Miami Heat vs Charlotte Hornets Game Breakdown #5

Welcome to the first game breakdown of the season. After each game, you will see my thoughts on the game, film breakdown, and other interesting bits that stood out to me.

The Charlotte Hornets came in as one of the hottest team in the league — second on offense, per Cleaning the Glass, the almost top 7 in all offensive four factors, and had the highest 3pt percentage — yet the Miami Heat have taken care of business quite easily.

For many seasons, the Heat struggled with these kinds of teams; the ones that push the pace, are young and fast. Granted, the Hornets didn’t have one of the greatest players in Malik Monk this year, but they did still have Ish Smith and still lost.

There were so many positives from this game:

• Jimmy Butler finishing with 32 points
• Tyler Herro’s scoring from everywhere
• Bam Adebayo’s almost 20–20 game
• Out rebounding the Hornets 60–37!!

I don’t understand how Butler can go for 32, yet it still feels like a quiet 32.

This game never seemed like it was going to swing the other way. Despite the Hornets making a run to cut the lead to six in the fourth, the Heat maintained their composure and carried on building the lead in the fourth quarter.

If anything that is the huge plus of the game. The Heat were never able to maintain leads and have their foot on the gas in the fourth. They definitely never did that when Butler was on the bench. This year, though, Butler can get all the rest he wants without coming in to save them.

And one reason for that is…

The Defense is Too Good

Did I mention that the Hornets were second on offense? Their offensive rating was 116.4 — they have scored 120 in four of their five games and the Heat didn’t let them crack 100.

The Hornets shot 22–53 (41.5%) on 2s and 13–37 (35.1%) on 3s.

There are many reasons for that, but the main one is they have the eventual defensive player of the year.

Do you know how much of a luxury it is to have Bam Adebayo just be your help-side defender whilst having competent perimeter defenders? And do you know much of a bigger luxury it is to have that guy play lock-down defense whenever he switches?

Just watch the first clip. A big man should not stay with a guard like that and contest the shot that well. He gives them that extra blanket of security where you can switch almost anything with that starting five and not have a mismatch anywhere on the court

But there’s more to Heat’s defense than just Adebayo being Adebayo.

The Heat, as a team, were all over the court — hustling hard and trying to contest every shot, making the right rotations.

One thing that stood out was they didn’t get burned whenever they switched. In the first two clips, you see Max Strus and Dewayne Dedmon switching and staying with their man and contesting the shots.

Herro Continues to Impress

When Herro had his 28 shot attempt with zero assists game, I noted then that there were a few plays where he missed reads on getting the ball to an open guy. I’ve said that to be a more dangerous scorer, he would need to add more playmaking to punish the defense.

Well, since then, he has done exactly that.

His four assists per game won’t tell the entire story, but he has been consistently making the right read and the right pass more often.

Here’s a thread of the plays that stood out to me

In four of the six clips, he makes excellent decisions to get an open look for his teammates. There were three occurrences where after receiving a pick, the defense blitzed him. There was no panic, no trying to be a hero or careless turnovers. Instead, he drew two defenders and immediately realized the advantage.

In another pick-and-roll situation, it was a pocket pass to Adebayo for an easy pull-up. These are the improvements that will make Herro more than just a bucket, but a guy that will find open guys. That was meant to be his role last year when the Heat decided to try Herro at point guard, but that was too soon for him.

But now, since his primary role is to score — that is his main worry and the playmaking comes from him being him, just in the rhythm and going with the flow of the offense.

In the third clip, he gets another pick from Adebayo, but this time it was a no hesitation pull-up 3. Did you know he’s taking 4.4 pull-up 3s while converting 36.4%? That’s better than Trae Young, Buddy Hield, Fred VanVleet, and Bradley Beal.

He’s not just a 3pt shooter. Currently, he is shooting 57% from mid-range on 4.2 attempts. That is better than CJ McCollum, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown, and Zach LaVine.

It’s been impressive to see how quickly Herro has improved on what seems like a game-to-game basis.‍

Originally published at https://www.simplyballin.com.