Heat two-man game with Butler, Lowry yielding positive results: ‘We got a good thing going’
Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry are two of the Miami Heat’s best players. So it’s no surprise that their minutes together have produced positive results.
Entering Saturday night’s matchup against the Brooklyn Nets at FTX Arena, the Heat has outscored opponents by 6.6 points per 100 possessions in the 540 minutes Butler and Lowry have played together this season.
It isn’t just the impact they’ve had on others that’s helping the Heat. It’s the impact they’ve had on each other that has been the most eye-opening through their first 25 games played together as teammates.
“It’s pretty easy when you got Jimmy. We got a good thing going,” Lowry said. “We understand where each other will be on the floor. I understand that he’s our best player and we got to make sure our best player gets touches and gets to his right spots. We got to get him the ball. He makes the right plays and makes the right decisions, so it’s kind of easy for me.”
Lowry is consistently putting Butler in advantageous situations, as they find ways to manipulate defenses to create mismatches.
That was on full display late in Thursday’s 112-97 road win over the New Orleans Pelicans, as Butler and Lowry combined to score 11 of the Heat’s final 16 points. Butler did most of the scoring with eight fourth-quarter points, but a lot of those opportunities were coming out of his two-man game with Lowry.
The Heat repeatedly had Butler screen for Lowry late in Thursday’s game, forcing the mismatch with Pelicans 6-1 guard Devonte’ Graham switching on to the 6-7 Butler following the screen. The set resulted in favorable Butler postups and had the Pelicans sending extra defenders his way to help Graham, and that also opened shots for others.
“I’m comfortable whenever I’m out there with Kyle,” Butler said. “Everybody is, though, because he’s always going to make the right play. Even if it’s to me or skipping it across the court, you can bank on Kyle doing that. I just think everybody is comfortable late whenever I have the ball, Kyle has the ball, Bam [Adebayo] or P.J. [Tucker]. So it was a two-man game between me and him tonight. Next game it could be him and Bam, him and Tuck, him and Dunc[an Robinson], who knows.”
Butler has a point, as Lowry has been effective with pretty much everybody he has played with since joining the Heat last offseason. The only teammate who holds a negative plus/minus alongside Lowry this season is Udonis Haslem, and they’re a minus-two in just 19 minutes played together.
So it’s also no surprise that Lowry owns a team-best plus/minus of plus-193 this season.
“There are so many IQ nuances that Kyle can bring to the game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He can dominate a game and only score six points. He can be assertive and put pressure on the defense in transition with his drives, his passing, his pitch aheads. Half-court offense, he can organize you and get the ball where it needs to go. I mentioned this earlier in the year that he’s such an underrated screener. This was really kind of the actions that were happening tonight to be able to get the matchups that we wanted. Either he was handling and Jimmy was setting the screen to be able to force the switch or vice versa. Either way he’s able to manipulate situations so we can get some kind of advantage against the defense.”
OKPALA WAIVED
The Oklahoma City Thunder announced Friday that it waived former Heat forward KZ Okpala.
The Heat traded Okpala to the Thunder on Wednesday in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick. As part of the trade, the Heat and Thunder agreed to amend the protections of the first-round pick that Miami already owed to Oklahoma City to a protected 2025 first-round selection that will turn into a 2026 unprotected pick if it’s not conveyed in 2025.
Okpala, 22, is now eligible to be signed by any team except the Heat. He has been sidelined since late December because of a wrist injury.
OPPONENTS FOR A NIGHT
Spoelstra and Butler will be on opposite sides for one night.
Spoelstra and his staff will coach Team Durant and Butler will play for Team LeBron in the Feb. 20 All-Star Game, which is taking place at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
“Ain’t nobody worried about Spo,” Butler joked. “He better let me score every possession I get. Otherwise I’m coming back and we’re going to have a talk.”
When asked how he’ll stop Butler in the showcase game, Spoelstra said: “That’s the last thing I’m thinking about. But do we get to pick another All-Star? Nobody is out with an injury or anything? So Tyler [Herro], Bam will be next. Alright, that sounds like I’m campaigning.”
▪ Herro (right knee soreness) and Tucker (left knee contusion) are available to play against the Nets. But Caleb Martin (left Achilles soreness), Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) remain out.
The Nets ruled out LaMarcus Aldridge (left ankle sprain), Nic Claxton (left hamstring tightness), Seth Curry (trade pending), Andre Drummond (trade pending), Kevin Durant (left MCL sprain), Joe Harris (left ankle surgery) and Ben Simmons (not with team) for Saturday’s game in Miami.
This story was originally published February 12, 2022 at 10:55 AM.
