How the Heat used the midrange to earn a quality win over the Jazz, and other takeaways
Entering as the only two teams in the NBA with both a top-five offensive rating and defensive rating, the Miami Heat’s matchup against the Utah Jazz was billed as an early-season showdown.
The result was another quality win for the Heat (7-2), as it escaped with a 118-115 win over the Jazz (7-2) on Saturday night at FTX Arena to bounce back from Thursday’s 17-point home loss to the Boston Celtics.
“It was really good basketball,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It was a high-level basketball game. Utah is extremely good.”
The Heat led by 19 with 5:20 to play, but it still came down to the final seconds. Utah used a 20-3 run to cut Miami’s lead to two with 19.8 seconds to play.
The Jazz then intentionally fouled Tyler Herro on the inbounds pass, and Herro made one of two free throws to increase the Heat’s advantage to 116-113 with 17.6 seconds left.
Utah did not immediately go for the tie, though, as Donovan Mitchell found Rudy Gobert for a dunk to make it a one-point game with 11.5 seconds to play.
Jimmy Butler was then intentionally fouled and he made both free throws to push the Heat’s lead back up to three with 10.4 seconds left.
Mitchell went for the tie on the next possession, but missed the three-pointer and the Heat grabbed the rebound to run out the clock. Mitchell scored 10 of his game-high 37 points in the fourth quarter.
“I think all these experiences, particularly for a semi-new team early in the season, I think are really important to go through,” Spoelstra said. “These kind of experiences, late-game situations, learning how to hold on to a lead, how to play. We slowed down a little bit offensively. But they made every single play going down the other end it seemed like.”
Usually it’s the Heat’s defense that leads the way, but it was the offense on Saturday. Miami shot 60.3 percent from the field and 11 of 21 (52.4 percent) on threes against a Utah defense that entered as the fifth-most efficient unit in the NBA.
It marked the 19th game in franchise history that the Heat has shot at least 60 percent from the field in and the first time since Dec. 22, 2017.
Kyle Lowry, who was questionable for the contest because of a sprained ankle, turned in his first triple-double performance in a Heat uniform with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in 36 minutes.
Butler totaled 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting, three rebounds and six assists.
Bam Adebayo finished with 17 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Herro scored a team-high 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting.
“That we won, which is all that matters,” Butler said when asked for his takeaway from Saturday’s victory. “Whether it’s by one or 21 or 31. As long as we win, we did our job.”
The Heat now embarks on a five-game West Coast trip that begins Monday against the Denver Nuggets. Nine of Miami’s next 11 games come on the road.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Jazz:
To have success against the Jazz’s elite defense, the Heat needed to be efficient on non-rim two-point shots. The Heat accomplished that and more.
Utah’s defense runs opposing offenses off the three-point line and makes things really tough around the rim with Gobert’s interior presence.
What’s usually left for offenses against the Jazz are plenty of non-rim two-point opportunities. Entering Saturday, 35.5 percent of the shots Utah had allowed were either non-rim paint or midrange attempts (third-highest percentage in the NBA).
The Heat absolutely thrived from this area of the court on Saturday, shooting 22 of 38 (57.9 percent) on non-rim two-point looks.
Adebayo shot 4 of 9, Butler shot 5 of 7, Lowry shot 4 of 5 and Herro shot 5 of 9 on non-rim two-point opportunities.
“It’s not like their defensive system is going to give up a bunch of layups and wide open threes,” Spoelstra said. “They do that extremely well. So you have to be able to find different things to go to on your menu. I think we did a pretty good job of getting to what we wanted to get to and you have to take the shots that are available and then ideally be efficient in those areas.”
The Heat’s midrange success helped unlock other aspects of its offense as the game went on.
Miami also finished an efficient 11 of 21 from three-point range and 14 of 19 at the rim in the victory.
The Heat posted an offensive rating of 129.7 points scored per 100 possessions. It represents the Jazz’s worst defensive rating in a regular-season game since the 2019-20 season.
The Heat received positive news before Saturday’s win.
Lowry started against the Jazz despite spraining his left ankle late in Thursday’s loss to the Celtics. He was questionable entering the contest.
But Lowry played and was very effective, recording the 19th triple-double in his NBA career. He’s the 12th different Heat player in franchise history to turn in a triple-double performance.
Lowry was aggressive from the start, recording 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes in the first half. Those eight first-half shots are Lowry’s season-high for any half.
“Everybody in our locker room has great respect for their program and how they play and what they can do to you if you’re not on top of your game,” Spoelstra said. “Kyle really set the tone for that with a triple-double. It just shows that he can impact the game in a lot of different ways.”
Lowry’s feistiness also made an appearance, as he and Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson were called for double technicals with 6:14 left in the second quarter after a back and forth that included a few shoves.
Forward KZ Okpala was also available for the Heat on Saturday after missing the previous two games because of a sprained right ankle. Max Strus (sprained left knee), Marcus Garrett (G League assignment) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) remained out for the Heat.
It hasn’t been the hottest shooting start for Heat forward Duncan Robinson, but he remains a steady and consistent weapon from deep.
Robinson finished Saturday’s win with three points on 1-of-5 shooting from deep. He’s shooting an underwhelming by his standards 32.5 percent from three-point range through the first nine games.
But with Robinson’s three-pointer on Saturday, he tied his own franchise record that he set in 2019-20 with a three made in 57 consecutive games. He can set a new record with a three-pointer in Monday’s matchup against the Nuggets.
Saturday also marked the 156th consecutive game that Robinson has played in. This streak, which dates back to April 9, 2019, is the fifth longest in Heat history and only two games short of tying Adebayo’s string of 158 consecutive games played for the fourth longest in franchise history.
Caleb Martin impressed off the bench.
Playing in place of the injured Strus in the Heat’s bench rotation, Martin contributed nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and grabbed four rebounds in 18 solid minutes off the bench.
With Herro and Martin leading the way, the Heat’s bench outscored the Jazz’s reserves 45-21.
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 seven of the Heat’s first nine games.
Spoelstra had nice things to say about former Heat center Hassan Whiteside before Saturday’s game.
“I enjoyed my time coaching Hassan,” Spoelstra said of Whiteside, who spent five seasons with the Heat from 2014-19. “We feel that it was a symbiotic relationship, that we were able to help him at a point in his career where he was trying to get back in the league and establish himself. And we needed talent, and he was able to provide that for us.
“Hassan is probably misread by some people, but he’s a funny guy. He really is. He’s a good guy to have around. He likes to have fun, but he competes and he fits great in that system too, particularly defensively.”
After signing a four-year, $98 million max contract with the Heat in the summer of 2016, Miami traded Whiteside to the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2019 offseason as part of the Butler sign-and-trade deal. Leading up to that trade, Whiteside expressed frustration about his role multiple times and Adebayo eventually took over as the Heat’s starting center toward the end of Whiteside’s time with Miami.
Whiteside has played for three different teams since his Heat departure. He signed a one-year contract for the veteran minimum salary this past offseason to play as the Jazz’s backup center behind Gobert.
Whiteside, 32, finished with six points, eight rebounds and one block in 19 minutes on Saturday.
It marked Whiteside’s third game back in Miami since the Heat traded him. He was met by loud boos and a “We got shooters” chant from the crowd in his first game back in Miami in January 2020, and Whiteside was booed again on Saturday.
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 10:07 PM.
