Takeaways, reaction from the Heat’s wire-to-wire win over the Knicks
The team coming off a summer with no cap space played the team that had seemingly limitless cap space on Friday, and the Heat’s 129-114 win against the visiting New York Knicks was both predictable and an affirmation of multiple realities:
1) The Knicks (7-22) are atrocious, despite entering having won three of their previous four.
2) The Heat (21-8) is exceptional at home, so much so than Miami might get to 2020 without a bad loss at AmericanAirlines Arena.
3) Cap space is a bit overrated.
The Heat - which added Jimmy Butler and sharpened the supporting cast without any cap space - sprinted to an early 34-14 lead against the woeful Knicks, who signed not a single player able to lift them anywhere close to playoff contention despite having two max salary slots this past July.
The Heat shot 56 percent from the field and had assists on its first 20 baskets Friday, with just five turnovers in that stretch.
This was a night of equal opportunity scoring, which has often been the case with a team that has produced more points in its first 29 games than any Heat team in franchise history.
Bam Adebayo has 20 points and eight rebounds to lead the way, with Duncan Robinson adding 18, Kendrick Nunn 15, Derrick Jones Jr. 14 and Tyler Herro 12.
And Goran Dragic returned from a nine-game absence to score 18 points, with eight assists.
Remarkably, Miami coasted despite Jimmy Butler attempting just three shots from the field in 28 minutes. He made two of them, finishing with nine points, eight assists, five rebounds and three steals.
“Jimmy, were you here tonight?” Erik Spoelstra cracked, then praising Butler for being “giving and unselfish” and allowing teammates to grow.
Meyers Leonard had a season-high 13 rebounds.
Miami led 70-47 at the half, reaching the 70-point mark in a first half for the fifth time this season - already a franchise record for a season. The Knicks sliced their 34-point deficit to 15 in the fourth quarter but it hardly mattered.
The win, coming in the first game of a four-game homestand, lifted Miami’s home record to 12-1. What’s more, the Heat’s 14-point average margin of victory at home is the largest in the league.
Five takeaways from Miami’s win:
▪ The ball-sharing was a thing of beauty.
Miami already had 56 points before its first unassisted basket of the game, by Nunn. That’s pretty remarkable.
This is a team that loves to share the ball and does it skillfully, often turning a decent shot opportunity into a better one.
“It’s something we always emphasize and some teams take to it more than others,” Spoelstra said. “This team has that quality and they enjoy it. They enjoy sharing in each other’s success.”
Of the 20 consecutive assisted Heat baskets to begin the game, Butler assisted on seven of them, Dragic five and Adebayo three.
This really isn’t a surprise, considering Butler is averaging a career-high seven assists per game, nearly double his 3.6 career average.
Butler’s six assists in the first quarter on Friday were his most ever in a quarter and the most by a Heat player in a quarter this season.
Incidentally, Adebayo’s 4.6 assist average is third among all NBA power rotation players, behind only Denver’s Nikola Jokic (6.1) and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo’s (5.4).
Miami entered ninth in the league in assists at 24.3 per game and finished with 34 on Friday.
▪ Goran Dragic returned, which helped in more ways than one.
Not only was the Heat delighted to get back Dragic’s scoring and ball-handling off the bench, but his return also will help Spoelstra ease the minutes load on Butler - who had averaged 39 minutes in Dragic’s absence - and a few others.
“At some point, this would not be sustainable,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t like playing Jimmy 43 minutes.”
Dragic, who had been nursing a groin injury, hit four three-pointers in nine attempts (and 6 for 12 overall) and didn’t look rusty despite the layoff. He said he “put a lot of work in” in simulated game conditions before returning.
“I love him,” Spoelstra said. “He has that effect on everyone. Jimmy came in [Thursday] just to watch Goran work out. I don’t know who is more excited about it - Jimmy, me or the rest of the team. He looked sharp.”
▪ Derrick Jones Jr. continued one of the best stretches of his career and is making himself a vital rotation piece, even when Justise Winslow returns.
Jones entered having averaged 13.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 steals in his previous four games, while shooting 18 for 30 from the field and 6 for 13 on threes.
And he again injected an instant spark on Friday, with nine points and two rebounds in 13 first-half minutes and closing with 14 (on 5 for 6 shooting) and five rebounds and a block.
A career 29 percent three-point shooter, Jones has improved appreciably from distance.
But his biggest impact remains on the defensive side, where he’s limiting players he’s guarding to 36.4 percent shooting. Those players shoot 46.1 percent overall.
▪ What Nunn is doing is historic, by Heat and league standards.
Nunn now has the second-most points in NBA history by an undrafted player through 29 games.
Nunn entered with 462 points - trailing only Connie Hawkins for points by an undrafted player over his first 28 games. The rest of the top five: John Brisker, Reggie Williams and Phil Chenier.
What’s more, Nunn remains on pace to top Dwyane Wade’s record for scoring average by a Heat rookie. He entered at 16.5, topping Wade’s record 16.2.
“He’s a really good offensive player,” Knicks interim coach Mike Miller said. “He’s done a great job of continuing to grow into that.”
▪ The Heat’s other undrafted starter, Duncan Robinson, remains on a three-point binge.
Robinson hit six threes in 10 attempts -- attempting all of his shots from beyond the arc - and has now hit multiple threes in 14 consecutive games, setting a franchise record that had previously been held by Josh Richardson.
Over his past six games, Robinson has had one game with 10 three-pointers, three with three threes, one with four and another with six.
He continues to flummox teams by running to a spot where he can catch and shoot before a defender sometimes can get set.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 10:26 PM.
