The Heat won three straight games against the Lakers, the Suns and the Cavs. The Lakers are suspect, obviously. But, the Suns and Cavs are above .500 teams. Miami hasn’t played well at all at home over the last few seasons. They won at home. Phewwww. Tyler Herro continued to play well. He was physical, driving to the basket and taking contact and shooting. Jimmy Butler played solid and setup his teammates while timing his surge. Bam Adebayo constantly gets over five assists each game and is scoring more.
Heat three game notes
The Heat have averaged 125.6 points and allowed 105.67 points per game. What?! Arguably, the primary indicator of Heat wins have been their rebounding. The team outrebounded the Lakers and Cavs and played the Suns to a push. Look at this takeaway here from a Sports Illustrated fan site. Duncan Robinson had 23 points and was defending, playing off the ball and shooting his usual three pointers.
The Heat’s approach as per Coach Spoelstra is to, make the opposition, “feel your presence.” Coach Kenny Atkinson in this writeup here from the Cavs SI.com fansite, said that the Heat’s aggressiveness played a factor in the victory. In my article here on our site, I wrote that the Heat can “play the villain” countering the NBA’s three point entertainment trend (with aggressive play, but embrace it also.)
Dru Smith maligned point guard
Dru Smith is the most maligned player on the Heat. The X-verse (Twitterverse) constantly puts up his offensive stats and roasts him. No one remembers last season when the young man tore his knee apart through no fault of his own. NBA.com highlighted in this article here of Smith’s fluke injury last year in Cleveland. He jumped in a “basketball move,” to get a ball and landed outside of the basketball court. The Cavaliers court is raised above ground to get it closer to the fans.
I will admit I felt for him after he turned over the ball on a “discontinued dribble” call early in the game. Look at this writeup here from ClutchPoints.com where Bam Adebayo credits Smith for the current streak. In the same NBA.com article, Smith got two key offensive rebounds late in the game when Miami was up 109-99. He kept passing to other players but Jimmy Butler passed back to him in the corner and he made a three. Look at this quote from Bam on Smith:
“Dru comes in, he changes the game on that side of the ball,” center Bam Adebayo said. “Obviously H, he does what he does on the defensive end, and that’s all we can ask for ’em. And they’re making plays.”
Cavaliers notes
Evan Mobley did sprain his ankle in the second quarter of the game. Look at this writeup here on the Cavs fan site, Fear the Sword. Afterwards, Donovan Mitchell did take command of the Cavaliers offense and between he and Darius Garland they exhausted the Heat defense. I saw a notable friendly challenge between Bam Adebayo and Donovan Mitchell. Bam stood at the top of the key and was the primary defender on Mitchell. The Cavs were playing their fifth game in eight days and will be a contender going forward, but the Heat won. Onto the next game…
