After beating the New Orleans Pelicans in their first game, Jimmy Butler proclaimed that the Heat was the better team and that they would beat the Pelicans the next time they faced each other. Unfortunately, Butler and the Heat failed to live up to those words and were soundly defeated by New Orleans, 111-88, Friday night at the Kaseya Center.
The Miami Heat got off to one of their best starts of the season thanks to a strong defensive effort and a strong start from Nikola Jovic who scored eight points in the first quarter. After taking a 14-2 lead, the Pelicans decided to play zone and forced Miami to rely on the three as their sole offensive source.
Miami took 15 threes in the first quarter and made only two, and in the blink of an eye the Heat found themselves up 21-20 after one. Without Tyler Herro or Duncan Robinson, the Pelicans lived with every Heat player hoisting three-pointers because there was no real threat duplicating Herro and Robinson’s shooting.
The Heat were able to win games without Herro because they had Robinson who is effective in many of the actions that Miami runs such as dribbling, backdoor cuts, and getting to the rim when overplayed. But with those two players out, the DHOs were completely obliterated and the offense resulted in a drive-and-kick machine with New Orleans packing the paint.
Although New Orleans was without Brandon Ingram and had a quiet performance from Zion Williamson who finished with just four points on seven shots, the Pelicans had floor spacers such as CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy who hurt Miami at beyond the arc. As a team, the Pelicans made 18 threes and shot 50 percent from downtown, compared to 27.7 percent as the Heat shot from deep and made just 13.
With Robinson and Herro out, the Heat faced Cole Swider, who shot well and made four triples. But Swider is still raw and is nowhere near ready to run the plays that Miami puts Herro and Robinson in and puts the defense on their heels.
Until one of Herro and Robinson returns, many teams will continue to make sure Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler see multiple bodies in the paint every time they look to attack and will clutter any on-screen action performed with Adebayo.
Unless the Heat can get a good collective shooting output from a multitude of players or big performances from Butler and Adebayo, Miami will have to rely on getting easy buckets through good defense and finding mismatches in transitions with their two best spacers on the floor. .
