Five Takeaways from Heat’s Win Over Thunder

It wasn’t as easy as it looked early on, but the Heat escape Oklahoma City with a win behind Tyler Herro’s big night.

Some takeaways…

#1: Tyler Herro comes out on fire, but it didn’t just happen naturally.

Tyler Herro walked into the locker room at halftime with 20 points and 6 made threes. But it just wasn’t that simple. To begin the game, he was seeing two defenders on every single screen. Basically the game-plan from the playoffs. He began just making the pocket pass and going isolation a bit more as counters, but then Victor Oladipo entered. He took over ball-handling duties as Herro shifted to spot-up shooting mode. That’s when the scoring began to get rolling a bit. The reason this is so important is because this isn’t how he generated all 6 triples, but he did do it for the first 4. Why is that important? After knocking down 4 threes, it doesn’t matter the coverage they’re putting on him in an action. Now he’s in a rhythm and they have to adjust to him. It all falls from this one element, but the quick and timely adjustment was a cool thing to see.

#3: Victor Oladipo’s defensive nature didn’t go anywhere.

Victor Oladipo has been ramping back up over this past week, generating some buckets from time to time off the driblle and on spot-ups, but that hasn’t been the thing that has stood out most. It’s the defense, to nobody’s surprise. In his first game back, Erik Spoelstra had him pressing at the top of a 2-2-1 press on his opening possession, which tells you where he is at this stage. But looking at just tonight, he completely threw Shai and company out of a rhythm. Haywood Highsmith was getting some run, which meant they were just switching back and forth on Shai’s ball screens. Then the zone adjustment came, as he hit passing lanes very well with 3 first half steals. The biggest point is his lateral quickness is still there, since he can position himself perfectly to cut guys off on drives and rolls. Now that’s a natural ability.

#3: Heat’s three-point shooting finally having a moment early, but then…

Well, as I’ve talked about continuously on these takeaway pieces, the Heat have been needing a three-point shooting night. And I’m not talking about Herro in this topic, it’s more about the role players. Duncan Robinson got some minutes tonight, and they were actually running actions we’re familiar with. Screening away for him to shoot to the top of the key, some pick and roll stuff, etc. Caleb Martin and Oladipo each added in a bit, but Kyle Lowry deserves some credit for his spot-up shooting as well. There’s a theme here with the shooting, which pretty much is the catch and shoot spam. And what co-aligns with spot-up spams? Paint touches and strong drives. Do you know what the Heat were not generating in the second half? Paint touches and strong drives. (Which I’ll get into next)

#4: The constant takeaway: blowing leads.

As the Heat held a 21 point lead in the first half, I tweeted out: who’s taking the final shot in the clutch tonight? While it seems like a joke, it most definitely isn’t when watching this Heat team. Once they find something that works, they get extremely complacent. For example, as I explained before, the Heat’s three point shooting profile was quite simple. But after shooting over 50% on 16 made threes over 24 minutes, they seemed to get too comfortable. Those paint touches and sprays turned into perimeter swings and pull-ups. Then back on the other end, there’s just so much slippage from time to time at the point of attack. If they aren’t pulling up Bam’s guy to come screen, it’s an easy paint touch for Shai and others. This is one of the many trends the Heat have acquired along the way this season, and this may be the very worst one.

#5: Our locked in 5th takeaway: a walk down clutch time.

Down 7 with four minutes to go, after possessing that 21 point lead early on, the Heat were just searching for some type of offensive base. Oh yeah, and maybe some type of point of attack defense. Herro walks the ball down the floor, hitting yet another three around the screen, seeming to be the Heat’s one area of comfort in the half-court. Shortly after a timeout, Lowry sticks a deep 3 to cut the lead down to two, but Josh Giddey matched it on the other end as Miami continued to help off him. Now a 5 point game again, Oladipo gets out on the break, converted on a tough lay-up in traffic. Three point game, a Lowry paint touch kicks it to Herro for an open 3. Back to the original gameplan that was working. After another tough transition lay by Oladipo, which actually was an and-1, the Heat took the lead by 2. Under a minute to go, the Heat look to close it out a bit, and Lowry holds the ball for 24 seconds then shoots a step back three off the rim. Yeah, talk about bad process. To follow up on that isolation possession, Herro hits a fading mid-range to give the Heat a 2 point lead with 4 seconds left. Well then.