Miami Heat vs Utah Jazz Game Breakdown #13

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

I tend to remain optimistic, quite literally, every single game, but I wasn’t expecting a win here.

For the third straight game, the Miami Heat were without Jimmy Butler and throughout most of the game, it didn’t seem to matter.

The final score is much closer than what the actual game was — the Utah Jazz only had a 3pt lead early in the first quarter and after that, the game wasn’t close.

Unfortunately, for the second time against the same team, the Heat almost blew it. It honestly felt like watching the same game like last week — have a big lead late in the fourth, then turnovers happen, can’t get stops, and can’t buy a bucket.

Luckily, the game was like last week and the Heat managed to push through.

There were many things to be impressed with — Duncan Robinson is back, Bam Adebayo’s passing, PJ Tucker impacting the game everywhere, and Tyler Herro’s growth as a scorer.

Offensive Breakdown

Oh, he’s back!

Maybe it’s too early to say that, but who cares, this is exactly what Robinson needed. After struggling all season long, having that type of game where you go 6–11 from deep can do wonders for you.

It was also great to see everyone else on the bench get as hyped as they did.

The team in general also shot okay from the deep, going 13–33 and 10–25 from above the break, but what stood out to me more was how they got to the rim.

The team shot 19–25 at the rim, which is surprising as they were supposed to have the DPOY in Rudy Gobert.

One of the ways they got to the rim was through their cutting and Adebayo’s playmaking:

The first two clips showcase Adebayo’s ability as a passer — he can post up, draw that extra help, wait until the help side defender moves, and make a pinpoint pass to Robinson’s hands. Also, note that hammer screen from Tucker.

In the second clip, it’s a different situation, but still shows how good he is at making those reads. Off of a pick-and-roll, he gets Gober to commit and immediately swings to an open Robinson.

The next three clips are more interesting.

Clip #3:

• Starts off with Herro and Duncan on the weakside wing and with Kyle Lowry heading to them
• It looks like Lowry was going to screen for Robinson and you can see Jordan Clarkson guarding him closely and not allowing him to use that screen
• Robinson then smartly decides to cut, as the Jazz switch Donovan Mitchell onto Robinson
• Herro sets a screen on Clarkson for Lowry, which causes another switch
• As a result of that switch, Herro now can seal off Clarkson and slip on that screen to cut to the basket
• This also showcased great off-ball movement from both Lowry and Robinson — Lowry draws Royce O’Neale, so there is no tag on Herro and Mitchell was so occupied with Robinson, he didn’t even realize Herro was cutting
• And, of course, it was a good find by Adebayo

Clip #4:

• Yet another screening action between Herro and Lowry on the weakside wing
• To be honest, this seems more of a defensive breakdown from Jazz, but it was still a good decision to exploit that breakdown
• You can see Herro kind of setting a screen for Lowry
• Lowry firstly decides to go right and when he notices Clarkson following him there, he changes direction and goes over the screen leaving Clarkson trailing
• Similar to the last play, this leaves Herro on the other side of the defender, which all he has to do is simply cut to the rim with the defender behind him
• Adebayo takes a dribble toward the 3pt line, seems to go to a dribble hand-off, then finds a cutting Herro

Clip #5:

• The sideline play starts with Robinson setting a screen for Adebayo — more of that please, a similar screen resulted in an open cut to the rim later on
• After Lowry passes the ball, it looks like he is going to set a screen for Robinson and it does seem like Adebayo would have been ready for a DHO
• Clarkson can see the screen coming so he top-locks Robinson and prevents him from trying to use the screen
• Then a quick fake and change of direction leaves Clarkson behind on the play and allows Adebayo to find a cutting Robinson

These screening actions and cuts were a big reason why the Heat were able to get so many quality looks at the rim.

And this is also why Herro was the team’s leading scorer, despite going 1–7 from deep and that’s because he went 9–16 inside the arc.

Finally, who expected Tucker to be one of the most impactful players on offense that game? We all know he is going to hustle his ass off on the defensive side and have that impact that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.

But did anyone expect him to kinda stuff that stat sheet, as he finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds (5 offensive), and 3 assists?

I didn’t expect this from Tucker. I especially didn’t expect Tucker to have 2.2 attempts from inside the arc, his highest since the 2016–17 season. It’s certainly working, though.

Things that Caught my Eye:

• 19 turnovers hurt and it’s becoming a habit — 21.9% of the possessions ended as a turnover
• They carry on being aggressive on the boards, though can’t finish on those second-chance opportunities
• The fourth-quarter offense is concerning

Defensive Breakdown

Despite barely allowing over 100 points and that happened because of a poor defensive effort in the fourth quarter, I wouldn’t say the Heat were great defensively.

I’d say they got lucky the Jazz missed some open shots. For instance, the Jazz were 3–18 on corner 3s.

Out of the 53 attempts, 49 of them were either open or wide open. That is becoming a trend for the Heat — allowing way too many open shots.

This happened against the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets too, but for different reasons.

In those games, it was a dominant big that drew extra attention and extra help that resulted in those open 3s. In this game, however, it was poor communication, poor effort on switches, and also just a lot of unnecessary switching.

I highlighted some plays that stood out to me the most:

Clip #1:

• It begins with a screen for Mitchell by O’Neale, which forces a switch to get Adebayo on O’Neale
• After the screen, Gobert sets a flare screen for O’Neale
• I don’t know exactly what the Adebayo and Tucker were supposed to do — was Adebayo supposed to stay with O’Neale, it does look like that is what Tucker is signalling? Or was Tucker in the wrong and was late to a switch?
• If it’s the former, then it’s a poor effort by Adebayo to go over that screen
• If it’s the latter, Tucker should have realized that screen sooner and be higher up, ready to contest that shot
• This is one of the key issues I’ve noticed that pretty much almost always results in open shots — there is someone that’s confused about whether to switch or not

Clip #2:

• Same problem as in the previous clip
• The play starts off with a DHO between Gobert and Clarkson
• There are so many questions on who’s in the wrong here
• From what the Heat have been doing all the time — switching everything, even when there is no contact — it would then seem like Herro is wrong to stay with Clarkson and should have gone with Gobert
• Adebayo’s aggressiveness and it seems like he’s getting into a defensive stance seems like he thought they were going to switch
• If, however, they weren’t meant to switch, then Adebayo stayed with the double for too long and let Gobert roll to the rim
• This, then meant Tucker calling out a switch
• Also would point that Lowry maybe should have tagged Gobert on that roll
• Although Tucker calls the switch, he losses Gobert to go behind him and as he has to help on the drive, that’s an easy pass for a dunk

Things that Caught my Eye:

• Players shot 3–10 against Adebayo!
• Did a good job at making life tough for Mitchell — finishing with 22 points on 8–19 shots and only getting to the rim six times
• Drawing four charges! That’s Heat culture right there

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