thunder:
The Heat’s search for a starting lineup continued Monday, as it used its sixth different starting lineup in the sixth game of the season. But this one might actually stick.
Miami started Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson, Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo against the Thunder. It’s the first time in franchise history that the Heat has used six different starting lineups in the season’s first six games.
Herro, Butler, Robinson and Adebayo opened the season as starters, but Olynyk is the new addition to the group. Olynyk started 67 games in his first three seasons with the Heat, but it marked his first start in his fourth season with the team.
Spoelstra has worked through various options in the starting frontcourt spot alongside Adebayo to begin the season, and none have stuck yet. Moe Harkless (6-7, 210) started the opener in that spot, Meyers Leonard (7-0, 260) started the second and third games, and Andre Iguodala (6-6, 215) started the fourth and fifth games before Olynyk got his turn Monday.
The results were very positive with Olynyk starting against the Thunder, as the Herro-Butler-Robinson-Olynyk-Adebayo lineup finished Monday’s win with a plus/minus of plus-9 in 20 minutes together.
Olynyk was impressive in his first start of the season, finishing with 19 points on 5-of-7 shooting on threes and eight rebounds. Along with Olynyk, Herro contributed seven points, nine rebounds and eight assists, and Adebayo recorded 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
“I don’t think it really matters,” Olynyk said when asked about the differences between starting and coming off the bench. “Obviously it’s a different flow and a different game when you start. You can kind of let the game come to you. You know you’re going to have two shifts in the first half and probably two in the second. You can attack the game different than off the bench. Regardless, you have to play your role whatever it is.”
If history is any indication, Olynyk could be an effective starting option alongside Adebayo. The Adebayo-Olynyk pairing posted a quality plus/minus of plus-214 over the previous three seasons and entered Monday as a plus-12 this season.
The Heat’s bench rotation against the Thunder included: Precious Achiuwa, Avery Bradley, Goran Dragic and Andre Iguodala. With Miami already in full control of the game, KZ Okpala, Kendrick Nunn, Moe Harkless and Chris Silva entered off the bench midway through the fourth quarter.
“We’ll find some continuity,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s rotating rotation. “We’re already starting to find some stability and consistency with the majority of our rotation. I think the starting lineup is so overstated in so many ways. The more important thing is just building consistency to how we want to play.”
This was a strong bounce-back game for the Heat’s three-point shooters, who are obviously an important part of the offense.
After an uncharacteristically cold 7-of-33 three-point shooting display in Friday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks, the Heat looked more like itself against the Thunder.
Miami shot 16 of 34 on threes on Monday. The Heat was especially hot in the first half, shooting 11 of 19 from three-point range in the first two quarters.
Olynyk (5 of 7 on threes), Robinson (4 of 10), Bradley (2 of 2) and Iguodala (3 of 4) combined to shoot 14 of 23 (60.9 percent) from three-point range.
When the Heat shoots as well as it did Monday, it’s really hard to beat. Miami posted a 16-4 record last season in games that it finished with 16 or more made threes in.
Even in only Miami’s sixth game of the season, this efficient performance from outside was overdue. The Heat shot just 33.7 percent on threes in its first five games, a number that entered Monday ranked 22nd in the NBA.
For a Heat roster returning 13 players from last season’s team that finished the regular season with the league’s second-best three-point percentage at 37.9 percent, it was only a matter of time before Miami’s shooters combined for a big night.
It was also a nice bounce-back game for Butler.
After finishing Friday’s loss to the Mavericks with two points on 0-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting from the foul line, Butler produced a much better stat line against the Thunder.
Butler finished Monday’s win with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, three rebounds and six assists in 26 minutes to get on track.
It marked Butler’s second game back from a sprained right ankle that forced him to miss two games.
“We definitely had a conscious effort to make sure that Jimmy got going at the beginning, got into a good flow and rhythm,” Olynyk said. “We need Jimmy to be who he can be. Obviously, it worked out for us. That’s what we need from him.”
The Heat’s All-Star wing has averaged 10.8 points on 37.5 percent shooting, 3.8 rebounds, five assists and 2.8 steals in four games this season.
“My confidence is always high,” Butler said. “I think my guys’ confidence is high, as well. We know the team that we can become, that we will become. But we just got to get better every day. That’s what this thing is all about.”
Most of Monday’s game was played with just two working referees, instead of three.
The crew’s third referee, Kane Fitzgerald, left the contest with 3:50 remaining in the first quarter because of a left leg injury and did not return.
The two officials left working the remainder of the Heat-Thunder game were Aaron Smith and Brandon Schwab, which got through the rest of the contest without any noticeable hitch despite being shorthanded.
The Heat will continue to play at AmericanAirlines Arena without fans in attendance this week amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
After playing one preseason home game and the first three regular-season home games without fans in attendance, the Heat announced that Monday’s matchup against the Thunder and Wednesday’s matchup against the Celtics at AmericanAirlines Arena would also be played without fans in the building.
The Heat plans to reassess the situation prior to its Jan. 16 home game against the Detroit Pistons — the next game at AmericanAirlines Arena following this week’s quick two-game homestand. Miami begins a four-game road trip on Saturday against the Washington Wizards.
Most NBA teams began the season in fan-less home arenas.
There are just six NBA teams that have begun the season with some amount of fans in attendance for home games: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz. The two other teams playing home games in Florida, the Magic and Raptors (temporarily relocated to Tampa because of COVID-19-related travel restrictions in Canada), are on that list.
The Heat began allowing about 100 family members, and team and player guests attend home games last week.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 9:50 PM.
