It wasn’t pretty, but the Miami Heat escaped the second night of a back-to-back against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, 106-102.
Miami shot just 44.7 percent from the floor and made just five of its 27 3-point attempts, yet still escaped with a win. Those five threes were the fewest in a single game this season, and it was its fewest for a single win since Jan. 9, 2018.
Kel’el Ware put together another dominant performance, scoring 20 points while grabbing 18 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the season. He shot 7-of-14 from the floor and a season-high 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.
Tyler Herro scored a team-high 24 points in his return, including a stretch where he made nine straight baskets after missing his first four. He had seven rebounds with three steals in 29 minutes as well. It took him a quarter to look in rhythm, but he had a great game, all things considered. Bam Adebayo finished with 17 points, but snatched a steal that led to Herro’s game-winning floater with 41 seconds left.
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When was the last time the Heat were 6 games over .500? Was Kyle Lowry on the team?
when was the last time blazers were any good maurice lucas bill walton days?
i’ve lived here 20 years, the only years they were any good were the peak Dame years. A really fun 5-year stretch, but never even made the finals. Other than that, they’ve been a lottery team every year since the Jailblazers
Lets say, that the team would be complete. How the rotation would look last night?
Starting lineup would be:
-Bam, Ware, Herro, Powell, Mitchell.
After 4-5 minutes, Herro should be replaced by JJJ, and Bam with Wiggins.
-Wiggins, Ware, Powell, Mitchell, JJJ.
Then, Ware should be replaced with Bam, and Mitchell with Dru. Herro replace Powell.
-Wiggins, Bam, Herro, Dru, JJJ. Those finish 1st qt and start second.
After 3-4 minutes, Jovic replace Wiggins, Ware Bam, Pelle JJJ and Simone Herro.
From there, the better man of Ware/Jovic and Bam finish in frontcourt, and Mitchell at point. Two of the best of Herro, Powell, Wiggins or JJJ finish the qt.
3th should be started again with starting lineup, with JJJ and Wiggins at 6th and 7th man.
For 8 and 9 th. man in rotation the best out of group of Pelle, Jovic, Simone, Dru should play.
The game should finish Powell, Herro and Bam, and two out of the rest eight players. , which shows most during game.
This is a 11 man rotation, which leave Johnson and KJ out, waiting for they chance.
Its really hard to find place for that many players.
There is 240 minutes available.
Bam, Herro, Powell, should play around 30 minutes, and Mitchell and Dru all the point guard minutes.
102 minutes left, which should go 25 average each to Ware, Wiggins and JJJ. 27 minutes should be shared between Pelle, Simone, Nico. Brutal.
The other possible way is of course, to rest 1-2 players each night.
the better man ware/jovic stopped reading after that.
Well, ware will have a bad game sooner or later. Nico is an alternative
with length like that just his presence will be enough.spobot just had to give him steady pt.his ceiling is borderline wembyish
Everyone has said what I would have said. Great to get a win, especially when shooting like poop from 3.
Doing this while always missing an AS or two has been impressive. It shows the system they are playing in has turned everyone in to legit contributors, and if someone goes in to a funk, we have someone else ready to roll.
12-6, well done. The good times are back. Ty had a very positive return, made some clutch baskets. I am still a little amazed how improved Ware and Jaquez are, but they prove it night after night. I still thought Pelle did quite well starting, always does a lot of little things right. Davion also had his usual solid performance, coming up with some timely baskets. I think Davion has a bit of a knack for scoring when we need to stop a run by the other team.
I can see an ideal line up with Ty coming off the bench when Norm returns, giving us instant offense. It is true that there is a drop off on the defensive side around him, but he is surely a net positive. And I still like Wiggins in too, as the starter, and don’t want to trade him. And I think Keshad is filling his role as a backup reasonably well. So, I think otherwise, the use of Ware and Bam should be adjusted as needed, until we get another backup big man. Sometimes they play together, sometimes Ware subs. And Norm and Ty can be used together if that gives us an advantage later in games. Also, one of Davion or Dru need to be in most of the time to steady the ship. Dru and Simone had off nights last night but they are both good players and will bounce back more often than not.
As 2qbn says, we need them all, even if we are lucky enough to be fully healthy, which is rare these days. But, some nights a player or two won’t be able to buy a bucket and if you have enough good players, another will pick up the slack.
Thats my assessment of how to best use our players. We have a lot of good ones now. It’s fun and exciting. Go Heat!
I don’t think Herro will play off the bench although I agree it would probably be best for the team. And I couldn’t agree more about Ware and Jaquez. They both are the real deal. Before the season, SM (and others) projected that if 2 of our returning players got to the next level, this could be a competitive team. It seems we got that and more when considering Davion, Dru, and Keshad. Jury is still out on Jovic, but there is plenty of time to see if he comes out of his funk. As noted, I’m not suggesting a championship or even getting to the ECF. But anything is possible. The team is better, that was my hope. Anything more will be pure gravy.
I assume Spo will see some things differently. I trust and appreciate his judgement more and more lately. It’s complicated to mesh all these players and optimize their abilities. But, the beauty of our depth is we can literally run and run and grind some teams, even ones with superstars in their line-up, down to size. One of the fun things about our team is the fitness and stamina you need to match our style. We have a lot of really good players, no great ones. But few teams have as many really good players as us.
Excellent assesment, I fully agree with your post.
Thanks.
The bricks night. And still a win. I take it.
Good to see Herro back. He was pretty good, especially in defense (comparing with his usual one). He didnt took much 3p, which is good. He also is not used to pass the ball as others. That will take some time.
The first impression is positive, he can play with this team without hurting it, and he will probably contribute to the team success.
We could use any of Powell, Wiggins and Jovic on such night. If any of them could play an average game, this could be an easy win.
Second place Toronto beat third place Cleveland 110-95. At 13-5, the Raptors are 2.5 games behind first place (15-2) Detroit. With Cleveland’s loss and Miami’s win over Dallas, the Heat (12-6) has moved into second place, 0.5 game ahead of Cleveland, 1.0 game behind Toronto and 3.5 games behind Detroit.
I know you meant third place. And, while it is very early and things can change pretty quickly, being in third place at this point, is still impressive.
Oops. Correct, third place. At the beginning of the season, I indicated the Heat’s first 23 games were a gauntlet that included several playoff teams and only a few non-playoff teams. I believed that if the team finished below .500, they were probably looking at another play-in year (or worse) and if they finished above .500 they were probably looking at a playoff team (1-6 place).
After 18 games, Miami is 12-6 (66.7 winning percentage). The five remaining games to reach 23 are: 8-10 Milwaukee (without Giannis), 15-2 Detroit, 5-12 Clippers, 5-14 Dallas, and 9-8 Orlando. If Miami wins 3 of the 5 games, it will have a record of 15-8 (65.2 winning percentage) after 23 games.
After enduring the NBA’s 4th most difficult early season schedule, Miami will have the third easiest schedule the rest of the season. If the Heat keeps playing winning basketball the way it has been, a top 4 finish appears very possible.
Herro, Powell, Jaquez, Bam and Ware on the court at the same time sure would be very hard to guard…especially when 4 out of 5 can shoot the 3 and all five can attack the paint. Talk about a nightmare? Heat would still have Mitchell, Smith, Larsson, Fontecchio and Johnson coming off the bench.
Jovic can be included with that group of reserves once he gets his head and game together. He has to learn how to be effective playing a specific role within the team’s current run & gun system. He won’t get much playing time until that adjustment is made. The Heat can’t afford to have a player dragging the team down because he hasn’t figured out what he is supposed to do. The lights went on for Ware and Jaquez. They figured out their roles. Jovic also needs for the light to go on. I think he would benefit greatly by seeing a sports therapist AND by going down to Sioux Falls for playing time and confidence building.
Okay, it probably shouldn’t have been this close. And we are obviously better when Powell is playing. He has been our best player so far. We have played close games against lesser teams with and without Powell. But the contributions from almost everyone else have been critical to the team’s success. It is a team game after all and they are playing fast and fun team ball. Herro showed why he is valuable. I am looking forward to the Powell/Herro combo to see if they can complement each other. We still have more than 75% of the season to go, but so far, so good.
The team played a sloppy game against a crappy team in the 3rd game in 4 nights. I’m just glad they won. I can see Herro and Powell being hard to guard individually and being able to spread the floor for the other players. A starting unit of Davion, Herro, Powell, Bam and Ware seems like it could work. In addition, Smith, Larsson, Wiggins, Jaquez, Fontecchio and Johnson could be very effective off the bench.
P.S. Any time Heat can win a game despite shooting just 18.5% from 3 point range, I’ll take it. Good teams find ways to win even when everyone is tired or shots aren’t falling.