Takeaways, notes, reaction from Heat’s road win over Magic. And why this one was important
With just two wins in its previous seven games away from home, the Miami Heat has been searching for road success.
The Heat (33-15) got a taste of some Saturday, with a 102-89 win over the Orlando Magic (21-28) at Amway Center. Miami improved to 12-12 on the road this season.
Jimmy Butler led the Heat with a team-high 24 points, to go with three rebounds and three assists. Center Meyers Leonard contributed 18 points and 14 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
The Heat has won two of its three matchups against the Magic this season, with their final meeting of the season coming March 4 in Miami. The Heat hasn’t won its season series against the Magic since the 2015-16 season.
Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Magic ...
1. The past two months have been full of defensive issues for Miami. But the Heat is hoping February is the end of that two-month trend, and Saturday was a solid start.
The Heat limited the Magic to 89 points on 39.8 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-33 shooting on threes.
Miami’s defense tightened in the second half, holding the Magic to 40 points on 33.3 percent shooting and 3-of-15 shooting on threes over the final two quarters.
“I think we guarded the way we’re capable of,” Butler said. “Ball in the air, ball on the floor, we got the majority of those. So it put us in a good position.”
The Heat allowed the Magic to score at a pace of 97.8 points per 100 possessions, which is Miami’s best single-game defensive rating since holding the Raptors to 76 points on Jan. 2.
Over the months of December and January, the Heat posted the league’s 20th-best defensive rating (allowing 111.3 points per 100 possessions) during a 29-game span. Heat coaches and players know that needs to improve to have any success in the playoffs.
2. Rookie guard Kendrick Nunn was back in the Heat’s starting lineup Saturday after missing the previous three games with bilateral Achilles soreness. That meant Dion Waiters found himself back outside of the rotation.
Nunn played limited minutes in his return, finishing with six points and one assist in 17 minutes.
“It was good to have him out there,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of Nunn. “He’s obviously a threat. You have to guard him and he can create off the dribble, another guy that now puts pressure on the defense. This was good. I’m encouraged by that.”
Nunn said he was never too concerned about his Achilles injury, adding that he missed time as “a precaution.”
“It wasn’t a bad injury or anything like that. Just a little soreness,” Nunn said. “Just had to take care of it. Ice and things like that. Stay on top of it, so it feels better now.”
With Nunn back, Waiters did not play and center Kelly Olynyk also received his sixth DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season. Miami used a nine-man rotation that included Nunn, Butler, Duncan Robinson, Bam Adebayo, Leonard, James Johnson, Goran Dragic, Tyler Herro and Derrick Jones Jr.
Three team-issued suspensions helped delay Waiters’ season debut to the Heat’s 45th game of the season. But during Nunn’s three-game absence, Waiters was used off the bench in each game.
Waiters averaged 9.3 points on 38.5 percent shooting, 3.7 rebounds and one assist during his three-game stint filling in for Nunn.
Now that Nunn is back, it looks like playing time will again be hard to come by for Waiters.
3. Butler hasn’t been shooting well from distance this season. So, he kept his offensive game around the rim Saturday.
Butler entered shooting 44.1 percent from the field, which would be his worst single-season shooting percentage since he made 39.7 percent of his shots in the third season of his career in 2013-14. He also entered shooting 24.5 percent on threes, which would be his worst single-season three-point shooting percentage since he made 18.2 percent of his threes as a rookie in 2011-12.
On shots outside of the paint, Butler entered shooting just 27.1 percent this season. That’s a considerable drop from last season, when Butler made 35.3 percent of his shots from outside of the paint.
So, what did Butler do in Orlando? He made sure to be effective in the paint.
Butler finished with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting. He shot 8-of-12 from inside the paint and 0 of 3 on shots outside of the paint against the Magic.
“We had to take care of business tonight and he set the tone,” Spoelstra said. “He set the tone with his attitude, his mentality, his approach in practice and walk-through today. Then he came out with incredible intensity on both ends of the court, and that just sets the tone for everybody else just to play with confidence.”
Butler’s All-Star teammate, Adebayo, finished with a unique stat line of four points on 1-of-8 shooting, 14 rebounds, five assists, three steals and four blocks. Adebayo is the first player to finish a game with at least 14 rebounds, five assists and four blocks while scoring five points or fewer since Golden State’s Draymond Green did it on Feb. 27, 2016.
“Bam found different ways to impact the game,” Spoelstra said. “14 rebounds, the assists, the playmaking, throwing the ball to him and playing out of that. And defensively, he was outstanding. Just covering up so much ground and making plays. You could feel it.”
4. After a rough shooting night in Tuesday’s loss to the Celtics, Heat rookie Tyler Herro responded with an efficient performance against the Magic.
Against Boston, Herro scored six points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 shooting on threes.
But the 20-year-old was much better Saturday, returning to his usual reserve role after starting in place of Nunn during Nunn’s three-game absence. Herro finished with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 shooting on threes.
“He really works at things,” Spoelstra said. “He was diligent the last couple days, working on his fundamentals. He got sped up a little bit in the Boston game. Their defense can do that to you. He really went to school on some of the details and you can see it. That’s when you know somebody has talent. You watch film, you work on it, you drill it a little bit and then you actually apply it during the game. That’s a talent, and the kid has it.”
Herro’s second quarter was especially impressive, as he scored nine on 3-of-5 shooting in the period. He then scored 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Herro continues to thrive late in games, as he has scored a team-high 182 fourth-quarter points this season.
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5. This is an important win, with the Heat recently falling in the Eastern Conference standings and a lot of road games coming up.
The Heat entered Saturday as the fourth-place team in the East after owning the second-place spot just last week. Miami also entered with a 5-5 record in its previous 10 games. And a five-game West Coast trip is looming.
Because of all that, Saturday’s win over a struggling Magic team, which has now lost five straight, was critical.
The Heat has six games remaining before the All-Star break, and five of them come on the road during a West Coast trip that begins Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers. And the one home game before the break comes Monday against a quality opponent in the Philadelphia 76ers.
This is an important stretch for the Heat to simply remain afloat. Saturday’s victory was a good start.
“We’re trying to get to another level on the road,” Spoelstra said. “Play more consistently. We’re about to go out West. We still have one more at home. We understand that. I’m not getting ahead of ourselves. But we want to get a little bit of confidence and feeling good about how we can win games when we’re not in our arena.”
