Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat Survive Play-In Tournament

Jimmy Butler said at the postgame presser that Max Strus “made himself a lot of money [Friday].” He wasn’t exaggerating. Mad Max hit Miami’s opening four baskets because the Bulls were quick to overhelp on Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. #31 would finish the game with 31 on his scorecard to help push Miami to round one of the Playoffs.

Butler beat Chicago on rolls to the basket, transition attacks, and baseline cuts for nine points through the first quarter.

The Heat had an opposite start on Friday to Tuesday’s Play-in loss at home against Atlanta. Versus the Hawks, the hosts allowed its rivals to convert 56% of its tries in the first quarter. Matched up with Chicago, the Heat’s man-to-man coverage was disruptive and held the visitors to 38.9% through 12 minutes.

Herro logged every second of quarter two and contributed six points, three dimes and three rebounds. He got into the lane in front of the drop coverage to hit a pair of floaters.

At intermission, Miami was up 49-45, beating Chicago on the boards by nine and doubling the Bulls’ free throw attempts. Tuesday versus the Hawks, the Heat gave up 26 second-chance points. Through the first half Friday, the hosts had only allowed two of those to Nikola Vucevic.

Defensively, it shut down Zach LaVine by closing out to his jumper on time, switching length on him at the perimeter and clogging the paint. In this period, he was held to three out of 10 makes, and the Heat even forced seven consecutive misses.

In the third quarter, Miami only made six field goals out of 26 and would miss its last seven of the period. Adebayo bricked all four of his attempts here, but three can be excused because they came after Patrick Beverly kicked him in the back of the head.

Adebayo momentarily lost his dribble in the paint, but at this point Beverly was airborne, and his patella came crashing into #13’s snook. It was contact above the shoulders. It should have been called a flagrant-1, at least, because of where the hit occurred and how it knocked Adebayo to the fetal position.

The referees, Josh Tiven, Tony Brothers and Karl Lane, took a moment to check it out, but they were too brainless to crack down on Beverly. Instead, they called a common foul. Next time it might take a player losing consciousness from a blow to the head before these blind mice make the right call.

Adebayo could have been concussed, and TNT’s Brian Anderson rambled on, “That was ruled as a common foul, by the way. Nothing excessive here from Beverly. I think he’s going for a block…”

In quarter four, Miami switched up coverages using the 2-3 zone plus man-to-man. Chicago attacked mainly from the outside, taking six of 20 paint shots in this frame.

In the final period, the Heat’s offense burned the Bulls, making 62.5% of its shots, plus 13 free throws. Strus added eight more points in the fourth. When Butler attacked from the right side, Strus curled into the paint from the left for a lay-in after the catch. Again, when four black jerseys surrounded JB in the mid-post, Strus was hit with the pass and canned a right-wing trifecta.

With under a minute to go, Caruso fouled Strus on a 3-point corner shot while Miami was up five points. Strus buried each freebie to extend the game to at least three possessions. The Heat defeated the Bulls 102-91.

The win over Chicago now puts Miami in eighth place for a rematch of the 2021 quarter-final with the Bucks. The group will not practice Saturday ahead of Game 1 Sunday.