Two Heat triple-doubles, a list of career nights. Takeaways from Heat’s crazy overtime win
It looked like the Heat was about to lose its first home game of the season.
Down by six points with 59.9 seconds to play, the Heat scored the final six points of regulation to force overtime on its way to a 135-121 comeback win over the Hawks on Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami (18-6) improved to 11-0 at home this season.
The Heat dominated overtime, scoring the first 16 points and outscoring the Hawks 18-4 in the extra period. Miami scored 24 of the final 28 of the game between regulation and overtime.
The Heat is now 4-0 in overtime games this season, and has outscored its opponents by a combined score of 54-19 in those extra periods.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Hawks (6-18) ...
1. Heat center Bam Adebayo and wing Jimmy Butler did it all ... again.
Adebayo is quickly turning into one of the most well-rounded big men in the NBA. The 22-year-old finished Tuesday’s victory with 30 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for the first triple-double of his NBA career. The 30 points and 11 assists represent career-highs for Adebayo.
“He puts in the time, and now again his confidence and esteem is starting to match the work and things he has been doing within these walls that everybody else is seeing,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But now he’s doing it in clutch situations. That’s why I don’t want to put a ceiling on him either.
“He has a lot on his plate, playing more minutes than he has ever played before. I just want him to embrace all of these different challenges and not get comfortable, which he doesn’t have that kind of mentality.”
Butler finished with 20 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists for his third triple-double of the season and the seventh triple-double of his NBA career. The 18 rebounds represent a career-high for Butler.
It marked the first time in franchise history that two Heat players have recorded a triple-double in the same game.
“Jimmy and I feed off of each other,” Adebayo said. “He matches my intensity and my standards, and myself vice versa. I feel like we really lock in and lead this club in the right way.”
The number from Adebayo’s stat line that sticks out is the career-high 11 assists. But high-assist games are nothing new for Adebayo, who is averaging 4.4 assists this season — third-most among centers behind only Denver’s Nikola Jokic (6.3) and Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns (4.5).
Only three NBA players are averaging at least 14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block this season: reigning MVP and Bucks All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Towns and Adebayo.
As for Butler, he just continues to put together all-around performances for the Heat. The four-time All-Star is averaging 20.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, seven assists and 2.1 steals this season. Butler has also posted a team-best plus/minus of plus-179, which ranks eighth-best in the league.
2. This time, the rookie who led the Heat was guard Kendrick Nunn.
After first-round pick Tyler Herro led the Heat with 27 points in Sunday’s win over the Bulls, Nunn scored a career-high 36 points on 14-of-26 shooting Tuesday against the Hawks. He fell just one short of the Heat’s rookie record for point scored in a game (a 37-point performance by Sherman Douglas on April 12, 1990).
Nunn’s previous career-high in points was 28, which also came against the Hawks on Oct. 31.
Nunn, an undrafted rookie, is the ninth different Heat rookie in franchise history to score 30 points or more in a game. Also on that list: Dwyane Wade (three times), Rony Seikaly, Khalid Reeves, Grant Long (two times), Kevin Edwards, Douglas (three times), Sasha Danilovic and Caron Butler.
As for Herro, he followed up his 27-point performance with a scoreless outing Tuesday. He was 0 of 6 from the field against the Hawks.
3. It wasn’t just Adebayo, Butler and Nunn, though. Heat second-year forward Duncan Robinson also had a memorable night.
Robinson scored a career-high 34 points on 10-of-14 shooting on threes. Robinson’s 10 made threes matched the team’s single-game franchise record previously set by Mario Chalmers on Jan. 12, 2013 and Brian Shaw on April 8, 1993.
Robinson, who went undrafted before the Heat signed him in the summer of 2018, made nine threes in a game earlier this season in a win over the Cavaliers on Nov. 20.
“It seems like everybody has been barking at him to try to make 10 in a game,” Spoelstra said. “It just happened when we needed it in clutch situations. Many of them tonight were full speed, high degree of difficulty. Those are spectacularly difficult shots, the kind of shots you have to work on all the time. And he does, he’s tireless.”
The 25-year-old Robinson has made a team-high 75 threes and is shooting them at a super-efficient 44.9 percent clip this season. Among the nine players who have made 75 or more threes this season, Robinson’s three-point shooting percentage ranks second behind only Washington’s Davis Bertans (46.5 percent).
“I believe in myself,” Robinson said. “When you see your hard work come out, that also helps with one’s confidence. This staff has really pushed me in the past year-and-a-half or whatever it has been. I have put a lot of effort into that growth.”
Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. also deserves credit for his defense against Hawks star guard Trae Young. Jones served as Young’s primary defender for most of the second half, and Young was limited to just two points on 1-of-5 shooting between the fourth quarter and overtime.
Young finished with 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting from the field and 3-of-11 shooting on threes.
4. The Heat is taking care of business against teams it should beat, which was not exactly the case last season.
With Tuesday’s win over the Hawks, the Heat improved to a perfect 10-0 this season against teams with a losing record. That’s quite the improvement from last season, when Miami was 21-15 against sub-.500 teams.
Part of that has to do with the Heat’s success against the Hawks. Miami is already 3-0 against Atlanta this season, after losing three of its four matchups against the struggling Hawks last season.
The Heat is also a perfect 11-0 at home this season. That’s the best home start in franchise history. This comes after Miami posted an underwhelming 19-22 record at AmericanAirlines Arena last season.
The Heat has simply been dominant at home, defeating teams by an average margin of 15.7 points at AmericanAirlines Arena this season.
“The scary part about it is I think everybody in this locker room has the confidence that they’re the best player on the floor at any given time,” Butler said. “Not speaking of myself, but when Duncan shoots, he says he’s the best shooter on the floor. When you have guys that think like that, nothing is ever over. I’ll tell you that.”
The Heat faces one of its toughest home tests of the season Friday against LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers (21-3).
“You can tell fans are definitely in the game,” Butler said of the environment at AmericanAirlines Arena. “It helps to win, let’s not overlook that. They help us. They get us going and let us know what we’re supposed to be out there doing. If they’re not, Spo definitely is. It’s becoming a hard place to play here.”
Also worth noting, the Heat was without guards Goran Dragic (strained groin), Dion Waiters (sick), guard/forward Justise Winslow (lower back) and forward James Johnson (sick) Tuesday against the Hawks.
5. Tuesday marked Vince Carter’s 1,500th career NBA regular-season game.
The Hawks forward joined Robert Parish (1,611), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,560), Dirk Nowitzki (1,522) and John Stockton (1,504) as the only players in league history to appear in 1,500 or more NBA games.
Carter, who is playing in his NBA-record 22nd season, said he’ll retire at the end of this season. When Carter entered Tuesday’s game, very likely his final one at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Heat ran a video tribute for him and there was an ovation from the crowd.
The 42-year-old Carter sill has game left in him, too, as he finished with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting on threes in 26 minutes. He entered averaging 5.6 points and 1.9 rebounds this season.
“You have to be a big time professional,” Spoelstra said of Carter’s longevity. “You have to commit to your craft and to your body in a way that most professionals aren’t willing to do. You have to go to great lengths to keep yourself young in a young league. That just takes a great deal of work. At some point, usually in your second decade, players just say it’s not worth it. Then you have to continue to reinvent yourself.”
