Miami Heat vs Memphis Grizzlies #6
Welcome to Simply Ballin's game breakdown of the Miami Heat. After each game, you will see my thoughts on the game, film breakdown, and other interesting bits that stood out to me.
No Bam Adebayo, no problem. This was yet another game that the team from last year would have easily lost. A young team like the Memphis Grizzlies, without your starting center and on a back-to-back? That would have been a recipe for a disaster.
And the fact the Heat didn't even let this game be an actual game is a huge-plus. They weren't playing around — at the end of the first quarter, they were already up by 15 and it stayed around that range until late third quarter where they were up by 25.
This game was over before it began.
That is also why I'm even more confident in this team. Good teams are meant to beat worse teams — last year, the Heat had some terrible, terrible losses that did cost them the fourth seed.
Finally, the Heat won this game by having their best offensive game this season, but before we get to their offense clicking, I want to touch on the defense.
Everything is Clicking on Defense
Compared to the other five games this was the worst defensive game, surprisingly. The Heat finally let a team score over 100 points in regulations.
They also had a 109.3 defensive rating, which would have ranked in the 43rd percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. But that's also not it. They are the first team to have an effective field goal (eFG) percentage above 50% (52.7%).
Yet, I'm still impressed by other stuff on defense.
Let's start with Ja Morant.
Morant has had an amazing start to the season. Prior to the Heat game, he was averaging 30.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 7.8 assists per game on 64.9% true shooting (TS) and 60.7% eFG.
Do you know what kind of game he had? 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists on 48.4% TS and 41.7% eFG — that is a massive drop-off.
Not only that, Morant entered the game taking the fourth highest shot attempts less than 5 feet, while converting almost 70%. And how did he do against the Heat? 50% on 12 attempts at the rim.
The Heat took Morant out of the game when it comes to his scoring.
This was common for the rest of the Grizzlies too. They entered the game attempting 31 shots in the restricted area, while making 62.2%. Against the Heat, however, the attempts decreased to 24 attempts and shooting 58.3% — almost 4% lower than their averages.
And there were a couple of reasons for that.
Firstly, Jimmy Butler was clamping players down! Morant went 1-5 against Butler — while the rest of the team went 2-6.
Just look at this defense!
https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1455222407044681737
I was also quite impressed with Duncan Robinson's defense — especially his off-ball and rotations.
https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1455225329354747908
The Best Offensive Game This Season
This was long, long overdue. And against the Grizzlies, everything was going right.
The Heat had an offensive rating of 136.5 — good for the 99th percentile. And they had a 69.2% eFG, also good for the 99th percentile.
The most surprising stat was they still had a great rebounding game, even without Adebayo. They still out-rebounded the Grizzlies by 18.
But the biggest story was their 3pt-shooting.
The Heat have shooters!!
And two of those shooters have been struggling all seasons long, so it's great to see them back — for the first time this season, Lowry scored double digit points. And with Robinson, they've combined for 30 points and 9 triples.
It's hard to lose games when you go 21-37 (56.8%) from deep, especially when it comes from literally everyone on the team. Look at how they got their 3s:
https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1455244911780024329
The first clip is intriguing. Starts off with Butler, Kyle Lowry, and PJ Tucker in the left side wing and corner. They go with a pick-and-pop with Tucker and Lowry with Butler roaming around the dunker spot.
As Lowry uses the pick and drives to the rim, you can see Steven Adams in a drop covering Lowry and as that's happening, you can see Butler relocate from the dunker spot and cuts toward the rim. What this does is it draws Kyle Anderson with him and because of that there is no one to help on Tucker's pop. Adams does try to contest but he was already far behind on the play.
In the second clip, this was a smart play between Robinson and Tucker. The play starts off with them two in the corner while Butler attacks the rim on the other side.
At the beginning of the clip you can see Robinson cutting from the other side to give Butler that empty PnR. But as you can see, he doesn't cut and sits in the corner — he goes a bit higher and this allows Tucker to set a back screen and get Duncan an open shot as Butler drives and kicks.
The fourth clip is one of the great things Robinson provides. It begins with Butler posting up and Markieff Morris relocating to the top of the 3pt line.
As that happens, it seems that there is a decoy play for Robinson and Tucker and Lowry as the screeners. Robinson fakes as if he was going to use the double screen, then immediately changes direction and cuts through the middle. Because of that cut, Jaren Jackson Jr got preoccupied with his cut and this led to leaving Morris open and unable to contest.
Their 3s weren't the only positive from this game, though. Butler ended the game with another quiet 27 points. And one of the reasons for that is how dangerous Butler is whenever he has a mismatch or when he drives full head of steam to the rim.
https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1455244522405994499
Just look at the defensive attention he gets in the first clip. There is a clear mismatch with him posting up Morant — Butler is second in points per possession on post-ups!
And what does this mismatch create?
Firstly, Kyle Anderson knows he must help, but as he does, his man now is going to be open. As a result, the weakside helper in the corner must help the helper. Then there are two things happening.
Max Strus correctly shakes to the wing as Anderson's man is concerned with Morris. Also at the same time, Martin cuts through the middle and that results no one being close to help or even stunt at Strus. Butler then drives and has the wide open Strus on the wing.
The other two clips all result in an open Lowry simply because of Butler's driving to the rim and drawing two defenders.
It's weird how I don't see Butler as a scorer, yet he's this much of a threat that he draws so much attention that the other players are legit wide open because of it.
Things that Caught My Eye:
Herro's quick reaction to blitzes on a PnR are becoming much more common — he doesn't get flustered or panics; he simply makes the right pass straight away.
https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1455252980828098560
Heat grabbing 11 offensive rebounds without Adebayo is surprising
There was a lot of ball movement in the first quarter — starting off with nine field goals and nine assists
Butler is such a pest on defense — might be the best wing defender this season
Only 11.6% of the points were fast break points