The Mourning Edition: Miami Heat’s Winning Time Is Coming Early

Welcome to the first dispatch of The Mourning Edition, Zach Buckley’s take on the biggest developments in Heat Nation.

The Miami Heat shouldn’t be breathing this easy.

Not when they’re playing faster than any team in franchise history. Not when they’re incorporating a host of newcomers, including every-night starter Kendrick Nunn and second-team-minutes-per-game leader Tyler Herro. Not when they’re already working around a number of absences, both for injury reasons and…let’s just say otherwise.

That’s enough to tire any team out; yes, even one that bills itself as the Association’s “best-conditioned, hardest-working…” you know the rest.

But the Heat aren’t wheezing in the slightest. They keep running opponents off the floor, usually shortly after the opening tip gets tossed.

They’ve already had their most lopsided quarter in franchise history, when they amassed a 46-14 first-frame advantage over a Rockets team on a 60-win pace. That was the most extreme example of their out-of-the-gate sprints, but their early execution has been so precise, world-class surgeons should take not.

Their first-half net efficiency rating is an NBA-best plus-10.2 points per 100 possessions. No one else is clearing double digits, and only three other teams sit north of plus-7.5. Their assist percentage through the first 24 minutes is an absurd 71.3. To put that number in context, the Golden State Warriors paced the category last season at 66.8.

They have top-six efficiency marks on both ends through the first two frames. No other team can make that claim, and only the Milwaukee Bucks—last season’s wins leader—also land in the top 10 on each end.

Obviously, there are two halves to a game, and once we expand to full-game statistics, Miami goes from the NBA’s best team to one of its best. (If you have to downgrade, that’s the best way to do it, right?) The team’s actual net rating is plus-5.8, which is “only” tied for fifth.

That says two things about this squad.

The first is that it can be really, really good. The Heat are playing connected basketball at both ends—score one for #TheCulture—and basically everyone inside of the rotation seems comfortable in his role and capable of executing it.

“I know what championship basketball looks and feels like. I’ve been a part of some championship teams,” Nunn said. “The culture here is just for that.”

This also means the Heat haven’t been as effective after intermission.

Frankly, they’ve rarely needed to be. They’re steamrolling lesser clubs so early that they’re able to sleepwalk Big Three-style through second halves. Battling complacency and boredom—and perhaps tired legs lately with more injuries popping up—Miami hasn’t always stepped on the necks of opponents after knocking them down.

This group is good enough that its first punches are landing with a haymaker’s force, so even two-quarters-and-change of effort and intensity has been good enough to dispatch bottom feeders. The Heat are one of only six teams with an undefeated record against sub-.500 teams.

Still, Miami can’t count on 24-minute routs always being enough, even if it has fired up a few victory cigars at halftime already.

“NBA basketball games are long,” Erik Spoelstra said. “And you have to play all the way through to the end.”

Spo’s right. It’s a tedious, nit-picky process, but letting off the gas too much can prove problematic.

At the same time, it’s the middle of November. That the Heat are even encountering this problem already is incredible, and the fact it’s perhaps emerging as an early focus says everything you need to know about this start.

Finding a killer instinct is one of the final steps of in building a basketball juggernaut. Miami revamped its roster this summer and has reshuffled the rotation already in-season (multiple times over). To be this far ahead of the learning curve at this stage of the game with this many moving parts is a testament to Pat Riley’s vision, Spo’s guidance, Jimmy Butler’s leadership and the culture-infused cohesiveness this core has created.

If the Heat continue staying a step or two ahead, then the ceiling keeps rising and wildest dreams become expectations, if not eventual realities.