Short-handed Heat reaches midway point of season with win over Hawks. Takeaways and details
The Miami Heat continues to find ways to win without stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.
The Heat did it again Wednesday night, defeating the Hawks 115-91 at State Farm Arena without its two best players to reach the midway point of the season at 26-15. Miami improved to 11-4 without Adebayo and Butler this season.
“I think that’s the best quality about our team is that no one is worried about anything, everybody is just enjoying each other’s success right now,” Heat guard Kyle Lowry said. “We’re just finding ways to get wins and guys are finding ways to be effective in the game no matter what their role is.”
The Heat started slow, falling behind 13-2. But Miami dominated the rest of the game to run away with its second straight double-digit win.
After a rough first quarter that included 1-of-5 shooting on threes and seven turnovers, the Heat found itself trailing 27-21. But sixth man Tyler Herro led the comeback with 16 points and eight assists in the first two quarters to help Miami enter halftime with a five-point advantage.
The Heat then opened the third quarter with a 16-0 run to break the game open and take a 21-point lead. The Hawks (17-23) scored their first points of the second half with 7:20 left in the third period.
When it was over, the Heat won the third quarter 30-16 to enter the fourth with a 19-point lead.
The Hawks managed to cut the deficit to 13 points early in the final quarter, but that’s the closest they would get.
“Once we started to take care of the basketball, we started to play a little bit more to our identity,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We were able to get stops and then much more intentional with our offense from the second quarter on, and a lot of guys were in rhythm at that point.”
Seven Heat players finished with double-digit points led by 21 points, nine rebounds and 11 assists from Herro. The 11 assists represent a season-high for Herro and tied a career-high.
Caleb Martin finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Omer Yurtseven contributed 13 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. P.J. Tucker recorded 10 points, seven rebounds and two assists.
Atlanta, which owns the NBA’s fifth-best offensive rating this season, shot just 37.8 percent from the field and 13 of 45 (28.9 percent) on threes. The Hawks posted their worst single-game offensive rating of the season, scoring at a pace of 91 points per 100 possessions.
The Heat, which has won three straight and 12 of its past 16 games, now returns to Miami to open a four-game homestand with a rematch against the Hawks on Friday. The Heat finished its long six-game road trip at 4-2.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Hawks:
After a slow start for the Heat, Herro came off the bench and brought the offense to life.
When Herro entered the game with 6:18 left in the first quarter, the Heat trailed 13-4. But Herro immediately provided a spark, scoring eight points and dishing out three assists in the opening period to help cut Miami’s deficit to six points entering the second quarter.
Herro was so good that Spoelstra couldn’t take him out. Herro played the entire second quarter and entered halftime with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting, three rebounds, eight assists and one chase-down block in 18 minutes to send the Heat into the break with a five-point lead.
The Heat outscored the Hawks by 14 points in the 18 first-half minutes that Herro played. Atlanta outscored Miami by nine points in the six first-half minutes he spent on the bench.
The Heat then went on to dominate the second half.
Herro finished just one rebound shy of his first career triple-double.
“I didn’t know until I was like at eight rebounds,” Herro said of his near triple-double. “Then Kyle Lowry told me I needed two more rebounds. Once he told me, I started to hunt for the rebounds a little bit. But it’s all good. It’s all love. It feels good not having to chase stats. Just going out there and just playing the game. Those stats just come through the flow of me making plays for my teammates and being aggressive.”
Max Strus started again and Duncan Robinson played off the bench again.
Strus, who has made his first six NBA starts in his last six appearances, finished with 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from deep.
Despite starting, Strus played just 15 minutes on Wednesday. He went to the bench with 3:48 left in the third quarter and never re-entered the game.
Meanwhile, Robinson played 32 minutes off the bench.
Robinson, who has been a fixture in the Heat’s starting lineup, finished with 14 points on 3-of-10 shooting on threes in his third straight game off the bench after returning from COVID-19 protocols. Before this stretch, Robinson had not played as a reserve since Nov. 5, 2019.
Spoelstra has remained non-committal when asked whether he’ll continue using Strus as a starter and Robinson as a reserve. But it’s working for now, as the Heat is 3-0 since Robinson began playing off the bench.
“For Max and I, our roles don’t necessarily change,” Robinson said. “I feel like I’m still doing the same stuff. I’m sure if you asked him, he’d probably say the same thing. So obviously in a box score, it looks different. But I don’t necessarily think if you were to watch the flow of the game, it feels all that different.”
Center Dewayne Dedmon and guard Gabe Vincent made their returns.
Dedmon, who missed the previous seven games with a sprained left knee, recorded six points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 18 minutes off the bench in his return.
“You just see what he brings,” Spoelstra said of Dedmon. “That interior toughness and size, he protects the rim extremely well, he’s one of our better screen-and-roll guys to the rim. He just had such great enthusiasm and passion to be back out there.”
Wednesday not only marked Dedmon’s first game action since Dec. 23 because of his injury, but it also was his first time playing off the bench since Nov. 29. Dedmon, 32, started in his previous 12 appearances with Adebayo injured.
Vincent, who missed the previous five games after testing positive for COVID-19, finished with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep, two assists and two steals in 20 minutes off the bench. He scored eight points while playing the entire fourth quarter.
“Really solid. Solid basketball,” Spoelstra said of Vincent. “He’s setting the table for us, able to get us into offense, get the ball where it needed to go and then was able to score in the fourth quarter.”
With Dedmon and Vincent back, the Heat’s bench rotation looked a little different on Wednesday.
Miami used a bench rotation of Herro, Dedmon, Robinson and Vincent. Because Dedmon and Vincent returned, COVID-19 replacements Kyle Guy and Chris Silva did not play until the final minute of the game with the Heat already in control.
Along with missing Adebayo (right thumb surgery) and Butler (sprained right ankle), the Heat was also without Marcus Garrett (return to competition reconditioning), Markieff Morris (health and safety protocols), KZ Okpala (sprained right wrist) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) on Wednesday.
Adebayo, who has missed 20 straight games, is inching closer to a return and went through an extended pregame workout with assistant coach Malik Allen in Atlanta. And Butler’s return is considered imminent, potentially Friday against the Hawks.
Martin continues to impress as a quality perimeter defender.
Not only did Martin record his first double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday, but he also spent most of the night defending Hawks star guard Trae Young.
Young, who’s averaging 27.7 points per game this season, was limited to 15 points on 4-of-15 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 shooting on threes while committing four turnovers.
Martin has been used to defend the opponent’s best player recently. He also guarded Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Phoenix’s Chris Paul during the trip.
“Caleb is just getting more disciplined, more schooled and more stable,” Spoelstra said. “When you have to guard great players, you have to be willing to be disciplined and consistent to the game plan and handle it when great players score and not start to panic and make things up and break down mentally and start to make mistakes. He has really been improving in our system as a disciplined defender.”
The second half of the Heat’s season includes a lot of home games.
Reaching the midway point of the season on Wednesday, 25 of the 41 games the Heat has played have come on the road. That’s tied with the Charlotte Hornets and Orlando Magic for the most in the NBA.
Among the 15 teams that have played the most games away from home this season, the Heat owns the best overall record.
Surviving this road-heavy start to the season while dealing with injuries and COVID-19 issues has been the story of the Heat’s season.
The Heat now returns to Miami for a long stretch at home, with eight of its next nine games coming at FTX Arena. In total, 25 of the Heat’s final 41 regular-season games come at home.
Miami is 12-4 at FTX Arena and 14-11 on the road this season.
“I think everybody realizes that the first half of the schedule was road intensive,” Spoelstra said. “We literally didn’t even feel like we’ve had opportunities to unpack our bags and repack. We just kept the same bag.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 9:54 PM.
