Takeaways from Heat’s win over Thunder, including rotation wrinkle involving Markieff Morris
There have been plenty of impressive wins for the Miami Heat this season against some of the NBA’s top teams.
Friday night’s 120-108 victory over the struggling and overmatched Oklahoma City Thunder (20-50) at FTX Arena to close a season-long seven-game homestand doesn’t fall into that category. But it still represents another step forward toward locking up the top playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.
With just 11 games remaining in the regular season, the Heat (47-24) now stands 2.5 games ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Bucks in the East standings. The Bucks did not play on Friday.
“It was a professional win,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I thought we had the right approach.”
Despite playing without leading scorer Jimmy Butler because of a sprained right ankle, the Heat was in control throughout.
Miami led by one after the first quarter, but outscored Oklahoma City 42-28 in the second period to enter halftime with a 15-point lead.
That lead grew, as the Heat entered the fourth quarter ahead by 24 points. Miami led by as many as 29 points in the win.
Sixth man Tyler Herro scored a team-high 26 points for the Heat on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, 2-of-4 shooting on threes and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line, to go with seven rebounds and four assists.
Bam Adebayo totaled 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting, nine rebounds and three assists. Duncan Robinson scored 19 points with the help of 5-of-8 shooting on threes.
The Heat now has two days off before traveling to play its first road game since March 3, when it takes on the 76ers in Philadelphia on Monday.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Thunder:
Spoelstra continues to tinker with the Heat’s rotation in preparation for the playoffs, with Morris spending his minutes at center on Friday.
It’s hard to get a complete read on the rotation when Butler and Victor Oladipo (lower back spasms) aren’t available, but there was an interesting wrinkle in the Heat’s rotation that’s worth noting as the playoffs approach.
Miami used Herro, Markieff Morris, Caleb Martin and Max Strus off the bench to complete its nine-man rotation on Friday.
Dewayne Dedmon, who has been used as the Heat’s backup center behind Adebayo for the entire season, did not play. It marked Dedmon’s first DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season.
“I wanted to find a game if I could to not have to run Dewayne into the ground,” Spoelstra explained. “Because he’s been dealing with some things and he’s been able to go, for sure. But this was a good opportunity just to get him some rest, feeling good and get him ready for Monday.”
That allowed Morris to play as the backup center on Friday, with the Heat using a more of a small-ball look. Spoelstra said the tweak to the rotation was “more matchup based.”
Morris contributed quality minutes in that role on Friday, finishing the win with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting, three rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes.
“The game is, honestly, a lot easier at the five, especially now because you don’t have really too many centers posting up that come off the bench,” Morris said. “So for me, it is what it is. Just put me out there and I’ll figure it out.”
Morris, who said he also logged minutes at center with the Los Angeles Lakers last season, spent 19 of his 20 minutes playing in a frontcourt alongside Martin. The Heat was outscored by 11 points during that time.
Morris played one minute as part of a frontcourt that also included P.J. Tucker on Friday. For the season, the Heat has outscored teams by 13 points in the 24 minutes that Morris and Tucker have played together.
Of playing with Tucker, Morris said: “We played five years together in Phoenix. He’s one of my good friends, he’s one of my best friends before I got here. So we have a lot of stuff that we’re going to be talking about. I know his game to a T, he knows my game to a T. We both do a great job of putting each other in the places that we need to be put so we can both succeed and we have great camaraderie on the court.”
By using Morris at center and surrounding him with four shooters, it creates more space for the offense to operate. In addition, Morris has the combination of strength and athleticism to defend most centers but also switch on to different positions.
“Honestly, he’s like a stretch [five],” Martin said. “So he does a great job of being able to stretch the floor and open up those driving lanes. Obviously, he has the ability to shoot like a lot of other guys. That’s what he does. He can score the ball, so guys got to respect that. When we drive, they have to pick their poison sometimes.”
Playing Morris at center also allows the Heat to use him in a similar offensive role as Adebayo, with Morris able to operate as a hub at the elbow because of his ability to score in the midrange and out of post-ups while also serving as a willing passer.
“I’m capable of making plays from there,” Morris said of playing at the below. “I can score, obviously. Whatever is needed. Today they didn’t do a great job of protecting the rim or helping when I had a small on me, so it was just get it and score. But against other teams that may be coming on a trap, I can pass the ball easy, too.”
The Heat’s bench outscored the Thunder’s reserves 64-40.
Martin, who returned Friday after missing the previous three games with a hyperextended left knee, finished with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from three-point range, three rebounds and two assists in 27 minutes.
Despite a brief injury scare, Herro turned in another strong performance off the bench.
Herro played just 28 minutes in the win, but still scored at least 20 points for the 11th time in the last 12 games.
Herro also scored 12 points in the second quarter to extend an impressive streak. He has totaled at least 12 points in nine consecutive second quarters.
Herro briefly left the game with 5:28 remaining in the third quarter after landing on the foot of a Thunder player and turning his left ankle. He remaining on the ground for a few seconds, punching the court in pain.
But after heading back to the locker room for a few minutes, he checked back into the game with 4:24 remaining in the third quarter and scored on a driving layup just a minute later.
Herro, who is the NBA’s leading bench scorer, was able to finish the game without an issue. He has totaled 1,020 points off the bench this season, which is just eight points away from tying Dwyane Wade for the most points scored off the bench during a single season in Heat history.
“He’s young. It scared him more than anything,” Spoelstra said. “It just felt awkward. When he fell, he twisted his ankle and his knee a little bit. Once he was able to gather himself and get a feel for it, go back to the locker room, get checked out by trainers and doc. They gave him the go ahead and you could see he was moving fine after that.”
The Heat isn’t too concerned about Butler and Oladipo’s injuries.
Butler missed Friday’s game with a sprained right ankle he suffered during Tuesday’s win over the Detroit Pistons. Oladipo wasn’t available Friday because of lower back spasms.
While the injury is not expected to keep Butler out for long, it’s the continuation of a concerning trend as he has sprained his right ankle on three separate occasions this season.
Butler, who has missed 23 games this season, is known to prefer to play without his ankles taped. When asked if that’s an issue the Heat is working to resolve, Spoelstra said before Friday’s game: “When people get hurt or injured, you just try to manage all the noise. Everybody’s got an opinion about everything. We’ll handle it. Jimmy’s going to handle it. Our training staff is great. We’ll take of it. Thankfully this is not something that’s long term, but we’ll manage it.”
Meanwhile, Friday marked Oladipo’s first absence because of an injury since he made his season debut last week following surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee last May.
“I think this is just the added workload,” Spoelstra said of Oladipo’s lower back spasms. “You can do everything behind the scenes and all the conditioning and it’s not like real game action. But we’ll definitely be able to manage it. He’s already starting to feel a lot better.”
Butler and Oladipo were the only two Heat players who were not available Friday.
Chris Bosh was at FTX Arena for Friday’s game, and the Heat honored him.
The Heat celebrated Bosh’s induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with a video tribute in the first quarter and a question-and-answer session at halftime. The former Heat forward was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September as part of the 2021 class.
“There’s no singular memory. There are so many, pick a flavor,” Bosh said when asked of the memories that come rushing back when he walks into FTX Arena. “Just even on this court. That goes with what happened during the games, and the practices, the grinding, the weight sessions, the training sessions. Just driving up into the arena every day was an experience and just to kind of see it now.”
Bosh, who sat courtside for Friday’s win alongside Heat owner Micky Arison and CEO Nick Arison, is one of five Heat players to have their jersey retired by the organization.
Of what’s impressed him about this season’s Heat team, Bosh said to reporters at halftime: “Just the fact that they’ve been able to sustain their play throughout all of the injuries and guys being out because of COVID and the different lineup switches and stuff like that. Any time you’re coming into this part of the season, having home-court advantage is what you want. They’re a complete team. ... You’re going to have to beat them here and that’s not going to be an easy task.”
Bosh added that “the sky is the limit for this team on top of what they can do regarding this year and the years after.”
It marked the Heat’s second straight game as a very heavy favorite.
The Heat entered Tuesday’s matchup against the Pistons as a 13.5-point home favorite. The spread was even bigger on Friday, as the Heat was listed as a 14.5-point favorite against the Thunder.
Miami won both games, as expected. The Heat improved to a 24-7 this season against sub-.500 teams.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 10:20 PM.
