Takeaways from Heat’s most lopsided win of the season as roster continues to get healthier
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s dominant 124-98 win over the New Orleans Pelicans (26-19) on Wednesday night at Smoothie King Center to improve to 1-1 on its three-game trip. The Heat (25-21) closes the trip against the Mavericks in Dallas on Friday:
The injury-plagued Heat was as healthy as it has been all season on Wednesday and took advantage by cruising to a rare blowout win.
Starting point guard Kyle Lowry returned and made the Heat nearly whole. Lowry, who missed the previous four games because of left knee discomfort, finished Wednesday’s win with seven points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, eight rebounds, four assists and one steal in 22 minutes that were limited in his first game back from injury.
Lowry’s return was one storyline from Wednesday’s game, but so was the Heat’s dominant play. Miami led from start to finish on the way to its most lopsided win of the season.
“I think more than anything it was a good collective response to our disappointing game in Atlanta,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
The Heat opened the game on a 30-10 run and built a 20-point lead just nine minutes into the first quarter.
The Heat extended that lead to as many as 26 points in the second quarter before entering halftime ahead 70-51. It marked the third-most points Miami has totaled in a single half and its second-biggest lead entering halftime this season.
The Pelicans never were able to make it a close game, as the Heat only built added to its lead in the third quarter to enter the final period ahead by 22 points.
The Heat’s lead ballooned to as many as 30 points in the fourth quarter.
The Heat shot 53.2 percent from the field, 12 of 35 (34.3 percent) from three-point range and dished out a season-high 37 assists on 50 makes while committing only 11 turnovers. The result was a season-best single-game offensive rating of 129.2 points scored per 100 possessions.
On the other end, the Heat was again disruptive to score 24 points on 18 Pelicans turnovers. This has been a staple for Miami, which owns the second-highest opponent turnover rate (percentage of opponent possessions that end in a turnover) this season at 16.9 percent.
“This was just a very simple game plan — execute a trigger, create an advantage, and make the right read,” Spoelstra said. “Whatever is best for the team in the possession at that time. Nobody was really trying to self-will anything during the course of the game. From a head coaching standpoint, it’s nice to see a team really compete defensively and then share in the game offensively.”
In the end, Wednesday went down as a rare blowout victory for the Heat, which has won 13 of its last 19 games.
Because Miami has played in the second-most clutch games this season (one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter), there haven’t been many easy wins.
Wednesday marked just the Heat’s seventh double-digit win of the season, putting Miami on a pace that would have it at just 12 double-digit victories at the end of the regular season. The Heat finished last regular season with 31 double-digit wins.
“It feels good to be on the other side of being up about 20 for a change, of maintaining our lead, getting an important win on the road, just playing overall good basketball,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said.
The only players unavailable for the Heat on Wednesday were rookies Jamal Cain (G League) and Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction), reserve sharpshooter Duncan Robinson (finger surgery) and second-year center Omer Yurtseven (ankle surgery).
As for Lowry, he said the time away “was good to just get myself right. My knee has been a little bit bothering me for a while. So it was good to get back.”
For one of the few times this season, the Heat actually entered a game as the healthier team.
That’s because the Pelicans were missing three starters, with Brandon Ingram (toe contusion), Zion Williamson (hamstring strain) and Herbert Jones (back contusion) unavailable against the Heat.
That left the Pelicans with a starting lineup of CJ McCollum, Dyson Daniels, Naji Marshall, Trey Murphy III and Jonas Valanciunas on Wednesday. It marked the fourth straight game that New Orleans used that starting group.
McCollum led the Pelicans with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field.
This health advantage was notable for the Heat, considering it entered Wednesday with the second-most missed games in the NBA (190 missed games) this season due to injury, according to Spotrac. Last season, Heat players combined to miss 172 games because of injury, which is a total Miami has already surpassed midway through this season.
With Lowry back, the Heat was able to open a game with its preferred starting lineup for the first time in two weeks.
The Heat used its preferred starting lineup of Lowry, Tyler Herro, Butler, Caleb Martin and Bam Adebayo on Wednesday for just the 15th time in the first 46 games this season. Injuries have limited the unit’s availability.
But when this lineup has been available, it has been very effective. This five-man combination entered Wednesday outscoring opponents by an impressive 8.7 points per 100 possessions in 197 minutes together this season — a net rating that ranks eighth among the 24 NBA lineups that had logged at least 180 minutes.
That trend continued on Wednesday, as the Heat’s starters outscored the Pelicans by 13 points in their 14 minutes together.
“I just want to see it through,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s preferred starting lineup following Wednesday’s win. “I’m as curious as anybody. And I think we owe it to that group to give them an opportunity to gain some continuity.”
The Heat’s starting unit set the tone early, opening the game on a 20-8 run in the first 6:36 before Spoelstra turned to the bench.
The group’s start to the second half wasn’t as dominant, but the lineup still began the third quarter by outscoring the Pelicans 14-13 in the first 7:06 of the period before the Heat made a substitution.
Four of the Heat’s starters finished with double-digit points.
Adebayo scored 26 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds, two steals and one block.
Butler recorded 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, three rebounds and seven assists.
Herro finished with 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field — but missed all seven of his three-point attempts — four rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
Martin contributed 10 points with the help of 2-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc and three steals.
Lowry was the only Heat starter who did not score double-digit points.
With the Heat’s preferred starting lineup intact, so was the preferred bench rotation.
At close to full health, the Heat went with a bench rotation of Victor Oladipo, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Orlando Robinson on Wednesday. Haywood Highsmith also entered off the bench to play the final 5:40 of the lopsided game.
The only available Heat players who did not play in New Orleans were Dewayne Dedmon and Udonis Haslem.
One of the most notable aspects of the bench rotation continues to be the decision to play Robinson over Dedmon as the backup center.
Dedmon has been used as Miami’s backup center for most of the season. But Robinson has now played in that role in three straight games, with Dedmon receiving three DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) during that stretch.
That’s because Dedmon has struggled to produce positive results while battling through plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The Heat has been outscored by 10.1 points per 100 possessions with Dedmon on the court this season.
Robinson, an undrafted rookie, closed with 10 points and four rebounds in 17 minutes.
Vincent also continued his hot shooting with 16 points on 4-of-8 shooting from three-point range against the Pelicans.
Strus ended the night with 16 points and a career-high 10 assists.
The Heat’s bench outscored the Pelicans’ reserves 49-33 on Wednesday. This is noteworthy for Miami, which entered averaging the second-fewest bench points in the NBA this season at 27.6 points per game.
Each of Miami’s four primary reserves also posted a positive plus/minus in the win.
“The second unit came in and continued that energy and effort,” Spoelstra said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about, is playing to our identity and getting contributions from both units, both units inspiring the other. The second unit was terrific tonight.”
As Adebayo continues the best offensive season of his NBA career, he now leads the league in total paint points.
With 20 of Adebayo’s 26 points on Wednesday coming from inside the paint, he moved ahead of Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo to become the league leader in paint points. Adebayo has now scored 652 paint points to second-place Antetokounmpo’s 632 paint points this season.
“I love it,” Spoelstra said when told that Adebayo leads the NBA in paint points. “We all love the aggressiveness. And he’s doing it in so many different ways.”
Of course, it helps that Antetokounmpo has missed the Bucks’ last four games because of left knee soreness.
Third-place Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets entered the day with 624 paint points and has an opportunity to add to that total with a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.
Adebayo’s ability to consistently create and capitalize on shots from inside the paint has elevated his offensive game to another level. He finished last season with the 17th-most paint points in the NBA at 728.
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 10:19 PM.
