Takeaways and reaction from Heat’s productive night in the playoff race and win over Hornets
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s impressive 121-111 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday at Spectrum Center to end its quick two-game trip at 2-0. The Heat (35-30) is five games over .500 for the first time this season:
It was a productive night for the Heat in the Eastern Conference playoff race. With Sunday’s win, Miami is now guaranteed to play beyond its May 16 regular-season finale.
The Heat clinched no worse than a play-in tournament berth with its victory in Charlotte. The play-in tourney will take place after the regular season and before the first round of the playoffs, and it will include the teams with the seventh-highest through the tenth-highest winning percentages in each conference.
The Heat also moved ahead of the Boston Celtics (34-31) to slide into sixth place in the East standings.
The Celtics fell to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, with No. 6 Miami now one game ahead of No. 7 Boston. The Celtics lead the season series 1-0, with the teams facing off two more times on May 9 and 11 in Boston.
“It feels like the playoffs a little bit,” Heat guard Goran Dragic said. “The preparation was like that. We know that every game counts now. Definitely we want to be in the top six and try not to play in the play-in tournament. So every game counts.”
The Heat also now owns the same record as the No. 5 Atlanta Hawks (35-30), but the Hawks own the head-to-head tiebreaker because they won the season series over the Heat 2-1.
With the No. 4 New York Knicks (36-28) defeating the Houston Rockets on Sunday, the Heat remained 1.5 games behind the Knicks. But Miami owns the tiebreaker over New York after sweeping the season series.
Sunday’s victory also moved the Heat 3.5 games ahead of the No. 8 Hornets (31-33).
The Heat, which has won seven of its past nine games, has just seven regular-season games left to play. Next up for Miami is a matchup against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat’s offense continued its best stretch of the season, and that’s positive news with the start of the playoffs approaching.
Miami’s offense has been among the least efficient in the NBA for most of the season. But the numbers have trended in a positive direction since the start of April.
That trend continued Sunday, with the Heat scoring 121 points while shooting 51.1 percent from the field and committing just 11 turnovers. This performance comes one night after Miami posted its best single-game offensive rating of the season in Saturday’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Heat overcame a below average 11-of-38 three-point shooting performance in Charlotte with 64 paint points on 32-of-45 shooting.
The Heat scored 30 or more points in each of the first three quarters, and outscored the Hornets 35-22 in a pivotal third period to turn a seven-point halftime lead into a 20-point advantage entering the fourth quarter.
Six Heat players finished with double-digit points, led by the duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. Adebayo finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists, and Butler totaled 18 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Adebayo and Butler combined to score 26 paint points on 13-of-17 shooting.
“It just shows how much we’ve grown,” Butler said of the Heat’s balanced offensive attack. “Being able to build and sustain our leads. But I have the utmost confidence and belief that these guys can play with or without me in the rotation, with or without me in the lineup, with or without me in the fourth quarter. It shows how much we’ve grown as a team.”
Kendrick Nunn continued his consistent stretch with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting. And veteran forward Trevor Ariza recorded nine points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks and three steals.
“Guys were really active on the weak side,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We were able to get guys involved with cuts and curls and things of that nature. But Jimmy and Bam really allowed us to play that game.”
The start of the playoffs is just a few weeks away and Miami’s offense is beginning to resemble the top-10 unit it was last season.
The Heat reached the end of March with the NBA’s sixth-worst offensive rating, scoring 107.7 points per 100 possessions in the first 48 games of the season.
But since the beginning of April, the Heat’s offense has been an above average unit.
The Heat is shooting an efficient 48.2 percent from the field and 36.4 percent on threes in 17 games since the start of April. Miami’s offensive rating (114.8 points scored per 100 possession) ranks 10th during this month-long stretch.
With the Heat already featuring a top-10 defense for most of the season, the recent offensive uptick could be a game-changer if it can be sustained moving forward.
Dragic was listed as questionable for the game on the second night of a back-to-back. But he ended up playing an important role for the Heat in Sunday’s important game.
There was uncertainty regarding Dragic’s status, as he has sat out the back end of three back-to-backs since the start of April. But the 34-year-old Dragic played and provided a boost off the Heat’s bench on Sunday with 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting in 30 minutes.
“Goran is just a great competitor,” Spoelstra said. “I think that’s one of the most underrated things about him. Each one of these games going down the stretch, we’re going to treat on a day-to-day, game-by-game basis. So we’re not going to pre- determine whether guys are playing or not.”
Dragic opened with an aggressive approach, scoring 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting in the first two quarters. Those 14 points tied Dragic’s season-high for first-half points and the 11 shots were the most he has attempted in any first half this season.
The Heat needs this more assertive Dragic, especially as the postseason nears. Dragic entered averaging 10.6 shot attempts per game, which would be the fewest he has averaged in a season since he joined the Heat in the middle of the 2014-15 season.
“I’m getting there. Still working on my confidence and everything,” Dragic said of gearing up for the playoffs. “But the last three games, I felt awesome. My legs were there. I was driving the ball more and that’s what it’s all about. When we get guys back, Victor [Oladipo] and Tyler [Herro], that’s going to make my job easier. So, yeah, so far, so good.”
With the help of Dragic, the Heat’s inconsistent bench again was a positive on Sunday.
Along with Dragic, veteran center Dewayne Dedmon also turned in a quality performance off the Heat’s bench. Dedmon contributed 14 points and eight rebounds, including 10 points and five rebounds in five third-quarter minutes.
“He plays hard as [expletive],” Adebayo said of Dedmon. “That’s what I love about him. He brings that energy, that intensity. We need that, and he does it in critical moments. ... He’s another version of me in the second unit.”
Miami used a bench rotation of Dragic, Dedmon, Max Strus and Andre Iguodala for the second consecutive game in Charlotte until Spoelstra emptied the bench in the final minutes.
The Heat’s bench combined to score 45 points on Sunday.
“I think our reserves now for two games in a row really inspired the entire time with their play,” Spoelstra said. “Dewayne on the glass with multiple efforts, Goran had a pep to his step tonight, Max has given us two games now with quality minutes and ‘Dre is always just able to bring a great calm and veteran IQ to that group.”
This comes with two rotation guards still out for the Heat. Herro and Oladipo, who did not travel with the team on the two-game trip, were the only Heat players unavailable for Sunday’s game.
Herro (right foot soreness) missed his fifth straight game and Oladipo (right knee soreness) missed his 13th straight game.
The Heat finally found a way to slow guard Malik Monk and defeated the Hornets for the first time this season.
Charlotte won the teams’ first two meetings of the season — a 129-121 overtime victory at AmericanAirlines Arena on Feb. 1 and a 110-105 win at Spectrum Center on March 26. But the Heat avoided the 3-0 season series sweep with Sunday’s result.
Monk was a major factor in the Hornets’ two wins over the Heat earlier this season, averaging 34 points on 65.7 percent shooting from the field and 63.6 percent shooting from three-point range in the teams’ first two matchups. Monk’s two highest-scoring games this season have come against the Heat.
But Monk was held to 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting on Sunday.
Instead, P.J. Washington led the Hornets with a game-high 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 shooting on threes.
This story was originally published May 2, 2021 at 10:24 PM.
