Takeaways from Heat’s win to clinch undefeated trip, get above .500 for first time this season
.JPG "Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro dunks the ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, at the Mexico Arena in Mexico City, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022.")
What a difference a week makes.
A week ago, the Heat suffered one of its worst defeats of the season in a 115-111 loss to the young and rebuilding San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 10 to close a disappointing 1-2 homestand and fall three games under .500.
On Saturday, the Heat (16-15) closed its best week of the season with a 111-101 victory over the Spurs (9-20) on Saturday in Mexico City’s Arena CDMX to win its fourth straight game, clinch a perfect 4-0 trip and move over .500 for the first time this season at the 31-game mark. It also represented only the Heat’s third double-digit win of the season.
“This is bigger than us trying to get revenge on the game a week ago,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re trying to get our footing on this season. We’re finally above .500 and we don’t want to turn back the rest of the way and hopefully we can just keep on building on this.”
The Heat, which began Saturday’s game with just 10 available players because of injury issues, entered the fourth quarter trailing 84-80.
But the Heat was dominant the rest of the way, outscoring the Spurs 31-17 in the final period to run away with the win.
Miami’s defense set the tone down the stretch, limiting San Antonio to 4-of-12 (33.3 percent) shooting from the field and forcing seven Spurs turnovers in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, the Heat shot an efficient 11 of 21 (52.4 percent) from the field and 3 of 7 (42.9 percent) from three-point range in the final period.
The Heat’s trio of Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro led the way, combining for 69 points on 49 shots.
Adebayo finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Butler closed with 26 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block.
Herro contributed 21 points, six rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
Duncan Robinson also made timely threes off the Heat’s bench, scoring seven points on 2-of-3 shooting from three-point range in the fourth quarter. He finished the win with 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting from deep.
And Victor Oladipo was a defensive menace on Saturday, finishing with five steals. He also added seven points, two rebounds and three assists in a season-high 34 minutes off the bench.
Along with finishing the game strong, the Heat also started strong.
Miami pulled ahead by as many as 11 points in the first quarter. But San Antonio closed the opening period on a 19-5 run to take the lead and set the tone for a back-and-forth first half that included 10 lead changes and two ties.
The Spurs entered halftime ahead by three points.
The start of Saturday’s second half was delayed by about 20 minutes because of a malfunction with the arena’s lights.
The Heat now returns home to open a four-game homestand on Tuesday against the Chicago Bulls.
“Right now, we just got to take it game by game,” Adebayo said. “This game was that we got over .500 and we keep building off of that. We’re on a 4-0 winning streak, so keep building off of those.”
Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Spurs on Saturday:
The injury-plagued Heat had just 10 available players against the Spurs in Mexico City and one of them couldn’t finish the game.
Each of the Heat’s 16 players were on the initial injury report for Saturday’s game.
In the end, six Heat players missed the contest: Jamal Cain (G League), Udonis Haslem (right Achilles tendinosis), Kyle Lowry (left knee soreness), Caleb Martin (left ankle sprain), Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery). That left Miami without two of its usual starters in Lowry and Martin.
The 10 players that the Heat had available against the Spurs were Adebayo, Butler, Dewayne Dedmon, Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic, Oladipo, Duncan Robinson, Orlando Robinson and Max Strus.
But Dedmon did not play in the second half after turning his ankle in the second quarter on Saturday.
The Heat won the game during Adebayo’s minutes.
Adebayo not only finished with a quality stat line that included 22 points and 13 rebounds, but the Heat also outscored the Spurs by 29 points in the 36 minutes that Adebayo played.
In the 12 minutes Adebayo spent on the bench, the Heat was outscored by 19 points.
In the first half, Dedmon played as the Heat’s backup center and finished with a rough plus/minus of minus-19 in eight first-half minutes.
In the second half, Orlando Robinson played as the Heat’s backup center with Dedmon ruled out because of a sprained ankle. Miami played San Antonio even in Orlando Robinson’s four second-half minutes.
This has been an ongoing theme for the Heat.
Entering Saturday, Miami had been outscored by 6.6 points per 100 possessions without Adebayo on the court this season. But the Heat was outscoring opponents by 2.4 points per 100 possessions with Adebayo in the game.
Those numbers continued to move further away from each other on Saturday.
After showing off his elite scoring ability in the previous two games, Herro’s improved play-making was on display Saturday.
Herro continued to generate efficient offense for himself and others as the ball-handler in pick-and-rolls on Saturday.
Herro closed the Heat’s win with seven assists, to go along with his 21 points and six rebounds. But he did commit four turnovers.
This performance comes immediately after Herro’s two-game scoring binge, when he totaled 76 points on 25-of-43 (58.1 percent) shooting from the field and 19-of-32 (59.4 percent) shooting from three-point range in a back-to-back to remember that began with Wednesday’s standout night in Oklahoma City and ended with another one of his best NBA performances on Thursday in Houston.
Herro, 22, is in the middle of the best season of his young NBA career.
Herro is averaging career-highs in points (21.2 per game), rebounds (6.3 per game) and assists (4.2 per game) in his fourth NBA season. He’s also shooting a career-best 45.7 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from three-point range on a career-high 8.1 three-point attempts per game.
With so many players out, the Heat used its 11th different starting lineup of the season.
The Heat began the game with a lineup that included Herro, Strus, Butler, Jovic and Adebayo. This five-man unit had not played together before starting Saturday’s matchup against the Spurs.
The lineup was a net positive, outscoring San Antonio 29-19 in 12 minutes of court time.
The most notable change to the the starting group was the insertion of Jovic for the injured Martin. Jovic, a 19-year-old rookie forward, finished with three points on 1-of-2 shooting from deep, one rebound and one steal in 15 minutes in his seventh start of the season.
The intriguing frontcourt combination of Adebayo and Jovic had only played 61 minutes together this season entering Saturday’s game. The Heat was outscored by 17 points in their time together.
But Adebayo and Jovic produced positive minutes on Saturday. The Heat outscored the Spurs by 10 points in the 14 minutes that Adebayo and Jovic played together in Mexico City.
Jovic, who spent most of the week in the G League with the Heat’s developmental affiliate, has been struggling with his shooting. He has shot just 14 of 55 (25.5 percent) from the field and 4 of 28 (14.3 percent) from three-point range in five games with the G League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce.
While the Heat has battled injury issues throughout the first two months of the season, the good news is the next week includes some extra time to rest and recover at home.
The Heat not only has two days off before opening a four-game homestand on Tuesday, but it plays just two games over the next eight days.
The Heat’s four-game homestand includes matchups against the Bulls on Tuesday, Indiana Pacers on Friday, Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 26 and Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 28.
With so few games during this span, the Heat will have the rare in-season opportunity to get in multiple practices over the next week while also using the time for some much-needed rest and recovery.
Miami will take both Sunday and Monday completely off, with no practices scheduled during the two-day break leading into Tuesday’s matchup against Chicago.
This story was originally published December 17, 2022 at 7:59 PM.
