Another double-digit win for the dominant Heat. Takeaways from the victory over the Mavericks
Whether at home or on the road, the Miami Heat just keeps winning.
The Heat (6-1) extended its winning streak to five games with a 125-110 victory over the Dallas Mavericks (4-3) on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center. Miami has won three straight on the road.
The 6-1 record through seven games matches the best start in Heat history. Each of the Heat’s six victories have come by double digits.
The Heat trailed by as many as 11 points in the first quarter, but controlled the rest of the game. Miami led by eight at halftime and 11 after three quarters on its way to the 15-point win.
The Heat allowed a season-high 110 points, with superstar Luka Doncic leading the Mavericks’ offense with 33 points on 10-of-24 shooting, three rebounds and five assists.
But Miami’s offense was so good that it didn’t matter, totaling 125 points on 51.8 percent shooting from the field and 13-of-25 (52 percent) shooting on threes while committing just seven turnovers.
After making just 29.6 percent of its threes (third-worst in the NBA during that time) in its first five regular-season games, the Heat has erupted to shoot 34 of 62 (54.8 percent) from deep in the last two games.
There were many contributors for Miami.
Tyler Herro scored 25 points on 11-of-20 shooting and dished out four assists.
Jimmy Butler, who was just named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for his excellent play last week, recorded 23 points with the help of 15-of-17 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Kyle Lowry finished with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 6-of-9 shooting on threes, five rebounds and nine assists to set season highs in points, threes made and threes attempted.
Bam Adebayo totaled 22 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks.
“We don’t really care who scores,” Butler said. “As long as we win, we’re all happy. As long as we win, we all did our job no matter if somebody scores two points, no points or 25 points. If we win, everybody’s happy.”
It marked the first time in franchise history that the Heat has had four players each score at least 22 points in the same game.
“You want to be able to maximize your offense in all the different ways in your menu without it feeling like you’re taking turns,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I don’t think anyone would say that about our team. It’s an unselfish group. They like sharing the ball. They like enjoying somebody else’s success. If they can help somebody else score, they want to see that happen.”
In addition, the Heat has not been outrebounded in any of the first seven games, which is a franchise record for the most such games to begin a season. Miami’s bench has also outscored the opponent’s reserves in each of the first seven games, which is the longest such streak to begin a season in franchise history.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Mavericks:
The Mavericks take a lot of threes and the Heat gives up a lot of three-point attempts. So when Dallas started missing threes, Miami pulled away.
Dallas led by as many as 11 points in the opening period with the help of a 4-of-6 start from deep and 5-of-12 shooting from three-point range in the first quarter.
But the Mavericks cooled down, shooting 3 of 11 on threes in the second quarter and the Heat won the period 46-32 to enter halftime with an eight-point lead.
Dallas then shot just 6 of 19 (31.6 percent) from three-point range in the second half.
After shooting 5 of 12 on threes in the first quarter, the Mavericks shot 9 of 30 (30 percent) from deep the rest of the way. Miami outscored Dallas 101-80 over the final three quarters.
“In the first quarter, they were getting open ones from miscues,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s three-point defense. “Then there was a few more where they had some open ones and just missed them. That’s also going to happen because they have a lot of talent and Doncic does draw a lot of extra help defenders. But I think for the most part, particularly once we got past that first quarter, at least we were there. There was a disposition, there was a presence on the ball, there were extra efforts to be able to try to get to a contest.”
The three-pointer is important in nearly every NBA game these days, but it was a little more important than usual in Tuesday’s game between the Heat and Mavericks.
Dallas entered averaging the third-most three-point attempts in the NBA at 41.2 per game and Miami entered allowing a league-high 42.5 three-point attempts per game. So the correlation between the Mavericks’ three-point efficiency and the result was clear.
Herro is making history off the bench early this season.
The Heat’s sixth man looks like the clear early-season NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
Herro has scored 157 points off the bench this season, which is the most through the first seven games of a season by any reserve in NBA history. The previous record was 156 points by Mavericks guard Jason Terry in 2007.
“I mean, that’s cool, I guess,” Herro said with a grin when told about the record. “I mean, I’m just continuing to do my part and do my job and it’s still really early.”
Herro is averaging 22.4 points per game off the bench. Charlotte’s Kelly Oubre Jr. is a distant second with 17.7 points per game.
Of course, Herro is hardly being used like a reserve. He’s averaging a team-high 18.1 shots per game and the fourth-most minutes (31.5) behind only Adebayo, Butler and Lowry.
Adebayo started slow in his return from injury, but he came alive in the second half.
After missing Saturday’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies because of a left knee bruise, Adebayo was back in the Heat’s starting lineup against the Mavericks.
Adebayo was quiet with just six points on 2-of-8 shooting in the first half. But he turned it around, scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the second half.
“Definitely the first half I played terrible,” Adebayo said. “And that’s just me and my mental. That’s just me getting in my head. That’s just me being accountable as a leader. So the second half was basically turn it up ‘13’ and I did, we got the win.”
How did the Heat replace injured wing Max Strus in the rotation against the Mavericks? With Caleb Martin.
Martin, one of the Heat’s two-way contract players, filled Strus’ bench minutes in Dallas. He didn’t score and grabbed three rebounds in 17 minutes.
The rest of the Heat’s four-man bench rotation remained the same, with Herro, Dewayne Dedmon and Markieff Morris playing as reserves as usual.
Dedmon again contributed quality minutes, recording 10 points and five rebounds in 14 minutes. Morris finished with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting, three rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes.
The Heat’s bench outscored the Mavericks’ reserves 46-21.
Tuesday marked the first game that Strus missed after spraining his left knee in Saturday’s win over the Grizzlies. Strus said he expects to miss “a couple weeks,” and Martin looks to be on track to be a consistent member of the Heat’s rotation while he’s out.
Players on two-way contracts like Martin can be on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games this season. Martin has been active in five of the Heat’s first seven games.
KZ Okpala was not an option to replace Strus in the Heat’s rotation on Tuesday.
Okpala, 22, was not available to play against the Mavericks because of a sprained right ankle. He has logged 16 minutes over four games this season, but they have all come in the fourth quarter of double-digit wins when the result was already decided.
Okpala, who is in his third NBA season, has played more minutes in the G League (572) than in the NBA (489) during his career.
“He has been putting in the time,” Spoelstra said Tuesday when asked about Okpala’s injury. “He has been making progress and all that work doesn’t go away. That’s still there and the improvement that he has made has been noticed.”
The Heat had 12 available players against the Mavericks, with Marcus Garrett (G League assignment), Okpala, Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) and Strus out.
The Mavericks were without Trey Burke (health and safety protocols), Maxi Kleber (left oblique strain) and Kristaps Porzingis (lower back tightness).
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 10:01 PM.
