Takeaways from the Heat’s 20-point road win over the Spurs, and Herro’s big fourth quarter
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s third consecutive win, a 107-87 victory over the San Antonio Spurs (28-29) on Wednesday night at AT&T Center to begin a quick two-game trip:
The Heat (31-28) welcomed back its best two players, and Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler did not disappoint.
Adebayo missed Monday’s win over the Houston Rockets because of right knee soreness and Butler missed the previous two games because of a sprained right ankle.
But Adebayo and Butler were back in the starting lineup against the Spurs, combining for 41 points on 14-of-25 shooting, 15 rebounds, 16 assists and four turnovers.
Adebayo finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists.
“I think he was really angry at all of us for not being able to play the Houston game,” coach Erik Spoelstra joked when asked about Adebayo’s impressive stat line. “So I think he was just really wanting to get out there and compete. Also, our leaders understood, the veterans and everybody understood how important this road trip is.”
Butler, who was sporting a black headband for the first time this season, finished with 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting, seven rebounds and 11 assists.
With the Spurs taking a seven-point lead early in the third quarter, Adebayo and Butler combined for 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field, five rebounds and three assists in the period to help the Heat regain control of the game. Miami used an 18-4 run to turn a seven-point deficit into a seven-point lead before eventually entering the fourth quarter with a five-point advantage.
The Heat then went on to outscore the Spurs 30-15 in the final period to cruise to the win.
Miami won the second half 56-34 to flip a two-point halftime deficit into a 20-point win. It’s only the fourth time the Heat has won a game by 20 or more points and the first time it has earned consecutive double-digit wins this season following Monday’s 22-point win over the Rockets.
The Heat is 21-17 in the 38 games that Adebayo and Butler have played in together this season. Miami is 10-11 in the games both have not been available.
The Heat’s defense, especially the zone, was dominant in the second half.
After the Spurs scored 53 points on 51.3 percent shooting from the field in the first half, the Heat’s defense tightened.
Miami, with the help of its 2-3 zone look, limited San Antonio to 34 points on 28.9 percent shooting in the second half.
For the game, the Spurs finished with just 87 points on 40.3 percent shooting from the field and 10-of-35 shooting on threes
“The Spurs are a very unique team,” Spoelstra said. “You can watch film on them, you can drill it in a walkthrough, but it’s not the same until you get out there live. Just their ability and their quickness, their ability to break you down off the dribble and do it multiple times in a possession is really unique. And they had us on our heels in the first half.
“In the second half, I think we just committed to making more multiple efforts. Of course, the head coach will say it’s not about the scheme, it’s about your commitment to doing tough things and I think we were a little bit more committed in the second half.”
Getting San Antonio to shoot 35 threes was a positive for Miami because that’s not the Spurs’ game. San Antonio averages the second-fewest three-point attempts in the league this season at 29.2 per game and is 4-6 when taking 35 or more threes in a game.
The Heat’s zone helped to push the Spurs’ offense away from the basket, as San Antonio took just four shots at the rim in the second half after going 8 of 11 from that area of the court in the first half.
“Their zone is different from most other people’s zone,” Spurs guard Derrick White said. “Most people just do zone to have it, but they don’t work on it like they do. They obviously work on that, practice it, so they are probably the best at it in the league. Definitely tough.”
The Heat held the Spurs’ leading scorer DeMar DeRozan to 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting. He totaled just two points and missed each of his four shots from the field in the second half.
Wednesday marked the 21st time the Heat, which owns the NBA’s sixth-best defensive rating, has held an opponent under 100 points this season. Miami is 17-4 in those games.
The Heat held an opponent under 100 points in just 11 games last regular season.
Tyler Herro exploded for a huge fourth quarter and turned in one of his best shooting performances of the season.
The Heat’s second-year guard turned in a 14-point fourth quarter to finish the win with 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting on threes, six rebounds and four assists. It’s Herro’s highest-scoring fourth quarter of the season.
Herro, 21, made all four of his three-point attempts in the final period, including two pull-up threes.
Herro entered the game on a 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) three-point shooting slump. He’s shooting 34.2 percent on threes this season.
“You just have to stay with it as a young player,” Spoelstra said. “He has been developing and that’s the hard thing about all the narratives for a young player coming in this league. It’s all about whether you’re scoring the ball or whatever statistic people out there are celebrating. But it’s about learning how to play winning basketball and Tyler has been making a lot of progress. There have been some up-and-down moments this season. Some of that has been due to just the nature of being in and out of the lineup because of injury.”
Herro said the key for him has simply been “sticking with it.”
“It’s a long season,” he said. “I’m only in my second year and I’m playing with a bunch of seasoned vets that are very good and very experienced in the game. So I’m learning so much from them. I love the game and I’m going to continue to get better every day.”
Miami was without veteran forward Andre Iguodala (left hip soreness) and starting guard Victor Oladipo (right knee soreness) on Wednesday.
The Heat earned a very rare road win over the Spurs.
With Wednesday’s victory, the Heat’s all-time regular-season record in San Antonio improved to ... 5-28. If you include the teams’ Finals matchups, Miami’s all-time record in San Antonio is now 7-32.
The Heat still stands in seventh place in the East standings, but is now one-half game behind the No. 6 Boston Celtics and one game behind the No. 5 Atlanta Hawks. The Heat and Hawks face off Friday in Atlanta.
Before Wednesday’s game, Spoelstra reflected on the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict. And players spoke about it after the game.
Spoelstra called Tuesday’s guilty verdict in the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer “a step in the right direction in terms of equal justice.”
Here’s Spoelstra’s complete statement on the topic during his pregame media session:
“I think everybody had a heavy heart and some form of anxiety in anticipation of what the verdict would be yesterday. We did talk about it in our team meeting this morning. Guys were able to express themselves and you have mixed emotions about it. On the one hand, you feel great that there has been accountability and a step in the right direction in terms of equal justice. But then you still feel very saddened that it took the loss of a life for it to get to this point.
“There’s still, I think we all can agree that there’s a long way to go. There’s a lot of work to be done and everybody is going to have to be united to make real change. My thoughts were, well what if there was never a camera phone to capture that? How would this have all played out? So you feel for the Floyd family. This isn’t going to change anything or bring George [Floyd] back, but at least it’s a small step in the right direction.”
Following Wednesday’s win, Butler said: “It’s just a step in the right direction, knowing that we still have a long way to go. You cannot relax. But you can be happy that us as a country, we’re getting where we need to get to. I think everybody understands that everybody was excited and happy about it. But that doesn’t stop what we’re trying to make happen. So we’re still in this thing and we got a long way to go.”
Adebayo said: “It was a good day for [Floyd’s] family. But it’s crazy that we gotta hope that somebody is held responsible for their actions. Aside from that, it was a good day for his family and I’m happy they got justice.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 10:55 PM.
