It wasn’t pretty, but Heat opens trip with much-needed win over Pacers. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 87-82 win over the Indiana Pacers (14-14) on Monday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to begin a four-game trip. The Heat (13-15) continues the trip on Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder:
It wasn’t pretty, but the Heat earned a much-needed win to open an important week and trip.
Fresh off a 1-2 homestand that included two losses to teams at the bottom of the NBA standings in the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs, the Heat knows this upcoming stretch is critical as it looks to stack some wins together after a 12-15 start to the season.
The Heat’s performance on Monday was far from perfect and the game was ugly, but it got the result it was looking for.
Despite tying a season-low with 87 points on 38.6 percent shooting from the field, the Heat won behind a strong defensive performance that helped lead to an awful offensive night for the Pacers.
Indiana finished with a season-low 82 points on a season-low 35.4 percent shooting from the field while committing 18 turnovers. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, who is averaging 19.4 points per game this season, scored just one point on 0-of-9 shooting from the field on Monday.
It was an offensive struggle for both teams, as they combined for 169 points — the fewest in an NBA game this season.
“Probably the two happiest guys in the organization would be Pat [Riley], for sure, and myself,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of winning Monday’s low-scoring game. “We just knew coming into this that this would be by any means necessary.”
With the Heat ahead 74-73 with 4:59 to play, it finally took control with a 10-2 run to extend its lead to nine with 2:26 remaining in the game.
Kyle Lowry began the run by making a corner three-pointer. Then Jimmy Butler took over by scoring seven straight points for the Heat to force a Pacers timeout.
“I just feel like at that point in time, it’s time to put the ball in the basket and I did that,” Butler said of his personal late-game 7-0 run. “I don’t want to do it every possession down the floor. I would like to pass more. But when it’s time to win the game, I got to figure out a way to get up a good shot.”
Some sloppy play by the Heat down the stretch still made it a close finish, with the Pacers having possession trailing by just four points with 40.7 seconds to play. But Indiana center Myles Turner stepped out of bounds while being pressured by Miami center Bam Adebayo to put an end to the Pacers’ best chance at putting together a comeback.
Both teams went on big runs on the way to getting the Heat to its league-leading 19th clutch game. A clutch game is defined as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Heat started strong to pull ahead by as many as 19 points in the first half, but the Pacers closed the second quarter on an 18-4 run to cut the deficit to five entering halftime.
The Pacers carried that momentum into the start of the second half, opening the third quarter on a 20-10 spurt to take a five-point lead over the Heat.
Adebayo ended the night with a team-high 22 points and 17 rebounds.
Butler finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
While it went down as one of the Heat’s worst offensive performances of the season, it represented its best statistical defensive display. Miami posted a season-best single-game defensive rating of 87.2 points allowed per 100 possessions on Monday.
“Our man-to-man defense, that was probably one of our better most complete games of the season,” Spoelstra said. “This is not an easy team to defend with the shooting and the ball movement, their ability to put the ball on the floor. Just a lot of multiple efforts. It was good to see three or four possessions in the final four minutes that ended in a loose ball with us hitting the deck, which is what we need to continue to commit to.”
It was so excellent that the Heat entered the game with the 13th-best defensive rating and jumped five spots to move up to eighth in those rankings by the end of the night.
“We take wins as we can get them around here, home and away,” Butler said. “This is a great start to this trip.”
Even in the victory, the Heat’s poor three-point shooting continued.
The Heat entered Monday ranked 22nd in the NBA with a team three-point percentage of 34 percent this season.
That negative trend continued against the Pacers, when the Heat shot just 9 of 34 (26.5 percent) from three-point range in the win.
The Heat is now ranked 24th in the NBA with a team three-point percentage of 33.7 percent this season.
Max Strus (3 of 12 from three-point range), Lowry (2 of 8) and Tyler Herro (2 of 7) combined to shoot just 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) from three-point range on Monday.
No team wants to be ranked in the bottom half of the NBA in three-point shooting, but it’s especially concerning for the Heat because it was such a big part of its winning formula last season. It’s also a big reason why Miami holds the NBA’s fourth-worst offensive rating this season.
The Heat closed last regular season as the NBA’s top three-point shooting team at 37.9 percent.
The Heat’s bench has been among the NBA’s worst to begin the season. But it was a net positive on Monday.
So much of the Heat’s struggles early this season stem from injury issues and an unreliable bench.
In fact, the Heat’s usual starting lineup of Lowry, Herro, Butler, Caleb Martin and Adebayo entered Monday outscoring opponents by an impressive 9.5 points per 100 possessions in 139 minutes together this season amid the team’s struggles.
It’s what is happening when the starting lineup isn’t in the game that’s hurting the Heat.
Miami entered Monday with the second-lowest scoring bench in the league at 26.1 points per game after closing last regular season as the NBA’s highest-scoring bench at 40.5 points per game. The Heat’s reserves also combined to enter Monday shooting just 41.6 percent from the field and 30.9 percent from three-point range to post a plus/minus of minus-62 this season.
But the short three-man bench unit of Victor Oladipo, Strus and Dewayne Dedmon contributed positive minutes against the Pacers despite combining for just 20 points.
Oladipo (plus-8), Strus (minus-1) and Dedmon (plus-4) combined to total a plus/minus of plus-11 in Monday’s win.
“They were good,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s reserves. “They gave our group just a boost of life and I thought they defended well at times. They definitely got organized much better offensively. Look, we weren’t making shots for most of the night. These games are important to find different ways to win and the second unit, I thought they were able to be able to defend well enough just to make it a positive on the scoreboard.
“Hopefully they’ll continue to gain confidence on No. 1 what their identity is and No. 2 how they can inspire the rest of the group.”
Oladipo returned to Indianapolis to play in a game for the first time since the Pacers traded him away in January 2021.
Injury issues stemming from two surgeries on his right knee in the past three-plus years has delayed that moment, but Oladipo finally made his return on Monday to face his former team.
Oladipo recorded five points, four rebounds and four assists in 19 minutes in his return. It marked his fourth appearance of the season after missing the first 24 games because of left knee tendinosis.
“I think this is probably his best game that he’s played since he’s been back,” Spoelstra said. “... He got us organized on the offensive end. He was basically playing point guard. He made some timely shots. But for the most part, I think he was allowing that group to play to their strengths and to their identity while he just gains his footing, gets in basketball shape, gets in more rhythm, all those things. He’ll be a difference maker for us, particularly defensively, once he gets his legs under him and he gets more games under his belt.”
The Pacers played a video just minutes before tipoff to recognize Oladipo’s return. The moment was met by mostly cheers from the crowd.
Well after Monday’s game, Oladipo went and sat on the spot on the court where he initially ruptured the quad tendon in his right knee in January 2019 while with the Pacers to reflect on his journey since that point.
Oladipo, 30, spent three-plus seasons with the Pacers from 2017-21, with his best NBA seasons coming during that time. He was an All-Star two times, voted to the NBA All-Defensive First Team and All-NBA Third Team, and earned the NBA’s Most Improved Player award while he was with the Pacers.
Center Orlando Robinson was with the team in Indianapolis for Monday’s game after signing a two-way contract with the Heat on Sunday night.
The Heat waived guard Dru Smith from his two-way contract to bring back Robinson on a two-way deal on Sunday. Miami has alternated between Smith and Robinson as its second two-way contract player alongside two-way contract forward Jamal Cain.
The Heat opened the season with Smith as one of its two-way contract players, then swapped out Smith for Robinson in that two-way spot on Nov. 13, then waived Robinson to bring back Smith on a two-way deal on Nov. 25 before again releasing Smith to bring in Robinson on a two-way contract on Sunday.
These moves by the Heat have largely been based on filling a need while others at their position are injured. But Smith was waived on Sunday with fellow guard Gabe Vincent not with the team in Indianapolis because of a left knee injury.
“Right now, we have a lot of ball-handlers,” Spoelstra said when asked to explain the decision to waive Smith despite Vincent’s injury. “It’s just the nature of things right now. It’s very fluid. Gabe will be coming back hopefully sooner rather than later. In the meantime, our ball-handling with Kyle, Tyler, Jimmy, Vic, we feel OK. That also could change in a week or two.”
With Smith released, he’s now eligible to sign a contract with any NBA team but is expected to remain in the Heat’s developmental program as a member of its G League affiliate. Robinson’s two-way deal with the Heat prevents him from being poached by another team.
Two-way contracts do not count against the NBA salary cap or luxury tax, so the Heat remains about $200,000 away from entering the tax for this season.
The Heat was only without four players for Monday’s game: Cain (G League), Nikola Jovic (G League), Vincent (left knee effusion) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery).
This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 9:31 PM.
