Heat continues dominance at home: Takeaways from Miami’s win against Warriors
The Heat hasn’t trailed in the second half of a home game since opening night against Memphis more than a month ago.
And that certainly wasn’t going to change Friday, not after Miami raced to an early 20-point lead and withstood a third-quarter rally by an injury-ravaged Golden State team that entered with the league’s worst record at 4-15.
Wearing its “Blue Gale” ViceWave uniforms for the first of 22 occasions this season, the Heat saw its lead shrink to six points in the third quarter, but then steamrolled to a 122-105 victory at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat led 71-58 at intermission -- reaching 70 points in a half for the third time this season -- shot 54 percent from the field and got typically balanced scoring: 20 from Goran Dragic, 17 from Duncan Robinson, 19 from Tyler Herro, 16 from Jimmy Butler, 15 from Kelly Olynyk and 15 from Kendrick Nunn.
Miami made 13 of 25 from three-point range and outrebounded Golden State, 48 for 30.
Bam Adebayo added nine rebounds on quiet night offensively (two points, 1 for 5 shooting).
Butler struggled with his shot (3 or 11) but hit 10 of 12 free throws and chipped in six assists, five rebounds and two steals (below his NBA-leading 2.6 steals average).
And Chris Silva offered a second-half boost (eight points, eight boards, two blocks).
Five takeaways from the Heat’s win:
▪ The Heat’s rookie guards continued their splendid first NBA seasons, with Kendrick Nunn showing the Warriors what might have been and Herro on top of his game.
Herro was lethal from distance from the start, opening 4 for 4 and finished 7 for 11, including a career-high five three-pointers on six attempts.
Herro is now shooting 41 percent on three-pointers, highly impressive for a rookie.
Because they were in championship mode last season, the Warriors never seriously considered keeping Nunn, who was released by Golden State after preseason last year and spent the season with the Warriors’ G-League team in Santa Cruz, Cal., before Miami signed him the final day of the season.
And Nunn had his full game on display early, opening with a reverse layup, followed by a pretty turnaround jumper and a blow-by for a layup.
He missed his first four shots of the second half and left for a while with four fouls, before returning late and closing 6 for 16 from the field. He remains third in the league in scoring among rookies, behind Memphis’ Ja Morant and Golden State’s Eric Paschall.
“I’m really excited for him,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before the game, adding that Nunn is a natural scorer. “Miami was smart in picking him up at the end of last year and to give him this opportunity. He’s made the most of it. He’s been killing it and I’m happy for him.”
▪ The Heat’s home dominance continues.
Miami (13-5) entered outscoring teams by 18.3 points per game at home, best in the league. And Miami steamrolled to early leads of 14-2, 21-6 and 41-21.
In the process, this became the first team in franchise history to hold a lead of at least 15 points in each of its first eight home games. Miami also became the first NBA team to accomplish that feat since the 2007-08 Boston Celtics.
What’s more, the Heat has led by an average of 11 points at the end of the first quarter of its eight home games.
“They have a serious approach about the games and process and preparation that leads up to it,” Erik Spoelstra said of the fast starts at home. “Guys were serious and disappointed about our performance in Houston. As a group, we’ve been intentional about trying to create something at home.”
Golden State, consistently getting to the line, cut its deficit to six early in the third quarter, before order was restored. Miami led 95-79 after three and rolled from there.
“Energy was fantastic in the first quarter [but] it really lagged [after that],” Spoelsta said. “Third quarter was really sluggish until we inserted the bench.”
And so the Heat remains one of four NBA teams with a perfect record at home, joining Toronto, Boston and Philadelphia.
Miami’s 8-0 home mark is quite a turnaround from its 19-22 record last season at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The schedule toughens now, with a three-game road trip to Brooklyn (Sunday), Toronto on Tuesday and Boston on Wednesday.
“This is where we see who we are,” Butler said.
▪ Duncan Robinson is back on track after a mini-shooting slump and that’s fortuitous for him, with Justise Winslow returning to the lineup.
Robinson had cooled briefly after his historic night Nov. 20 against Cleveland, when he shot 9 for 15 on threes and scored 21 points in a shorter period of time than any NBA player had, in any quarter, in at least 20 years.
Since then, Robinson had shot 4 for 19 on threes over three games, until shooting 3 for 7 Wednesday at Houston and 5 for 7 on Friday, with all his shots coming from beyond the arc.
He opened the Warriors game by making four of his first five threes.
The upshot is that Robinson has given Spoelstra no reason to remove him from the starting lineup, even with opening night starter Winslow back from a concussion.
Spoelstra has repeatedly said he doesn’t mind if Robinson misses; he simply wants him to keep shooting.
▪ The Heat’s bench keeps providing instant offense.
Miami entered averaging 43.9 points per game off the bench, the third highest total in the league.
Heat reserves combined for 34 points in the first half alone on Friday and finished with 70 for the game, with Dragic, Olynyk and Herro at the forefront.
Dragic was again terrific, shooting 9 for 13 from the field and adding five rebounds and four assists in 27 highly productive minutes.
“Goran was getting a lot of actions from Chris Silva,” Spoelstra said. “And defensively, that whole second group played really well.”
Olynyk is riding his best stretch of the season. He entered shooting 25 for 40 overall and 14 for 23 on threes in his previous six games, with Miami outscoring teams by 49 points with Olynyk on the floor in those half dozen games.
On Friday, he scored eight points in his first two minutes on the floor shot 6 for 9 from the field and one of two on threes. He was a plus eight for night.
▪ Winslow continues to round into form after missing nine games.
Winslow - who had 10 points and 7 rebounds in his first game back on Wednesday - made a bunch of nice plays off the bench on Friday, including a sweet turnaround jumper, a driving layup and two impressive passes: one to Olynyk for a layup and another, while falling out of bounds, to a cutting Nunn for a layup.
He added a sweeping hook shot later, contributing eight points, five assists and three rebounds.
Winslow said before the game Friday that he wasn’t supposed to watch television or play video games or read or do anything to “engage the brain too much” while he was recovering from concussion symptoms. But he made an exception to watch Heat games.
“I did a whole lot of nothing,” he said, adding he maxed out at 14 hours sleep at least one night.
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 10:28 PM.
