Without Adebayo and Butler, Heat has turned to threes to win: ‘This is who we are right now’
The Miami Heat has been without stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler for much of the past two weeks, and now sixth man Tyler Herro is on the injury report.
But even without its top three scorers in Adebayo, Butler and Herro, the Heat still managed to earn a 101-96 road win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night to move to 1-1 on its four-game trip. Miami did it with just 10 available players, as Adebayo (thumb surgery), Butler (tail bone contusion), Herro (right quadriceps contusion), Caleb Martin (health and safety protocols), Markieff Morris (whiplash) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) were all unavailable.
“I just really appreciate this team and what they put into the process and not getting caught up in frustration or anything like that,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the Heat continuing its trip on Friday against the Orlando Magic at Amway Center (7 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “It’s just about solutions.”
The Heat has recorded recent victories over the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks, the Chicago Bulls and the 76ers to win three of its past four games without Adebayo and Butler.
The Heat will again play short-handed on Friday in Orlando, with Adebayo, Butler, Martin, Morris and Oladipo ruled out. Herro and center Omer Yurtseven (lower back bruise) are listed as questionable for the contest.
One of the solutions that the Heat has turned to during this stretch, with a few of its best offensive players out, is the power of the three-pointer.
Miami has upped its three-point attempts without Adebayo and Butler’s efficiency from inside the arc and ability to generate free throws. The Heat, which averaged 33.7 three-point attempts per game to start the season before Butler bruised his tail bone in a Nov. 27 road win over the Bulls, has taken 40 or more threes in four straight games for the first time in franchise history.
“This is who we are right now and we’re not like jacking,” Spoelstra said. “These are within, for sure, the context of what we’re doing. We’re still getting our paint attacks and touches. ... We do have to maximize that. But it’s more about the actions and what we get out of it. Sometimes you’ll make them, sometimes you don’t. But are you getting the looks that are in your strength zones.”
Without the offense running through All-Star talent like Adebayo and Butler, the Heat has used simple math to help negate the absence of its two best players: Take more threes and if enough go in, some of those points lost because of injuries to Adebayo and Butler can be made up.
It has been a successful formula, so far, as the Heat has posted an impressive 5-3 record this season without its leading duo. Miami has taken at least 40 threes in four of the five wins and has shot better than 40 percent from three-point range in each of the five victories.
“It’s definitely an attempts thing,” forward Duncan Robinson said of the Heat’s recent three-point surge. “But I think it’s more so like a play style thing and just being really aggressive. Flying off of stuff and that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m shooting threes or whatever. But more so just causing stress on defenses. When we don’t have guys that get into the paint like Jimmy and Bam, it’s another way for us to kind of create an overreaction.”
The Heat’s offensive plan without Adebayo and Butler leaves little margin for error. Miami shot just 13 of 40 (32.5 percent) on threes and lost by 11 to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday.
But it’s a plan that has proven to work when enough outside shots are going in. It’s a logical strategy, too, with some of the Heat’s best three-point shooters still healthy and available in Robinson, Max Strus, Kyle Lowry, P.J. Tucker and Gabe Vincent.
Vincent was the one who got hot in Wednesday’s win over the 76ers, finishing with a career-high 26 points with the help of a career-high seven made threes.
“Obviously, with personnel, sometimes I need to be more aggressive and sometimes I’m playmaking more,” Vincent said. “[On Wednesday], it was one of those nights where I was a little more aggressive and we needed attempts. We needed guys to get shots up. Some of our better shooters, myself, Duncan, Max, Kyle, P.J. had some easy ones. We just tried to be aggressive and take our shots as they came.”
Center Dewayne Dedmon kept it simple when asked how the Heat’s offense has changed without Adebayo and Butler.
“We just don’t run through Jimmy and Bam anymore, you know what I’m saying,” said Dedmon, who has started in place of Adebayo. “There are no over-the-top lob passes. We got the rest of our offense to work through. Kyle got the ball, P.J. got the ball and Dunc makes shots.”
Free-throw attempts and isolations are down without Adebayo and Butler, but three-pointers and assists are up. The Heat has assisted on an NBA-high 75.5 percent of its made shots during the last four games.
Is this a sustainable offensive formula for the Heat? Probably not.
But it doesn’t have to be with Butler, Herro and Martin expected back sooner rather than later, and Adebayo scheduled to make his return around mid-January. Morris and Oladipo are also expected to return at some point this season.
For now, the threes are going in and the Heat is finding a way to collect wins even without a few of its best players. That has helped turn a difficult stretch filled with injury issues into a relatively enjoyable one for coaches and players.
“We love what we do,” Spoelstra said following Wednesday’s win over the 76ers. “We love this profession. We’re still dealing with a global pandemic and it’s like a moving goal post every single day. But to be able to have the opportunity and compete at the highest level against a great team in an unbelievable environment, that’s what we’re in this business for.
“I’m just really happy for the guys in the locker room to be able to experience that. The young guys, some of the guys have never played in front of the Philly fans and it gets super intense, particularly when they made that run in the fourth quarter. I love that for our guys and I want them to experience all of these things and then we just cross our fingers and continue to hope for the best.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 11:50 AM.
