Miami Heat vs Washington Wizards Game Breakdown #17

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

Another game, another lead blown late in the fourth. Per NBA, the Heat have played seven games that were in the clutch for a total of 25 minutes. And in those 25 clutch minutes, the Heat shoot 31% from the field and 12% from deep with more turnovers than assists.

Before the collapse late in the fourth, the Heat somehow had the comfortable lead despite having a bad shooting game and not being able to get to the rim consistently.

For the third game in a row, it was a Jimmy Butler getting buckets game — finishing with 29 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.

In the two games against the Washington Wizards, Butler is:

• 11–14 at the rim
• 7–16 in the short mid-range
• 4–5 in the long mid-range

Surprisingly, PJ Tucker had another great offensive game again — finishing with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists with more 2s than 3s.

Not-so-surprisingly, both Duncan Robinson and Kyle Lowry had another bad shooting night. That is becoming a problem. For the second game in a row, they have been horrible from 3 — combining for 2–12

That means a bigger offensive responsibility for Butler and relying on either Bam Adebayo or Tyler Herro to step up.

And that was one of the reasons why there was another lead blown in the fourth. They just couldn’t get a bucket and have gone away from what worked.

The defensive down the stretch also wasn’t to their typical standards.

Offensive Breakdown

When you look at the Heat’s shot chart, it’s quite different compared to most teams to how they’ve got their offense.

They’ve attempted 43 mid-range attempts.

43! — that’s 15 more than the Wizards.

Their shot distribution was strange, especially when compared to the first Wizards game. One major difference was their rim frequency. They’ve only had 11 attempts at the rim — 13.5% rim frequency.

When looking at their season, the four lowest rim frequencies are all losses, which shows that if the Heat aren’t able to attack the rim, it’s likely they’ve lost.

For the third straight game, it was Butler that was scoring at will — in the first quarter alone, he had eight points on 4–5 shooting.

Tyler Herro was also a big reason why the Heat had the lead in the first place. He finished with 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists on 8–16 shooting and 3–6 from deep.

It is quite surprising that down the stretch, these players barely touched the ball and had one or two attempts late in the fourth.

The Heat seem to hate going to players with hot hands.

When will have the conversation about Lowry?

He is still in the shooting slump but he is also not applying any rim pressure. He can finish at the rim at high percentages, but simply doesn’t drive as often and when he does, it’s mostly always to pass.

That can’t happen when the shots from outside aren’t falling. The Heat shot 7–25 from deep and struggled to get to the rim.

Butler helps that. Adebayo helps that. Lowry needs to help with that. As mentioned previously, the Heat need a higher rim frequency instead of relying on their shooting.

Things that Caught my Eye:

• Tucker scoring 14 points — he has been tremendous on offense recently
• Was hot from the mid-range
• Need more scoring off the bench and not just Herro
• Only two fast-break points is damn poor
• Duncan attacking > Duncan shooting

Defensive Breakdown

I am done with the switching and the overhelping.

The unnecessary blitzing, doubles, and switches are all leading to wide-open 3s and the opponents are making them pay.

The Wizards shot 15–17 at the rim! And by going inside-out, it means the defense needs to collapse more to prevent those shots, but that will lead to shots on the perimeter

That was the reason why the Wizards were able to make that comeback late in the fourth.

Watch some of the plays here and you can see the pattern.

In the first two clips, Tucker seems to help a bit too much, which I don’t think makes sense to do. There is no huge mismatch, there’s weakside help ready — all he should have done is stunt slightly and be able to contest the shot better if that kick-out still comes.

In the third clip, that’s the result of the switch-everything scheme. There have been countless consecutive possessions where a guard was switched on a big. That means the help is needed earlier and the weakside defender to pre-rotate — that’s an easy swing of the ball or a skip pass for an open 3.

Also would want to point out that the problems with switching — someone being confused on the switch — are still quite common and in this play, it was a momentum swing to tie the game.

Things that Caught my Eye:

• The Wizards got to the rim and the line a lot
• The Heat still caused 19 turnovers — they have been pretty good at that lately
• A poor shooting game from Bradley Beal
• Players shot 5–5 against Adebayo‍

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