Miami Heat vs Los Angeles Lakers Game Breakdown #11

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.

Quick Thoughts

A tough loss — it does suck especially when that team isn’t that good and is without their best player, but to be fair, the Heat were also without their best player after the first quarter.

It was sad to see Jimmy Butler spraining his ankle early in the game, but luckily, it didn’t look that bad.

Despite Butler leaving the game, this was a winnable game and the Heat failed to keep control.

But the one thing that annoyed me the most is how those regular-season scrubs kill the Heat all the damn time. Malik Monk turns into Stephen Curry against the Heat and it’s annoying.

This game was a close one for quite literally the entire game. The largest lead either team had was nine and there were 33 lead changes and 14 times tied — no team could get that separation.

Yet, the Heat took a nine-point lead midway through the quarter and somehow ended up losing in overtime.

There were many defensive breakdowns and the offense was down bad, especially with Butler out.

Offensive Breakdown

Yet another game where the shooting was not there — finishing 10–37 (27.0%) won’t win you many games. And that’s concerning when the shots aren’t falling, but the team settles for those looks because everyone else isn’t looking to score.

Bam Adebayo did have a great third quarter where he had 14 points on 5–8 shooting and going to the line twice, but that’s just one quarter — he followed that quarter up with four points without a field goal made.

That can’t happen, especially with Butler out. And what I’ve noticed recently is if Adebayo isn’t aggressive enough, it’s Tyler Herro or bust.

Herro has been their best 3-level scorer and has been one of hell of a tough shot-maker. He has been getting to the rim, one of the best catch-and-shoot 3pt shooters, and a great mid-range shooter.

So, that’s what went well — what about what went wrong? We all know what’s in store next.

Most people would blame Duncan Robinson for this loss and that’s because of his 3 for 13 shooting from downtown. Yes, he needs to be making those shots, especially when they are open or wide open. It’s frustrating to see all of those bricks.

I would get that argument if those shots were being force-fed or if they were bad looks, but take a look at this:

Without Butler, that is the offense that you want a team to generate. Everything there is exactly what you are looking for — the drive-and-kick, drawing extra defenders, swinging the ball. All the Heat need Robinson is to simply be an average 3pt shooter and the offense is so much better.

And there is also another reason why he’s even attempting all these shots. The other star players on the team aren’t shooting or they are also missing.

Kyle Lowry going 2–10 from deep is also not helping the offense and this most of the time results in Robinson having to bail them out.

Things that Caught My Eye:

• Going to the line 35 is great
• Making 27 out of 35 free throws isn’t great
• Grabbing 11 offensive rebounds helped

Defensive Breakdown

The defense was the primary issue from this game.

The Los Angeles Lakers took 38 3s — 34 of them were classed as open or wide open. That is bad defense.

There were countless possessions where the team looked lost on defense, whether it was bad rotations, players getting confused on switches, or simply poor effort.

Most of the issues, however, came from Anthony Davis drawing that much attention — we saw this same thing happen with Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

Clip #1:

• It all starts with a switch to get Anthony Davis onto Butler
• As that happens Russell Westbrook cuts to the opposite corner to get any help away from Davis
• I know that Westbrook’s corner 3 isn’t a bigger threat than Davis post up, but why Is PJ Tucker in that position — shouldn’t he have been behind DeAndre Jordan, ready to either help on Adebayo or be able to close out on shooters
• Next, Lowry decides to help on Davis quite quickly, turning into a double-team
• As that happens, Avery Bradley makes a good decision to relocate to the top of the key
• Because of the move by Bradley and the sudden decision by Davis to make the pass, it fakes out Robinson to think it’s going to Bradley — this meant he was away from his man and couldn’t contest in time
• Tucker, already being in a bad position, he was also too late to contest; therefore, open 3

Clip #2:

• A double screen with Kent Bazemore and Davis resulted in Tucker switching onto Westbrook
• I think technically the switch should have been Robinson on Davis and Butler on Bazemore, but Butler made the right decision to go on Davis
• The switch could have happened smoothly and it does look like Robinson would have had time to get back on Bazemore
• The problem arose when Robinson got confused about whether he needed to stay with Davis or not
• And that late decision resulted in an open 3

Clip #3:

• This was simply embarrassing defense by Robinson
• It starts with a double screen from Avery Bradley and then Davis for Wayne Ellington in the corner
• Robinson’s reaction time to begin was slow — he can see Ellington moving and feels there is a screen coming, yet does nothing to get ready for it
• Also, his stance in the first place is questionable — this is Ellington, not Westbrook; he is a shooter that wants to come off screens, so shouldn’t he top-lock Ellington?
• He finally manages to get through the first screen, but is already behind on the play and gets further behind by the Davis screen
• Because of that, Omer Yurtseven has to leave Davis to contest
• But what does Robinson do next? He looks lost and his step towards the corner made him late to contest a Bradley shot

The common theme here = Robinson. That makes the debate whether he should be on the court become concerning. He isn’t making shots and is out of place on defense.

However, in this game it wasn’t just him making those mistakes:

No clue why the Heat are blitzing Monk, which led to Lowry helping and more open 3s.

Is there extra help by Lowry on Davis when he isn’t in a post-up situation even necessary?

Also, there are more breakdowns as a result of someone being confused on a switch — that is becoming quite common over the past few games.

• Active in causing turnovers off of steals
• Davis only got to the line twice
• Couldn’t defend Monk for some reason — he scored 27 points on 10–13 shooting‍

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