What does the Heat miss with Kyle Lowry out? Butler: ‘I think that the guy is incredible’
The Miami Heat has found a way to win more games than it has lost without starting point guard Kyle Lowry this season, but his teammates have still missed his presence through it all.
After totaling 13 points and 10 assists in Saturday’s win over the San Antonio Spurs, Lowry will miss Monday night’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls at FTX Arena because of personal reasons. The Heat posted an 8-5 record in the first 13 games he has missed this season.
The same personal reason that kept Lowry, 35, out for nine straight games from Jan. 17 through Feb. 1 is keeping him out now. There’s no timetable for his return.
“I think that the guy is incredible,” Lowry’s Heat teammate and close friend Jimmy Butler said recently. “We know what he does on the floor. But I just think he manages everybody on the team, in the locker room. Making sure the mood is always light, everybody is smiling and happy. I didn’t know he was capable of that, but he does a great job of that for us.”
Lowry has averaged 13.4 points while shooting 42.5 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from three-point range, 4.6 rebounds, 7.9 assists and 1.2 steals in 48 games in his first season with the Heat.
The bottom line is the Heat has simply been a better team when Lowry has been available. Miami has outscored opponents by 5.8 points per 100 possessions this season with Lowry on the court, compared to outscoring teams by 3.1 points per 100 possessions when he hasn’t been on the court.
“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.
“Either way he’s able to manipulate situations so we can get some kind of advantage against the defense. But it’s really all across the board.”
Lowry’s ability to run the Heat’s offense has allowed stars Bam Adebayo and Butler to take a more aggressive approach with their own scoring.
Adebayo’s assists are down from 5.4 per game last season to 3.5 per game this season and Butler’s assists are down from 7.1 per game last season to 5.8 per game this season.
With Lowry on the court, Adebayo is averaging 1.4 more points per 100 possessions and Butler is averaging 2.2 more points per 100 possessions compared to their minutes without Lowry.
“You can see it in me and Jimmy,” Adebayo said. “Kyle gets the rebound and if we’re ahead and it’s one-on-one, he pitches it to us and we get to go after one-on-one matchups. I feel like that’s the difference and Kyle is looking for us to score. He doesn’t want us to pass him the ball. He wants to get the assist.”
Lowry’s pitch-ahead passes are a driving force behind the Heat’s top-10 offense this season. Despite entering Monday with the NBA’s 12th-most efficient halfcourt offense, Miami owns the seventh-best overall offensive rating, according to Cleaning the Glass.
The Heat has outperformed its halfcourt metrics in part because it has added the fourth-most points through transition play in the NBA at 3.8 points per 100 possessions.
“He just helps get us in sets,” Adebayo said of Lowry. “When he sees something working, he’ll go to it every time until they switch it up. Having a guy like that that who just reads the game that well and his IQ is so high, it’s a luxury to have on your team.”
The Heat will again try to overcome Lowry’s absence for however long he’s out. Others will have to adjust their games to help fill the void Lowry leaves behind.
“When he sees the potential in somebody, he’s hyping everybody to do that every single possession,” Butler said of Lowry. “Putting you in position to be great, whether it’s to score the ball, or he knows what the defense is going to do so he can skip it to [P.J. Tucker] in the corner. Kyle is always three, four, five plays ahead. When you get a PG like that who’s constantly putting a battery in your back and hyping you up, man it’s easy to play basketball.”
WHAT DO NUMBERS SAY?
Through statistical analysis, FiveThirtyEight.com projects the Heat to finish with the top record in the Eastern Conference at 54-28 and the 76ers to enter the playoffs as the conference’s second seed at 52-30.
But the website also has the Boston Celtics (30 percent) with a better chance of representing the East in the NBA Finals than the Heat (21 percent). The Milwaukee Bucks are also given a 21 percent chance of advancing to the Finals out of the East.
▪ Along with missing Lowry on Monday against the Bulls, the Heat ruled out Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning), Victor Oladipo (G League assignment) and Javonte Smart (G League). Caleb Martin, who was listed as questionable with left Achilles soreness, will play.
The Bulls ruled out Lonzo Ball (left knee meniscus tear), Alex Caruso (right wrist fracture), Tyler Cook (G League), Marko Simonovic (G League) and Patrick Williams (left wrist ligament tear) for Monday’s game in Miami.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 11:11 AM.
