How has the Heat kept winning since Bam Adebayo and others went out? ‘We got hoopers’
Just a few games from the midway point of the season, the Miami Heat’s position in the standings isn’t surprising.
At 24-15, the Heat entered Friday in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, just three games out of first place, with the NBA’s seventh-best net rating, and on pace to win 50 games. That’s right around where preseason predictions had Miami this season.
But what is surprising is the fact that the Heat has met preseason expectations, so far, with its leading trio of Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry available for just 14 of the first 39 games.
The trio hasn’t played together since a Nov. 27 win against the Chicago Bulls, as Adebayo has missed 18 consecutive games and isn’t expected to return until mid-January after undergoing surgery on his right thumb. Butler has also sat out 16 games because of multiple injuries, including Wednesday’s win against the Portland Trail Blazers with a sprained right ankle.
In addition, Dewayne Dedmon, Tyler Herro, Caleb Martin, Markieff Morris, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, P.J. Tucker and Gabe Vincent have each missed multiple games this season because of injuries and/or COVID-19 protocols. And Victor Oladipo has yet to play as he continues to rehabilitate from May surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee.
Making the circumstances even tougher for the Heat? Twenty-three of the first 39 games have come on the road.
“This whole month is forcing all of us just to play these road games constantly,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, as the Heat continues its road trip on Saturday against the Phoenix Suns (9 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “It’s shifting and adapting and changing so quickly that I’m looking out there and I’m like, ‘OK, I want to go to Jimmy. OK, I want to go to Kyle. OK, I want to go to the next guy, Bam.’ We’ve been dealing with this world for a month.”
This stretch full of injuries and COVID-19 issues has allowed the Heat to show off its depth, as nine different starting lineups have been used since the start of December.
Through all of it, the Heat has posted an 11-7 record since Adebayo went out and is 9-4 in games without Adebayo and Butler this season.
“We got hoopers. We got guys that are ready to step up at any time,” Strus said. “When their numbers are called, they’re always ready and guys that are super confident in themselves and ready to play at any time and just love playing basketball and want to be out there and win.”
How has the Heat done it? Here’s a look at how Miami has been able to survive life without Adebayo and others since the start of December:
▪ Elite three-point shooting: The Heat has made 19 or more threes in 19 regular-season games in franchise history and five of them have come since the start of December. Miami also matched its single-game franchise record of 22 made threes twice during this stretch.
The Heat has shot 39.9 percent from three-point range in 18 games since Dec. 1., which is the second-best three-point percentage in the NBA during that span.
Strus has averaged a team-high 3.3 makes per game on 43.4 percent shooting from deep, Robinson has averaged three makes on 39.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc and P.J. Tucker has averaged 1.7 makes on 51.3 percent shooting on threes since the start of December.
Also, noteworthy: The Heat set a franchise record with 229 made threes while shooting 40.2 percent from deep in December. Miami’s previous record for a single month was 199 made threes, according to Heat.com’s Couper Moorhead.
▪ Omer Yurtseven’s rebounding: With Adebayo and Dedmon out, Yurtseven has appeared in 19 consecutive games and has logged double-digit minutes in 12 games in a row after spending the first month of the season out of the rotation. Yurtseven has also started the past six games.
Yurtseven, 23, has turned into one of the NBA’s top rebounders during that time.
Yurtseven has grabbed double-digit rebounds in 10 consecutive games, which is the longest such streak by a rookie in Heat history. He’s also the first player in franchise history to finish with at least 12 rebounds in 10 straight games.
The only other player to grab 12 or more rebounds in 10 consecutive games this season is Atlanta’s Clint Capela.
During the last 10 games, Yurtseven has posted the NBA’s top rebounding percentage (the percentage of available rebounds a player grabs while on the court) among those who have appeared in at least five games during that stretch at 23.6 percent. Denver’s Nikola Jokic is second at 23.4 percent.
Yurtseven’s dominance on the glass has kept the Heat among the best rebounding teams in the NBA despite missing Adebayo for the more than a month and Dedmon for the past two weeks. The Heat has the league’s fifth-best rebounding percentage over the past 10 games.
▪ Career nights for the Heat’s complementary players: Yurtseven isn’t the only one who has turned in career-best performances during this short-handed stretch.
Martin, Strus, Tucker and Vincent have each had career nights in recent weeks.
Martin totaled a career-high 28 points on a career-high six made threes in a Dec. 8 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Strus scored a career-high 32 points with the help of a career-high eight made threes in a Dec. 17 win over the Orlando Magic.
Tucker matched his career-high of eight assists in a Dec. 8 win over the Bucks.
Vincent recorded a career-high 27 points in a Dec. 17 win over the Magic.
▪ At least, Lowry has been around: While Adebayo and Butler have been out for extended stretches, Lowry has missed only four games this season and just two games since the start of December.
Lowry’s presence has been critical in surviving life without Adebayo and/or Butler, as he has averaged 15.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists while playing a team-high 34.5 minutes in 16 games since Adebayo went out.
The on/off numbers don’t indicate the Heat has been better with Lowry on the court. But the amount of minutes that Spoelstra has played the 35-year-old Lowry does.
▪ A relatively favorable schedule: Many of the games have been on the road, but many have also come against other very short-handed teams amid a league-wide COVID-19 outbreak over the past month.
Based on combined opponent winning percentage and not considering the road/home factor, the Heat has played the sixth-easiest schedule in the NBA.
The Heat has the eighth-toughest schedule remaining.
“These are extraordinary times. We’ve had some amazing evenings,” Spoelstra said. “When we started going through this with our injuries and with COVID, just like everybody else in the league, we just wanted to be open to the possibilities and understand that it would probably be different night to night. You have to expect the unexpected.”
