The Miami Heat snapped their four-game losing streak Friday night against the Toronto Raptors, their first game back from the All-Star break. It did take overtime, but the Heat moved back to two games below .500.
The Heat was led by Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins–appearing in his third game with his new team–combining to score 72 of the team’s 120 points, including all 13 of the team’s points in overtime.
However, while this will be completely unrecognized in the grand scheme of things, head coach Erik Spoelstra unearthed an intriguing bench duo after Adebayo ran into foul trouble midway through the third quarter.
Kyle Anderson, operating as a small-ball big, and Duncan Robinson showed immediate chemistry:
Adebayo picked up three third-quarter fouls in a span of 3:01, including a reach on a stunt near the elbow with 6:20 left in the frame, his fourth foul of the game.
Robinson immediately checked in for Adebayo, leaving Kel’el Ware as the lone big on the floor. The 7-foot rookie eventually checked out for Anderson with 5:06 in the quarter.
Anderson, coming off a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double against the Dallas Mavericks more than a week prior, had not played in the game up to that point; he Spoelstra’s 10th man off the bench.
And you could tell there was immediate chemistry between Anderson, operating as the team’s small-ball big in the mid-to-high post, and Robinson, who was freeing himself as a cutter and screener:
Robinson and Tyler Herro command the most off-ball gravity for the Heat. In the first clip, Anderson caught a SLOB pass with Robinson set to come off a Herro pin-down on the weak side. With Gradey Dick top-locking Robinson without any weak side help, Anderson located the cutting sharpshooter–leading to a goaltend.
In the second clip, Anderson gets a mid-post touch with Robinson setting a flare for Herro. But Robinson was able to cut in front of Gradey’s face for the foul. The third clip was perhaps my favorite play of them all. Robinson’s excellent at instinctually cutting into open space when he’s overplayed. Rookie Ja’Kobe Walter tries to put himself between Robinson and Anderson so the impending DHO isn’t executed, though the 30-year-old performs a well-timed cut with Herro’s corner spacing occupying Ochai Agbaji (zero weakside help), leading to the wide-open layup. A pitch-perfect pass from Anderson, too.
The fourth clip was another mid-post touch from Anderson. Though the Heat performed the split-action (hey, Golden State!) between Robinson and Nikola Jovic. A miscommunication on the screen coverage from Jonathan Mogbo and Immanuel Quickley leads to a wide-open cutting Duncan Robinson. Kyle Anderson dished yet another beautiful assist, his third-and-final dime of the evening.
Kyle Anderson finished with two points, two rebounds and three assists in 11 minutes. In eight minutes with Robinson, their lineups scored 18 points (including eight on these sequences) in 16 possessions, outscoring Toronto by five points.
While their newfound chemistry wasn’t the difference between winning and losing, the 6-foot-9 veteran forward continued to show why he’s an incredibly smart and savvy wing who can be deployed and be impactful in certain situations. And while Duncan Robinson’s bench minutes haven’t always been perfect, he’s more than just a shooter–continuing to leverage his gravity into paint touches and rim finishes, which has been difficult for the Miami Heat to consistently generate this season.
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