Heat ties franchise record with 22 made threes. Takeaways from dominant win over Pacers
The Miami Heat was without three starters on Tuesday, but it did have its three-point shooting.
That proved to be more than enough, as the short-handed Heat (19-13) used elite outside shooting to open a four-game homestand with a dominant 125-96 win over the Indiana Pacers (13-19) on Tuesday night at FTX Arena.
The Heat outscored the Pacers 66-33 behind 22-of-49 shooting from three-point range to tie the franchise record for made threes in a game. Miami has hit 22 three-pointers three times before — in a March 4, 2020 win over the Orlando Magic, a May 15, 2021 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and a Dec. 8 win over the Bucks.
Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson led the way, combining for 52 points on 11-of-18 shooting on threes. Herro finished with 26 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep and Robinson recorded 26 points on 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
“It’s a great feeling, especially when you’re playing with unselfish guys who are enjoying other people’s success and want to get other guys shots,” Robinson said of the Heat’s 22 threes. “It definitely can be contagious in that sense, for sure.”
Point guard Kyle Lowry came close to his second triple-double of the season, but finished two points short. He ended the victory with eight points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists, and did not play most of the fourth quarter with Miami well ahead of Indiana.
“His head coach screwed it up,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of Lowry falling just short of a triple-double. “First of all, I didn’t know what the context was and I tried to diagram a play, and I screwed it up. As soon as I screwed it up, it was like: ‘Alright you get one more chance at it. You got to do it yourself because your head coach can’t.’ Once I saw a couple of collisions and he’s like a bowling ball in there, I was like alright we’re done.”
For Lowry, he said he wasn’t interested in “going to chase it” because “I have enough in my career.” He has recorded 19 triple-doubles during his NBA career.
On the other end of the court, the Heat kept the Pacers’ offense off balance throughout the night with a combination of zone and man-to-man defense. Indiana shot just 35.6 percent from the field.
The Heat controlled the game from start to finish, as it took the lead with 6:18 left in the first quarter and never trailed again. Miami led by as many as 33 points.
The Heat did all of this without six players, including three starters in Bam Adebayo (thumb surgery), Jimmy Butler (tail bone contusion) and P.J. Tucker (lower left leg nerve inflammation). Miami also didn’t have Caleb Martin (COVID-19 protocols), Markieff Morris (whiplash) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery).
All 10 available Heat players logged minutes in Tuesday’s game, including veteran forward and team captain Udonis Haslem. He made the Heat’s record-tying 22nd three-pointer of the night while playing the final 5:52 of the game, marking only the sixth made three of Haslem’s 19-year NBA career.
Third-year Heat forward KZ Okpala finished with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, three rebounds and one assist in 23 minutes off the bench.
Miami improved to 7-4 in games played without Adebayo and Butler this season.
The Heat continues its homestand on Thursday against the Detroit Pistons.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Pacers:
How did the Heat overcome the absence of some of its best players? By making a lot of threes ... again.
The Heat shot 22 of 49 (44.9 percent) from three-point range on Tuesday.
Threes were again a big part of Miami’s offensive attack from the start, as 12 of its 22 shots in the first quarter were from beyond the arc. The Heat finished the first half 11 of 24 on threes.
Miami then shot 11 of 25 from deep in the second half.
“It’s coming from within the context of our identity and how we want to play,” Spoelstra said. “We still have an aggressive attack. Guys are putting a lot of pressure on the paint. Our spacing certainly helps. But our paint touches are key for us.
“We might not get to the line as much as we previously would with Jimmy and Bam playing. But we still can put a lot of pressure on the paint and that leads to open threes and guys have really worked on that. Making the extra pass, finding the open and those guys capitalizing on those plays.”
It’s an opportune time for one of the best three-point shooting stretches in franchise history, as the Heat has been without Adebayo and Butler’s efficiency from inside the arc and ability to generate free throws for most of the last three weeks.
The Heat has shot 126 of 301 (41.9 percent) from three-point range over the last seven games, and has tied its franchise record of 22 made threes in a game twice in this span. The Heat is 5-2 during this stretch — all without Adebayo and Butler.
There has been a strong correlation between the Heat’s three-point shooting and whether it wins or loses when Adebayo and Butler are out. Miami has made 16 or more threes and shot better than 40 percent from three-point range in each of its seven wins without Adebayo and Butler this season.
The Heat has shot just 33.7 percent on threes in its four losses without Adebayo and Butler.
While the Heat is still missing a handful of rotation players because of injury, it did get Herro back from injury and he picked up right where he left off.
Herro looked fresh, finishing with 26 points on 17 shots in 21 minutes in his return from a right quadriceps contusion. He missed the previous three games with the injury.
Herro, 21, even converted on a high-flying dunk early in the second quarter.
“Obviously, no one likes missing games. But there’s a gift and a curse with it,” Herro said. “Obviously, being able to get a couple days rest. I’ve been playing high minutes before the injury. So just being able to get a couple days is always good.”
Tuesday marked the ninth time he has scored more than 25 points in a game this season, and there are still 50 games left on the Heat’s schedule. He crossed the 25-point threshold in only six games last season.
Herro is the NBA’s leading bench scorer, averaging 20.3 points per game as a reserve this season.
With the Heat having just 10 available players for the fourth straight game, forward Max Strus received his first career NBA start.
The Heat used its 10th different starting lineup of the season on Tuesday.
Tucker missed his first game of the season after injuring his left knee in Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons and Strus slid into his spot in the starting lineup.
Strus, who totaled 56 points in his previous two games, finished with 18 points on 4-of-12 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and four assists.
“It just made the most sense for this game and who we had available,” Spoelstra said of starting Strus in Tucker’s spot. “P.J., you take out that kind of Swiss Army knife, who’s doing everything for us defensively and offensively he has really created a lot of good triggers for us. We can’t try to recreate that, so we just went a different way.”
The Heat’s five injured players were on the bench supporting their teammates on Tuesday, but reinforcement could soon be on the way.
Adebayo, Butler, Morris, Oladipo and Tucker were on the bench in street clothes for the Heat’s win over the Pacers. Martin remains away from the team because he’s still in the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
Adebayo is not expected to return until mid-January and there’s still no definitive timetable on the return of the others. But the belief is that Butler and Martin could be back sooner rather than later.
Butler has missed 11 of the past 12 games because of a tail bone contusion, but recently began ramping up his work on the court.
Martin has been in the league’s protocols since Dec. 11 after testing positive for COVID-19. The current NBA policy requires players to either quarantine for 10 days or return consecutive negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart while not having any symptoms in order to return after testing positive for COVID-19, and Tuesday marked the 11th day that Martin has been in protocols.
In the meantime, the Heat is planning to sign forward Zylan Cheatham to a 10-day contract as a COVID-19 replacement for Martin. Since Martin remains in protocols, the Heat is eligible to sign a replacement player to a 10-day deal without it counting toward a team’s salary cap or potential luxury tax payment.
Cheatham was not available to play against the Pacers. He has yet to sign his contract with the Heat, but is expected to on Wednesday.
For the first time since recently accepting a position as an assistant coach for USA Basketball, Spoelstra spoke about the opportunity.
“It’s an incredible lifetime experience,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s game. “I had an absolute blast this summer with the select team working with Mark Few and [Jamahl Mosley]. Then having an opportunity to work for [Gregg Popovich] in that kind of environment was, I’ve said it before, it was like a Master’s class in coaching and international basketball. Then I also had a great opportunity to spend some time with Grant [Hill] and Steve [Kerr]. I’d already been a big fan of both of them, but really was incredibly impressed with both of them after the summer. I’m just really thankful.”
USA Basketball announced Monday that Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr will take over for Gregg Popovich as the national team’s head coach. Spoelstra was named as one of the three assistants on Kerr’s USA Basketball coaching staff along with Gonzaga coach Mark Few and Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 9:52 PM.
