Miami Heat Weekly Round-Up Starting the Season Hot
Have you ever missed a game or two? Maybe you were too busy to keep with everything that was going on with the Miami Heat? Being a fan of the NBA from the UK, I find myself in that situation regularly and I just wish there was some summary of what has happened, some stats, and some key highlights of each game. Well, this Miami Heat Weekly Round-up is exactly what you need.
In each round-up, you will get all the games from that week all linked to their individual game breakdown, a weekly discussion, and other interesting tidbits from the week.
What a week — the Heat are 5–1, they have the best defensive rating, the best net rating, and are arguably the best team in the league currently.
Defeating the reigning champions. Check
Defeating the Nets. Check
Defeating the red-hot Hornets. Check
There is so much to discuss from this one-and-a-half week. From Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson forgetting how to shoot to having the best defense by far or to Jimmy Butler playing like an MVP.
Yes, I’m aware it’s only been six games and the sample size is small, but to be honest, who cares! This is the time for these overreactions, but if I’m being more honest, what the Heat are doing isn’t that flukey.
League’s Best Defense
Of course, the Heat won’t have this level of defense throughout the season — it would be ridiculous to have a defense that is almost 12 points better than average. What this shows, though is that the team is trending in the right direction.
They will most certainly cool off and their opponents will hit more shots, but their defense is legit and that is damn scary.
In their starting five, they have four great defenders, two of which will be on an all-defensive team, and one is a potential candidate to win the defensive player of the year.
Last year, the Heat needed that point-of-attack defender that can actually get through screens and stay with their man on the perimeter. That is a plus in itself, but it also lets the team’s two best defenders play to their strengths.
Butler has been the best wing defender this season so far. With two extra-plus defenders in Tucker and Lowry, he is able to roam around, play that free safety, and disrupt the offense with his timely doubles and intercepting the passing lanes.
When it comes to Bam Adebayo, he has been exceptional, especially on individual matchups — players are shooting 16–65 against him.
But it’s not just the two; it’s the whole team — when those two are locking players up, making the right rotations, then it gets infectious and everyone does their role.
#JIMVP
Butler has been playing like an MVP. Through six games, he’s averaging: 25.3 points (career-high), 7.0 rebounds (career-high), 5.5 assists, and 2.8 steals (career-high). He’s attempting the most shot attempts in his career, yet is having a career-high in efficiency. He has a 54.4% effective field goal and a 62.2% true shooting.
Another surprising stat from Butler is his ability to get to the line. We all know the changes the league has made to foul-drawing and we’re already seeing a big drop-off in many other star players. This isn’t the case for Butler, though.
Yes, the numbers are lower than the two previous years, but it’s not a significant drop-off — per 100 possessions, it’s only 2.4 fewer attempts than his career year when he had 13.1 attempts.
Here are some random stats that show how ridiculous he’s been:
- 1.40 points per possession (PPP) on 5.0 possessions in transition
- 1.29 PPP on 2.9 possessions on isolations
- 1.13 PPP on 2.7 possessions on post-ups
- 1.55 PPP on 2.0 possessions on putbacks
He is getting his points in a variety of ways, making him so much more dangerous. And the fact he’s efficient on all kinds of play-types is stupid.
The Lowry Effect
One of the reasons for Butler’s great start is because of a true point guard.
Here’s an interesting stat for you. Per PBP, with Lowry on the floor, the Heat’s seconds per possession is 13.9 and according to InPredictable, that’s good enough for ninth in the league. Take Lowry off the court and that number jumps to 15.0… good for 29th in the league.
That is one of the many things Lowry does for this team.
He wants to push the ball and because of it, the Heat are fourth in fast-break points per game — in comparison to last year, they were 16th.
There have been so many easy buckets all because Lowry does his simple pitch ahead pass, which most often leads to an open dunk.
This is why Adebayo and Butler thrive with Lowry. This is why Butler already has eight dunks in the season.
Per Cleaning the Glass, with him on the court the Heat are plus 19.8!!! And this is all while not being able to put the ball in the basket.
He’s been struggling to get into a rhythm when it comes to scoring — only scoring in double digits once so far. And you’re stupid if you think that is going to last.
Last season, he had seven games in single digits. The year before that he had four. Yes, he is older but I doubt he’s fallen off this bad, this quickly.
Finally, there is one other thing he gives this team that is crucial this season. He gives Butler the ability to sit on the bench without worrying that the lead is going to get blown and he’s going to have to save them.
Per PBP, Lowry and Butler played 102 minutes together and have a net rating of 13.8 — that’s decent. When Butler goes to sit, however, in those 53 minutes without him, the team has a net rating of checks notes one more time 34.8.
The team last year couldn’t win anything when Butler went to the bench. Last year, in 766 minutes without him, the Heat were minus 3.3 — this year they are plus 17.2 in 87 minutes.
All this means is they don’t have to rely on their best players to constantly save them.
In fact, Butler is 28th in minutes per game, then Adebayo 70th, Herro 75th, and Lowry just behind him at 76th — the Heat only have those four players in the top 100 in minutes per game.
Overall Thoughts & Outlook on the Following Week:
This was as good of a week as I’ve ever seen. Aside from not being able to make 3s most of the week, there was no particular negative.
That says a lot when you’re only negative is that a top-3 shooter is in a slump. And yet still have the sixth-highest offensive rating — makes you think how good this team will be once they are an average shooting team.
As for the upcoming week, the schedule looks like:
- 2nd November vs Dallas Mavericks
- 4th November vs Boston Celtics
- 6th November vs Utah Jazz
Not going to lie, this doesn’t look that bad — aside from the last game.
The Mavericks are struggling, and I mean struggling when it comes to their offense — ranking 27th in offensive rating. And who has the best defense in the league? Oh yeah, the Heat.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this win is another convincing win.
The same goes for the Celtics. They have not been good — almost bottom 10 in both offense and defense, blowing leads to the Chicago Bulls, Jayson Tatum going cold, and now even more issues in the locker room.
The only game I’m worried about is the one against the Jazz. They have been great so far and are second to the Heat in net rating. If everyone is healthy, this will be the toughest matchup for the Heat so far into the season.
Originally published at https://www.simplyballin.com.
