Miami Heat vs Indiana Pacers Game Breakdown #2

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.

A tough loss to the Indiana Pacers. All it took was one game without Kyle Lowry and we already look like the same old team as last year on the offensive end. It was a bad basketball game all around — allowed 50 points in the pain, 22 turnovers, and shot 27.3% from deep.

It feels very Miami Heat-like to go from scoring 137 points to not even cracking 100. If you want to see exactly what went wrong in the last two minutes and overtime, you must check this piece by Brady Hawk first.

Although the team as a whole couldn’t get anything going, there was one player that took it upon himself to try and score the ball one way or another. After scoring 27 points against the Milwaukee Bucks, Tyler Herro followed that with a 30 piece — though it was on 28 shot attempts, 12 of them from deep.

Also a fun fact! This was Herro’s career-high in field goal attempts and 3pt attempts.

Herro went 9–16 inside the arc, but couldn’t get anything at the rim. That, however, didn’t matter because he still got to his spots in the mid-range and he did that confidently. Here’s his shot chart:

You can clearly see where he likes to get his shots and he did just that. However, you can also see a lot of Xs and that was one of the issues. I’m not trying to nitpick, but there were some questionable decision-making and shot selection.

In the first clip, he does well of driving and drawing that defense and getting it rid of to Bam Adebayo, but then once he gets it back he settles for a contested shot when he could have made that extra pass to Duncan Robinson. Even if the pass got there late, I’d much rather have Robinson taking that shot.

In the second clip, similar to the first one, he attacked the rim and drew help. That also could have been a kick out to one of the best corner shooters in PJ Tucker.

I don’t even know what was going on in his head in the third clip. In transition, 22 seconds on the shot clock and you pull up for three with three defenders near you???

That is another thing that stood out — 28 attempts with zero assists.

Once it was clear that Herro had the hot hand and was gunning for those shots, the Pacers adjusted and ended up sending doubles

This is a clear improvement that Herro has to work on. He already looks better as a scorer and you can see that in his confidence too, but the next step to elevate his game higher is to make the defense pay with his playmaking.

But there is a reason why Herro had to take these many shots and he probably should have attempted more — everyone else was simply not in the game.

Jimmy Butler had an awful game offensively — finishing the game with 19 points on 7–22 shooting. There were many looks he missed that he should have definitely made.

Getting to the line three times was also a problem. Last season there were only 12 games where Butler attempted five or fewer free throws. And not-so-surprisingly, we only won four of those games.

Most likely it was simply an off-night, but it’s clear that when Butler has those nights, especially when it comes to attacking the rim and getting to the line, then we lose. This then means that Herro or someone else has to try to carry the offense, which isn’t their role.

It was a good sign to see Adebayo’s aggression early in the game, but that didn’t last long. That’s where Lowry becomes so valuable. There was no one to get Adebayo those same looks he got against the Bucks.

Another thing that stood out was using Robinson more.

The very first possession of the game — a double screen for Robinson for an open 3.

Robinson ended the game with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals with 4–9 from deep. It wasn’t his actual shooting that ended up being as effective.

In the first two clips we have the same action with Butler and Robinson. A dribble hand-off to Robinson with an empty corner. Because of Robinson’s gravity, the Pacers switched to prevent an open 3, but with Robinson’s quick decision-making and Butler’s slip, that resulted in two easy buckets.

One the third play, however, the Pacers had decided to simply go over and not switch. What happened then was is Robinson’s defender was behind and he simply carried on driving for an easy bank shot.

Overall, it was bad to see a game that we kind of should have won, especially when you see that the Pacers also didn’t play well — shooting under 40% from the floor, 25.6% from deep, 16 turnovers, and Myles Turner in foul troubles playing only 16 minutes.

But, oh well, we move on to the next game.

Things that Caught My Eye

• Tucker is one tough guy
• Butler is still a pest when it comes to stealing the ball — whether it’s in passing lanes or stripping the ball
• Adebayo had 16 rebounds!!
• Butler’s bad pass turnovers hurt
• Adebayo’s DPOY campaign is getting better — players shot 3–11 against him
• Chris Duarte was 0–6 against Herro‍

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