While the Miami Heat still secured a 110-96 win over the Golden State Warriors (recap here) on Wednesday, it didn’t come easy.
After jumping out to a 20-4 lead against the shorthanded Warriors — missing Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga — Golden State battled back and made it a tightly contested game, leading after three quarters. Miami eventually pulled away, courtesy of Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell scoring 26 of the team’s final 30 minutes.
After the game, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra talked about how much better the team’s second half was relative to the first half, even if the score didn’t immediately reflect it.
“I think it’s human nature,” Spoelstra said. “We jumped out to an early lead and then it probably creeps in that it’s going to be an easy game — that you’re looking for a knockout punch early.
“That’s not the right approach that you want to wear on him. In the second half, I thought our efforts were much better. That doesn’t guarantee it’s going to be a 20-point lead. At the end, eventually, I think we wore on them.”
Despite being in the middle of the pack in efficiency, Miami has been one of the league’s most potent offenses. They lead the NBA in pace, are third in scoring while being No. 4 in 3-point percentage.
Despite the outcome, Spoelstra was less-than-pleased with the team’s process in the first half, hoping this team learns the lessons of what not to do while playing fast.
“That’s one of the first times this season that I think we had poor shot selection in the first half,” he said. “I loved the way we were playing fast, but it kind of fed into some 1-on-4, some early jacks. We didn’t have our normal paint attacks, and those usually come from more intention — and then the ball moves. That was much better in the second half, and even if we’re weren’t making shots, it looked a little more like us.
“Teams will go through that. And it was probably frustrating. And I hope the guys view that as frustrating, scoring 48 points, not passing the ball, not playing our game and then getting a win out of it, so we can learn that lesson. We’ll need it on this road-trip.”
Miami’s second half splits weren’t much better than the first half. It shot just 39.1 percent in the first half compared to 42.0 percent over the final 24 minutes. The Heat’s decision-making was better, cutting the turnovers nearly in half (9-to-5).
Friday will begin a two-game road-trip against the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers before returning home on Monday. Friday’s game against Chicago will be their final Emirates Cup group stage game, tipping off at 8:00 p.m. EST.
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This team needs to learn how not to take their feet off the gas when they get a lead. They need to develop a “take no prisoners/killer” instinct.