Miami Heat Weekly Round-Up: 8th — 14th November
Have you ever missed a game or two? Maybe you were too busy to keep with everything that was going on with the Miami Heat? Being a fan of the NBA from the UK, I find myself in that situation regularly and I just wish there was some summary of what has happened, some stats, and some key highlights of each game. Well, this Miami Heat Weekly Round-up is exactly what you need.
Weekly Discussion
Before the West coast trip, this wasn’t what I, or pretty much anyone else had expected. These road trips are never easy, but it certainly didn’t look like it was going to include three straight losses.
Of course, not being at full strength certainly doesn’t help; however, despite not having Jimmy Butler for two of those losses, both games were highly winnable.
I always say I would rather have a blowout loss as they did against the Boston Celtics or even the loss at Denver. When a team is shooting badly, or the opponent is literally hitting everything, there is not much you can do about it — you just accept that this is just one of those games.
But when the Heat have big leads throughout the game and blow them in the fourth, that is what stings.
Aside from the Denver game, the Heat had a chance of going 3–1 this week, but instead, they failed to close out games.
Per Cleaning the Glass, this week, the Heat have a minus 3.4 net rating, were 17th on offense, and 19th on defense. In five of the eight four-factors, they were below average.
However, it’s not all bad. Yes, those losses could have and should have been wins, but there’s more than simply wins and losses — it’s about how the team played in general and how those losses looked like.
What’s surprising, however, is if you ignore the Denver game and just focus on the three games without Butler, there are more positives to it.
Even without Butler, the Heat, in those three games, were above average on offense, and were sixth in free throw rate.
The team still needs Butler, especially in those late-game situations, but the team isn’t terrible without him. They still have managed to build those leads without Butler.
And there were a couple of reasons for that.
Is Duncan’s Slump Over
The game against Utah was the best game this season for him. And perhaps, this game is what he needs to get that confidence boost to go back to being the Duncan Robinson that we know.
It’s still only one game, but maybe that’s all it takes. You can clearly see the difference in his body language and his attitude when he was shooting. There were no hesitations the way we’ve seen in previous games.
And do you all think he would have pulled up for 3 in transition before this game?
Not only has his shooting been great against Utah, but his offense in general. He made timely cuts, realizing when the defense was overplaying him, and getting involved in a lot of screening actions.
Bam & Herro Taking that Scoring Load
In the three games without Butler, Bam Adebayo averaged 23.7 points (16 attempts), 9.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.7 steals on 59.6% true shooting.
And Herro averaged 25.7 points (22 attempts), 6.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists on 53.2% true shooting.
The efficiency isn’t great, but that’s what happens when you become the focal point of the offense and have all the defensive attention.
In each game, both players showed that they can be reliable first or second scoring options. That is exactly what the Heat needs. They need to be able to survive without Butler and it seems like they can.
Other Interesting Tidbits
Kyle Lowry needs to be better — he has been up and down with his outside shooting and that needs to improve. The team can’t have Lowry shooting 25% from deep on the nights without Butler
Another Lowry point, though — that fourth quarter against the Clippers was amazing
PJ Tucker is playing his role to perfection
Herro should be the favorite for 6MOTY, so far
There were plenty of defensive breakdowns this week, particularly concerning leaving too many open 3s