Robinson’s candid admission and big Game 1. And 12 notes, thoughts from Heat’s blowout win
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A blowout win for the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks 115-91 in Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs on Sunday at FTX Arena.
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A dozen nuggets, notes and thoughts from the Heat’s 115-91 Game 1 win against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday at FTX Arena:
▪ During a private moment last week, with the TV cameras off, Duncan Robinson made no attempt to conceal his reaction to being yanked from the starting lineup March 28.
“There [was] disappointment,” he admitted for the first time. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.”
But credit Robinson for not only handling the change like a pro, but thriving with his new assignment, never more so than Sunday.
Robinson scored 27 points during a magical Game 1 eruption and sparked a Heat first-half romp with 11 points - including three contested threes - and a difficult driving layup.
He shot 9 for 10 overall, including a Heat-playoff record eight three-pointers in nine attempts, despite having a hand in his face on most of them. He unleashed a personal 10-0 run in the fourth, including a four-point play.
“We saw the confident Duncan, the guy that doesn’t care what anyone thinks,” Jimmy Butler said.
Not that moving to the bench was easy.
“We’re all competitive,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in doing my job to the best of my ability. At the end of the day, there’s disappointment but you sacrifice and give in to what’s most important to this group. The focus quickly shifts to how can I embrace the role I do have and contribute to winning and help us advance?”
He said “nobody really spoke to me” about keeping his spirits up after Erik Spoelstra replaced him in the starting lineup with Max Strus. “At the same time, that’s what I’ve come to expect, and that’s what they’ve come to expect with me. Whatever I need to do to help us win, I’m on board.”
Whereas Strus has been more productive statistically as a starter – and Miami is now 15-2 with him starting - Robinson has been better off the bench than as a starter this season.
Robinson entered shooting 40.5 percent on threes in 11 games off the bench, compared with 36.7 percent in 68 games as a starter. Heading into postseason, the Heat had scored 116 points per 100 possessions with Robinson coming off the bench, compared with 108 per 100 with Robinson as a starter.
And from a big picture perspective, the bench has been better with another floor spacer, especially when Butler comes back in the game - after a rest - and is paired with Robinson and Herro.
Is there a fun part to coming off the bench? “Yeah, I take pride in potentially swinging the course of a game,” Robinson said. “I’ve found I’m a little more open off the bench as well, which I enjoy.”
Over the past three seasons, only Buddy Hield has more three-pointers than Robinson.
“He’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen in my life,” Heat forward PJ Tucker said of Robinson, whose 27 points were the third-most ever scored off the bench in a Heat playoff game.
▪ Game 1 was the latest proud public display of the Heat’s development program, with undrafted Max Strus (nine points), Robinson and Gabe Vincent (eight points) all making big contributions.
“Miami will find you and develop you,” Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma tweeted during the game, citing Robinson, Strus and Vincent.
▪ The Heat’s defense on Trae Young (who scored a season-low eight points, 1 for 12 shooting) was a switching, suffocating thing of beauty.
What makes it possible - in many instances - is Bam Adebayo’s ability to offer help to the primary defender (as he did on multiple sequences) and then displaying the speed and instincts to cover the ground needed to adequately defend a corner three-point shooter when Young passes out of a double team.
▪ Young - who gave Spoelstra credit for mixing up defenses on him during his 3-for-11 second half shooting in a game here April 5 - said on Sunday: “They do a lot of switching but they also do a lot of trapping.”
Young said his team had “heavy legs” after playing in Cleveland on Friday.
Young noted the Heat “got swept here last year so they came out with a different energy. Winning one game isn’t the whole thing. I’m very confident we’ll turn this around.”
▪ It was encouraging to see Jimmy Butler repeatedly take Hawks defenders off the dribble and draw contact, something he should do most of the time anytime, especially at times when Danilo Gallinari is trying to defend him.
That was an easier mission with the Hawks playing without injured Clint Capela, their best interior defender.
Butler shot 57.4 percent on non-dunks in the basket area this season, compared with 38.8 percent on jumpers.
▪ Also from the “encouraging department”: Tucker has his stroke back on corner threes.
He nailed all four of his corner three attempts on Sunday, after a season in which he shot a league-best 45 percent on threes (72 for 160) before the All-Star break but only 24.2 percent on threes since (8 for 33 over the final 19 games of the regular season).
With 16 points on Sunday, Tucker scored in double figures for the first time in 14 games.
▪ Even beyond the excellent defensive work on Young, don’t overlook the job Miami did on Bogdan Bogdanovic, who shot 0 for 8 from the field, with his six points all coming from the free throw line. He led all NBA bench scorers at more than 20 points per game since mid-March.
▪ For all of his greatness offensively, Tyler Herro’s turnovers remain a minor concern. He had five Sunday, all in the first half. He entered the playoffs with 14 turnovers in his past three games and 20 in his past seven.
▪ TNT’s Kenny Smith - narrating video of the Heat’s swarming, switching defense in his halftime segment - said: “That’s to me why they will be in the Eastern Conference Finals.”
But Charles Barkley countered: “They’re great defensively but that’s one of their weaknesses. Teams are so dumb and impatient. If you switch everything, there are going to be mismatches” for opponents to capitalize on elsewhere and more chances “to get offensive rebounds.”
▪ You can see the work Strus has put into improving defensively. He had a block and a steal in one short sequence on Sunday.
He had 15 charges drawn this season, 11th most in the league and second on the team behind Kyle Lowry’s 25.
For perspective, Strus had just one fewer charge drawn than LeBron James in 497 fewer minutes.
▪ Even though Victor Oladipo might have made it tempting for Spoelstra after producing 21- and 40-point games while some starters rested against Toronto and Orlando, Spoelstra ultimately made the right call sticking with the bench rotation of Robinson, Strus, Vincent and Dedmon.
Spoelstra, incidentally, moved past Chuck Daly and Gregg Popovich for fifth-best playoff winning percentage of all time (60.1 percent). That trails only Steve Kerr (73.6), Phil Jackson, Billy Cunningham and Heat president Pat Riley (60.6).
Spoelstra has an 86-58 playoff record. Riley was 171-111 in the postseason.
▪ Who could have seen the Heat winning by such a lopsided margin in a game in which Bam Adebayo and Herro combined for just 12 points? Adebayo had six points on 1 for 5 shooting, Herro six points on 3 for 11.
Here’s what most bugged Hawks coach Nate McMillan about the Heat: “They were the aggressors all nights long, on both ends of the floor.We never established we could stop them. They played at another level.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2022 at 3:40 PM.
