Following a devastating loss in the home opener earlier this week, the Miami Heat respond with a road win against the Charlotte Hornets, 114-106. Jimmy Butler bounces back from his 3-point disappointment to lead the Heat with a near trip-double performance on route to the victory. This included some classic Butler fourth quarter heroics, where the superstar stepped up with big plays to close out the Hornets.
Butler got help from the rest of the core four, as Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier and Bam Adebayo all took turns with clutch plays of their own. Herro finished with an efficient 22 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 33 minutes. It was a terrific all-around outing from the Heat’s combo guard, as he was he getting to all his spots offensively.
He showcased his inside and outside scoring game and did a great job at taking what the defense was giving him. Herro filled in the gaps and got high quality looks, especially in the catch-and-shoot.
In Rozier’s homecoming he impressed with his own pure offensive skillset. He finished with 19 points and 5 rebounds on 7/12 shooting, including a 3-points dagger to close it out in front of his former squad.
Bam Adebayo was quiet offensively and missed some bunnies that he usually gets to fall. The big man had some good looks from 3-points range, but couldn’t connect. His shooting from beyond the arc was an emphasis Adebayo had on his development this summer. Still, he contributed a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double to go along with elite defense.
Outside of the core four, the Heat got impactful contributions from Nikola Jovic and Alec Burks. Jovic was able to stuff the stat sheet and do a little bit of everything, as Burks was a flame thrower off the bench going 3/4 from 3-pointers. It was his regular season Heat debut, and the veteran sharpshooter did not disappoint. Getting production like that in spurts from the backup point guard position could be a luxury to coach Erik Spoelstra’s lineups.
Miami did a great job at making it tough on LaMelo Ball, who dropped 27 points but only made 9/22 from the field, including an abysmal 2/10 from deep. Outside of Ball and his 8 rebounds and 7 assists, the Hornets didn’t get much of impactful performances else where from their roster.
Charlotte lost the turnover battle 17-13, which led to easy offense in transition for the Heat. They also shot inefficiently as a team from 3-pointers, going just 32% compared to Miami’s 41%. The biggest statistical advantage came from the ball movement, as the Heat tallied 33 assists as team to the Hornet’s 20.
Next up comes Dwyane Wade’s iconic statue unveiling outside of Kaseya Center Sunday afternoon at 5:00 PM EST, airing on NBA TV. Miami will honor the legendary Wade during Monday’s game at home against the Detroit Pistons.
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We shouldn’t lose this one and we didn’t, which is a good thing.
It seems that Bam/Jimmy pairing is a problem at the moment, so as temporary solution was playing Jimmy against Hornets second unit, which got him going.
Bam will need some of those minutes too to get some confidence.
Jovic, Herro and Burks seem to be the only players which are doing what suppose to do. Al the rest are out of sync at the moment.
At the end, a good win. Next game against quality opponent will tell exactly where we are.
At risk of stating the obvious, Eric Spolestra knows a lot more about basketball than I do.
I look at this team and think that they should slide Jimmy over to the 2-guard, bring in JJJ or Highsmith as a starter, and play bigger.
But they finished the game with a new version of my least favorite lineup: Jimmy, Bam, and three guards.
The Heat got the win, and all three guards made big shots down the stretch, so I guess it worked for tonight. But I really don’t understand why Spo loves these 3-guard closing lineups so much.
5 best players jim bam ty terry jjj should close games.burks looking good so far.wares where got me scratching my head.jovics best game ever was happy to see his total game on display in a positive way.dunc not sure why hes out there contract must be it.dru gives us great defensive minutes.highsmith dnp why.caught a break with brandon miller out coby martin the worse of the martin twins.lemelo ball too much flash too many long shots .
Tyler Jimmy Highsmith Jovic Bam? Terry gets to go nuclear in the second unit with all his dribbling and shake and bake?
I gotta say in the starting lineup as it is Terry’s not getting that much facilitating mileage because the load is being shared but he is bringing it up frequently
I was glad to see Jimmy and the team come around after a slow start. The team was playing at a very slow pace until Jaquez came in. Then the pace picked up. Overall, the team looked a little shaky at times against a not-so-good team. We got outrebounded again (46-43) by the worst rebounding team in the league last year.
Things need to be fixed if the Heat expect to compete with the top half of the league’s teams. Our record against winning teams last year was dismal. That must also improve. There is little time for Miami to figure things out. Speaking of winning teams, the Magic team that blew the Heat out of the gym on Wednesday night lost by 13 to Memphis. After the Washington game on Monday, Miami has 12 games in 27 days. Ten of the games will be against playoff teams.
We should be able to assess where we are at by then…one way or another.
Agreed, but I’m just happy to get in the win column and have jimmy doing his thing. A step in the right direction. You make a good point about the upcoming slate though, even though it’s going to be difficult and dense we will know where we stand more or less by the end of it.
W! The Butler showed up.
Good thing DWade’s statue unveiling is not on a game day. We all know what happens if there’s an important Heat event put on a Heat game 😜
Now I know. Jimmy sabotaged Riley at his day. (no contract, no fun).
From now on Jimmy will be PO Jimmy only.
Just finished watching the game late, it was a very good game, and glad we won. Very good bounce back game from Jimmy buckets, we should of beat hornets by more if Jimmy didn’t miss so many ft’s lol. Boy wonder has definitely improved and I like the fact that he’s slashing in the paint more and hit a clutch 3. Scary Terry also had a dagger 3 that’s probably still haunting the hornets as welcome back gift. Burks seems a good pickup so far, very efficient. Also like the fact that jovic game is progressing at a decent pace, just needs more experience. Lastly just hoping that locksmith will get more minutes.