Heat dominates another opponent, this time behind shooting and Butler. Takeaways from win
The Miami Heat didn’t have starting center Bam Adebayo and was playing on the second night of a back-to-back. But not even that was enough to slow the Heat.
Despite missing Adebayo and playing its second game in as many nights, the Heat continued its dominant start to the season with a 129-103 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies (3-3) on Saturday night at FedExForum.
Miami (5-1) has won four straight and has outscored opponents by an average of 17 points per game to begin the season.
With Adebayo unavailable because of a left knee bruise, the Heat won behind its three-point shooting. Miami shot 21 of 37 (56.8 percent) from three-point range to outscore Memphis 63-48 from deep.
Jimmy Butler also stepped up in Adebayo’s absence, putting together an excellent performance that included 27 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
The Heat controlled the game from the start, leading by as many as 19 points in the first half. Miami pulled ahead by as many as 29 points in the second half and Memphis never led.
Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson contributed 22 points and 15 points for the Heat, respectively.
Heat guard Kyle Lowry scored double-digit points for the first time this season, finishing with 15 points, five rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
The Heat’s league-best defense limited a quality Grizzlies offense to 38.6 percent shooting. It’s the fifth time in six games that Miami has held an opponent under 40 percent shooting from the field.
The Heat closes its quick two-game trip on Tuesday night against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Grizzlies:
It was only a matter of time before threes started going in for the Heat. It happened on Saturday.
After making just 29.6 percent of its threes (third-worst in the NBA) in its first five regular-season games, the Heat erupted to make 21 threes against the Grizzlies. It marked only the fifth game in franchise history that Miami finished with 21 or more threes, with 22 still standing as the team record for threes made in a game.
Robinson, who entered shooting just 27.9 percent from deep in the first five games, snapped out of his early-season slump to finish 5 of 10 from three-point range.
“Anytime you go through a stretch when the ball is not going in, and I’ve had them before, it’s frustrating,” Robinson said. “It’s particularly frustrating when you’re starting out a year and you’re starting with a clean slate. It’s a great thing that a team is winning. But at the same time, I want to feel like I’m doing my part and contributing. Guys are being super unselfish and putting me in situations to be successful and I didn’t feel like I was capitalizing.
“You’re going to have stretches when you’re shooting the ball well and you’re going to have stretches when you’re shooting the ball poorly. So just trying to weather the storm in some respects. Just continue to push. Hopefully this will be a breakthrough moving forward.”
Lowry also ended his shooting slump by making four of his five three-point attempts. He was just 3 of 21 from deep this season before Saturday.
“It definitely felt good to see some threes go in, especially for us two because we’ve been struggling all season so far,” Lowry said, referencing Robinson.
In total, eight Heat players made at least one three-pointer against the Grizzlies. That list includes Herro, who shot 4 of 8 on three-pointers.
It looks like Butler has elevated his game to another level this season.
Butler’s hot start to the season continued Saturday, when he totaled 27 points on 12 shots in 30 minutes. He did not play in the fourth quarter of the blowout win.
For the season, Butler is averaging 25.3 points on 52.9 percent shooting, seven rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.8 steals. It’s still very early, but that would set new career highs in points, rebounds and steals for Butler.
Again, its still very early ... but the only player in NBA history who has finished a season averaging at least 25 points, five assists and two steals while shooting at least 52 percent from the field is Michael Jordan, who did it in four separate seasons.
Butler also took on the challenge of defending Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant, who entered tied with Golden State’s Stephen Curry for the NBA’s scoring lead at 30.4 points per game. Butler helped to limit Morant to 20 points on 7-of-18 shooting on Saturday.
“He’s just making the right plays offensively to help you team, whether that’s scoring or playmaking or facilitating,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “And then you add his will and competitiveness to be able to take on the biggest challenges in this league, to guard different guys, and that’s basically one though five.”
How did the Heat handle the back end of its first back-to-back set of the regular season? One starter was held out, and that’s it.
Adebayo, 24, did not play because of lingering pain from a left knee bruise. It’s the first game he has missed during this young regular season after sitting out eight games last season.
Adebayo was listed as questionable for Friday’s contest because of the knee bruise, but was cleared to play and finished with season highs in points (26) and rebounds (19) in the Heat’s win over the Charlotte Hornets. He was again listed as questionable for Saturday’s game before ultimately being held out.
Aside from Adebayo, the only two Heat players unavailable on the second night of the back-to-back were Marcus Garrett (G League assignment) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery).
The good news for Adebayo and the Heat is it has two days off before its next game, Tuesday against the Mavericks.
Adebayo’s absence had a ripple effect on the Heat’s rotation, with veteran center Dewayne Dedmon starting in his place.
Dedmon, who normally plays off the bench as the backup center behind Adebayo, made his first start since March 11, 2020. Dedmon battled foul trouble for most of Saturday’s game, but managed to finish with nine points and nine rebounds in 17 minutes.
But with Dedmon called for his second foul just 2:27 into the opening quarter, usual reserve forward Markieff Morris was called in from the bench to play as the Heat’s backup center with Adebayo unavailable. Morris (6-9, 245) has experience at center, as he played 19 percent of his minutes in 2019-20 and 7 percent of his minutes in 2020-21 at the five, according to Basketball Reference.
But when Morris picked up his third foul with 7:05 left in the second quarter, the 6-5 P.J. Tucker shifted to center. Spoelstra had size on the bench in the 6-11 Omer Yurtseven, but he opted not to play the rookie center until the final minutes when the outcome was already decided.
Also worth noting: With Adebayo out and Dedmon sliding into the starting group, there was an opening in the Heat’s usual four-man bench rotation on Saturday. Spoelstra called on two-way contract wing Caleb Martin to fill that spot.
Martin finished Saturday’s win with 12 points, five rebounds and three steals in 26 minutes.
“I found that interesting already this year,” Spoelstra said. “People on the outside question our depth. I always felt that our depth is one of our biggest strengths. We look at it totally differently than everybody else. And this was a perfect example of that. One of our All-Stars is out and we have a bunch of different guys step in.”
Late in the game when the Heat emptied its bench, veteran forward and team captain Udonis Haslem made his first appearance of the season. Haslem, who is in his 19th NBA season, scored two points and grabbed one rebound in 2:49.
Despite Adebayo’s absence and having to play small for part of the game, the Heat still had success on the boards against a quality rebounding team.
Part of it was because Miami didn’t miss many shots and there weren’t many defensive rebounding opportunities for Memphis, but the Heat outrebounded the Grizzlies 50-32.
Miami has yet to be outrebounded in a game this season.
The Heat also grabbed 11 offensive rebounds to score 14 second-chance points against the Grizzlies. Dedmon, Lowry, Herro and Martin each accounted for two offensive boards.
“It was a group effort,” Spoelstra said. “... You take away our leading rebounder in Bam, we knew that a bunch of other people would have to get involved.”
An additional note: Heat wing Max Strus exited Saturday’s win with 4:59 to play because of an apparent leg injury. Spoelstra said there was no real update after the game and “we’ll get to Dallas, we’ll see how feels and we’ll take the next step.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 10:25 PM.
