Miami Heat vs Orlando Magic Game Breakdown #3
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 Miami Heat blew out the Orlando Magic. Man, it feels good to say that. Yes, I know it’s not the same Magic team as previous years, but we didn’t have Terrence Ross go off for 40.
This was a good win for a couple of reasons. We all know this team is capable of building leads against bad teams, but it’s also been known that this team can easily lose it too. This wasn’t the case yesterday and we certainly didn’t need Jimmy Butler to save us.
The lead was cut short to just six halfway through the third, but the Heat carried on stepping on the gas and closed out the game despite Butler playing just three minutes in the fourth.
Another quick point was the Heat having an above-average offense — 111.6 points per 100 possessions — while going 6–27 from deep. It’s a good sign that we can generate some offense without 3s.
With that all out of the way, let’s get into the specifics of what went right last night.
Herro’s Playmaking
Just the other night against the Indiana Pacers, I mentioned how Tyler Herro’s decision-making and shot selection was questionable and how the next step into his game should be his playmaking. Well, he did just that and he did it well.
After finishing the game with 28 attempts and zero assists, he followed that performance with a complete turnaround. It was clear that the shots weren’t going in — he was having an off-night after scoring 27 and 30 in the two previous games, but that is alright.
Yet, despite having an off-shooting night, he was still highly impactful when he was on the floor. He knew he had to impact the game differently and that is why he had the team-high nine assists.
Herro made all kinds of passes.
In the first clip, he goes to drive, and usually, that probably ends up as a pull-up jumper but here he notices Marcus Morris behind the defense and makes a pass for an easy point.
I’m more impressed with the second clip. I noted a couple of plays against the Pacers where he did drive and may have missed these kick-outs. Here, Herro drives, draws the defense — also note Bam Adebayo’s roll that opens up that corner because he gets tagged on a roll — and finds an open Morris in the corner. These are the plays that Herro needs to make consistently to make the defense pay, as he gets better attacking the rim.
The third play is another one that he missed against the Pacers. Off a pick-and-roll, Dewayne Dedmon gets ahead of a smaller Cole Anthony and Herro makes the right decision to pump fake to get the big man biting and make an easy bounce pass to Dedmon.
The next two plays are what made last night’s offense look good. Two of those assists resulted in two easy transition points. It’s a good sign seeing Herro already making those snap decisions to quickly get the ball up the floor for a dunk.
Overall, this was a great game from Herro when it comes to creating an offense for others. That is where he’s best at right now — a scorer first; a playmaker second.
Last season, he was made to be the point guard, but that’s not his primary role. Here, however, he is still looking to shoot, drive, but if the shot is not there, he makes the decision to get others’ open looks.
Lowry is Exactly What We Need
Speaking of those two plays from Herro that resulted in dunks. This is what a good point guard brings for this team.
Against the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat had 22 fastbreak points. Against the Pacers, without Kyle Lowry, the Heat had 10.
Lowry is back and the Heat have 21 fastbreak points. And that’s 11 extra points that are easy transition dunks or lay-ups.
Just watch these four plays. That’s four easy points.
You can see in the last clip that Lowry’s first instinct is to be that quarterback and throw that pass ahead. When the pass wasn’t there at first, he stopped, then once the defense turned their heads, easy bucket for Butler.
I know it’s only been three games and two games with Lowry, but per Cleaning the Glass, the Heat’s offense is 16.6 better with Lowry on the court — that is the kind of difference he makes.
What’s surprising — and it’s a good surprise — is he has this kind of impact while not having a great scoring night himself. We have this good offense with him even though he scored five and nine points in the two games.
And that’s a good sign.
Just last season, Lowry had 14 games with 20–29 points and 2 30 point games. Though it’s two seasons ago, in 19–20 seasons, he had 21 games with 20–29 points and 7 30 point games. So, if we have these offensive nights with him struggling to score, can you imagine when he’s hot?
Butler Does Everything
I don’t about you, but this was a quiet 36 point game from Butler. I’m watching the game and I hear he’s got 20 and I’m like, what???
Butler simply backed up what he said. He struggled against the Pacers bad and in this game he did everything.
What’s surprising is he finished with 36 points on 6–6 from the free-throw line. And only getting to the line once in the first half. He scored from all over the place and was highly efficient — 76.1% true shooting.
Here’s his shot chart and you can see he scored from every place other than from deep.
But Butler didn’t just score this game. Because it’s the Magic, he had a game-high five steals — his 15th career game with five steals.
I’m betting he’s going to lead the league in steals for the second year in a row. The way he gets these steals is impressive too. He can get a steal from down the post (see first clip), active hands to tip the ball (see third and fifth clip), but his best skill is his off-ball defense and reading the passing lanes.
Whenever a pass is thrown, there is a high chance that Butler will see the pass before it even happens and intercepts it. His reaction to these passes is the best I’ve seen.
Overall, this was a great game against a bad team. The Heat took care of business as they should and it never felt like they were ever in trouble.
Originally published at https://www.simplyballin.com.
