The Miami Heat persevered in a low-scoring 99-96 nailbiter over their intrastate rival Orlando Magic Friday evening inside Kaseya Center in Miami, Fla.
After two consecutive Paolo Banchero pull-up mid-range shots over Josh Richardson and Jaime Jaquez Jr., Bam Adebayo’s pull-up jumper on a BLOB followed by two crucial Haywood Highsmith free throws put the Heat ahead by three with eight seconds left.
Banchero’s game-tying 3-pointer clanked on the right side of the rim as the buzzer sounded, helping the Heat secure their second victory over the Magic and 22nd of the season.
Duncan Robinson, starting in place of Tyler Herro, tallied a team-high 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting and 4-of-10 from 3-point range. Bam Adebayo finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists on 8-of-17 shooting.
Though in the best fashion imaginable, Adebayo’s performance was encapsulated by excellent individual and team defense; the same could be said about Haywood Highsmith, who finished with seven points, eight rebounds, one steal and one block.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. posted 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting in 37 minutes. Caleb Martin was the only other Heat double-figure scorer, tallying 11 points in his first game back from injury in 24 minutes.
Banchero tallied a game-high 25 points, in addition to eight rebounds and six assists on 10-of-26 shooting. Mo Wagner had 19 points in 29 minutes off the bench while Chuma Okeke tallied 16 points on 4-of-8 shooting from distance.
Both teams recorded below 111.0 points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning The Glass; the Heat placed in the 37th percentile in offensive efficiency (110.0) while the Magic ranked in the 21st. It marked the fifth Heat win this season with an offensive rating of 110.0 or lower.
Miami will close its four-game homestand Sunday against the Charlotte Hornets, the night that Dwyane Wade’s Hall of Fame ceremony will be commemorated.
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My summary of important comments below, if Spo cares to read:
Sorry, Spo is on a one day vacay here in Palawan, the Philippines to celebrate his new contract $$$ 😆😁😂
When is he coming back, I’m waiting for him, lol!
If Spo contributes for your vacations, its gonna be a long one.
My only complaint about Spo was that I hated the 3-guard lineup and wanted to see either a 2-big lineup, or a lineup with 1-big, 1-guard, and 3-wings. He’s been running both of those more often lately (maybe because he’s running out of guards), so I have no complaints for Spo.
But if you’re passing notes to the team, tell Jimmy, Herro, and Caleb to get their asses out there. The season is half over and they’ve missed half the games. Let’s maybe skip the play-in this season?
Interesting article on Miami’s current situation. “The deal that makes the most sense, on paper, is Lowry’s expiring to Charlotte for Rozier. The Heat desperately need someone who gets to the basket. They rank 29th in restricted area field goal attempts.
Rozier takes an average of 4.6 shots in the restricted area per game, more than any other Heat player (Butler and Adebayo are at 4.3 per game, which is not a lot given their positions) and a lot more than Herro (2.2) and Lowry (0.9).
If the Hornets want to move off the next two years of Rozier’s contract in advance of a needed retooling around LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller this summer, swapping Rozier for Lowry’s expiring would clear more than $50 million off their books over the next two seasons.”
https://allucanheat.com/posts/miami-heat-trade-rumors-failing-two-timeline-plan?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
Ah, if only life was so simple……
I’d be very happy with that, but think they’d want more than that to do the deal.
A pick?
What might work for both teams is a 2028 pick (or another in that period) because other teams believe the Heat will be an average or below team when Butler leaves (I don’t think so, but that’s the expectation). That allows the Heat to keep their upcoming picks to either try to pluck another gem in the mid to late round, or package it in an offseason trade.
The rumors about Miami and the trade deadline are certainly heating up. Dejuante Murray and Terry Rozier seem like the most common names to come up. The Heat are definitely in the market for another ballhandler. We’ll see if anything comes of it
Miami really need to work on two on one-three on two game in fast break points. It wasn’t that bad yesterday, but in previous games it was just awful.
Good game, a perfect example, why you need vets. Every ball went to Bam. It was enough yesterday, it wont be next time.
They need to work on layups too, jovic, jaquez,bam, Duncan, all missed some easy peasy ones.
So did Banchero to win. Shit happens. Despite all the “chip shots” Jaquez missed, he was still 8-16 (50%). Jus sayin.
Agree. Miami’s transition defense on fast tempo offense in general not just fast break points is very poor. Main reason why they loose double digits leads imho. Could it be fatigue, mental breakdown or poor coaching strategy? It has to stop, if they want to go far.
Banchero deserved to miss those shots. On the few plays before when Bam was under the rim trying to put up the game winning shot Banchero held his arm and when Bam flails his arms up and the ball goes out of bounds, not realizing it went off his teammates hand, Banchero was laughing his ass off behind Bam. Boyyyyyyyyyyyy you better recognize! So glad the basketball gods immediately struck him down. Good win being depleted and all. Will keep saying it, Duncan and JJJ have been the MVP’s
Gauntlet run of 12 games done. Started with a loss vs Wolves ended with a W vs Magic for a 7-5 record. Not bad but not quite there yet coz really hoping for wins vs top teams in west (Clipps, Phx, Minn, OKC) if we won two that would be a very good sign for me. But also cant really quite gauge it coz of the injuries. At least we are in a better standing compared last season and in the “eye test” this season seems much more competitive with more improve teams really making strides. Looking at those 12 games, Tyler top scored in most of the wins while most losses it was Bam. Just noticing it…
And sorry just got back from a week of hiatus. Go Heat!
good to see u back manila
Feels good to be back thanks
One thing that really jumped out at me this game is how much the Heat are asking from Bam at this point. No Butler, no Lowry, no Herro. Bam is asked to lead the team in scoring and rebounds, set screens for all the shooters, bang bodies with the biggest dudes on the other team. And after doing that for two hours, we’re going to throw him the ball and ask him to make a jump shot to win the game? This team needs a lead guard that can take the pressure off him. In theory that would be Tyler or Jimmy, but in reality both of those dudes have missed half of the games already this season.
Other than that, not much to say. Jamie is going to have a great career but it looks like he’s hitting the rookie wall, these vets need to start showing up for games. Nice to have Caleb back. What’s up with that dude Kiki on the Magic? Eric Reid said he averages 2 points per game, he dropped like 20 tonight. Fultz looked good too, that dude is fast as hell and plays great defense. Too bad he can’t shoot. Ingles looked good, but he looks weird in a Magic uni. Banchero reminds me of Melo.
Otherwise, nice win a gainst the JV team. if the Heat can beat the shitty Hornets, they finish the homestand 3-1 and make up for the road trip. Just need to see the vets back in uniform. I appreciate that the young guys are getting extra playing time, but I’m getting sick of making excuses for all of these part-time players.
Hmmm, if 19/7/3/1 shooting 50% is hitting the wall, I hope he hits it for the next 44+! 😀
I mean, he’s still a good player. The numbers are still good. But he’s showing signs of fatigue.
Eric Reid keeps mentioning that he’s the only Heat player that has played in every game. Meanwhile, Tyler missed 6 weeks and Jimmy has missed the past 3 weeks or so. Lowry missed the past week. Dru Smith is out for the season. Caleb has barely played.
It’s not mean to be a complaint or criticism, just an observation. They’re riding Jamie and Bam and K-Love hard while all these other guys are out with injuries. I hope once those guys are healthy, the dudes that have been playing get some rest games.
I agree with you about riding some guys too much, with all the injuries spo just been running a 7-8 man rotations. He needs to make it at least a 9 man rotation, to get Cain in the action, and make it a 10 man rotation when love isn’t playing good. Jaime was running the pg position too, it was his first time starting as a pg in the NBA, so that added wrinkle was a minor factor in his fatigue as well. Bam has been doing to much like you said, so hopefully spo can make this a 10 man rotation, so Orlando or Bryant can give bam some rest. Love is old, so he can’t be having crazy minutes, Jovic isn’t a center, locksmith, and Martin aren’t tall enough to bang in the paint, so maybe 5 – 10 mins of Cain, Orlando, or Bryant can help him relax. But anyways most of them are young, and we got the win, so ain’t Mad about it.
A10 man rotation for Spo? Not in this world. I made that case a decade ago in big 3 era and immediate post big 3 era.The most Spo will go is a 9 man rotation. I came to the conclusion that a10 man rotation is too large a manageable number for Spo.
Well he did use a 10 man rotation a few games earlier in the season, but i agree 10 is too much for spo to manage. Thats why I’m saying he should only use a 10 man rotation sparingly until players come back healthy. Like he could mainly use a 9 man rotation with Cain being the 9th man and nights like yesterday where love isn’t playing good, he could insert Bryant, or orob…to take half of love minutes.
10 man rotation in the regular season is great to keep guys fresh and by 1/3 down the road after all star break he can narrow it to 9. Too early to keep 9 man rotation now. This is the main reason why he finds it difficult to give Jovic and co, much needed playing time unless someone sits out through “injury”.
Great comments, especially about Bam carrying too much load. And, maybe Jaime is a little overused too. It’s been a crazy year as we are always missing more players, and better players, than the teams we are facing. In light of that, actually our record is pretty good.
When Spo uses you , he overdoes it until injury sets in. Ask Justin Winstow. I see the same trend not on Bam but also on JJJ. He does not know when to limit usage.
I think Duncan is better starting than coming off the bench. In my opinion, that leaves Herro as the 6th man or together with Lowry as trade bait for other priorities, such as a two-way PG and a two-way PF.
I so strongly agree with this, but 2 issues.
1) a bruised ego. I don’t actually care about that. If a player is not willing to do whatever is best for the team, move on.
2) and I think this is the really important one. If Herro is moved to the bench, it might detract from his trade value. I believe there may be trade discussions in which he would be one of the prime assets. If other teams perceive that moving to the bench is a demotion for him, they may offer less.
If Pat has no intention of trading Herro, he should be moved to the second unit. If he is moved to the bench, it will be for the best of the team and for him. He can still get his 30 minutes, however, it will be mostly against inferior defenders on opponents’ second units. He will also be relieved of most of the responsibility of guarding the other teams’ top scorers. Notice what Sexton is doing on offense in Utah? He’s not as good an offensive player as Herro. Nonetheless, the Heat still can use a reliable, two-way, first team PG and PF, but those are other issues entirely. Riley will need to give up something to fill those needs or just go with what the team has and hope to be competitive for 1-2 rounds of the playoffs. This team is not currently equipped to handle the top tier NBA teams, such as Boston, Minnesota, Denver and OKC.
GO HEAT!!!
I agree. Duncan should start. Ty should be the sixth man. That’s our best team usage.