Currently 7th in the East, Miami spent the second on this end of the regular season. Opposed to New York on Wednesday evening, Erik Spoelstra’s men have won a 7th victory in the last 10 games. A positive series which allows them to come back to only 2 victories of the 5th place held by New York.
“I’ll be honest, at this point, given the situation we’re in and the way we’re trying to keep building and moving up the table, every game feels like a playoff game.” released Bam Adebayo on the significance of Wednesday’s victory. “So it’s not just this game. Yes, this game was important, but the ones that will follow will also look like playoff games..
Jimmy Butler already in playoff mode
As often, when meetings are important, Jimmy Butler responded present. The latter achieved a new performance of very high level to allow his team to win (127-120).
He finished the game with 35 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals at 11/19 shooting. Over the last 15 meetings, his averages are superb. He runs at 26.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.6 interceptions at 60.5% shooting including 52.6% at 3-point! We can say that he has already started the playoffs mode.
“Everyone is trying to win at this stage of the season” he confided. “Everyone is trying to get places. Every game counts, as it has since the start of the year. But right now, for us even more, we kind of have to win to be where we want to be. But I like it”.
An external address found
Before the All-Star Break, the long distance percentages of Erik Spoelstra’s players were not famous. They were even 28th at the level of the distant address, with 33.4% of success (59 games). Things are better now, with 36.9% 3-point success since the resumption (15 games).
Apart from Kevin Love (28.6%), the whole team seems to have found the target from afar: 40% for Tyler Herro against 37% before the All-Star Break, 58% for Kyle Lowry against 33%, 53% for Jimmy Butler against 30%, 44% for Caleb Martin against 36%, 36% for Victor Oladipo against 30%. Of course, that changes a lot of things.
“The important thing is that we are more coherent and more faithful to our identity” concluded Erik Spoelstra on the Heat’s offense. “We can highlight the 3-point shots, but it’s a symbiotic relationship. Our offensive stats are up, whether it’s in the circle, in the paint, but also in terms of assists..
Miami will in any case have a golden opportunity to take 6th place held by Brooklyn, in the event of a victory against them on the night of Saturday to Sunday (01:00).
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jimmy Butler | 58 | 33.3 | 53.0 | 33.3 | 85.3 | 2.4 | 3.7 | 6.1 | 5.1 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 22.7 |
| Bam Adebayo | 68 | 35.1 | 54.3 | 8.3 | 80.3 | 2.4 | 6.9 | 9.4 | 3.3 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 21.1 |
| Tyler Herro | 59 | 35.3 | 43.4 | 37.4 | 92.7 | 0.4 | 5.2 | 5.7 | 4.3 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 20.2 |
| Kyle Lowry | 48 | 32.6 | 40.5 | 34.7 | 85.1 | 0.8 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 5.2 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 11.8 |
| Max Strus | 71 | 28.9 | 40.2 | 33.7 | 88.5 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 11.7 |
| Caleb Martin | 62 | 29.8 | 46.8 | 37.4 | 80.4 | 1.3 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 10.1 |
| Victor Oladipo | 38 | 26.7 | 39.1 | 31.5 | 76.1 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 10.1 |
| Gabe Vincent | 59 | 26.3 | 39.2 | 32.4 | 88.9 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 2.4 | 9.3 |
| Kevin Love | 13 | 21.2 | 38.6 | 28.1 | 85.0 | 1.0 | 5.4 | 6.4 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 7.9 |
| Duncan Robinson | 35 | 16.5 | 36.7 | 32.9 | 92.0 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 6.3 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 30 | 11.7 | 49.6 | 29.7 | 72.7 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 3.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 5.7 |
| Nikola Jovic | 15 | 13.6 | 40.6 | 22.9 | 94.7 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 5.5 |
| Cody Zeller | 10 | 13.0 | 51.7 | 0.0 | 73.9 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 3.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 4.7 |
| Haywood Highsmith | 48 | 18.3 | 43.4 | 35.3 | 46.2 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 4.5 |
| Jamal Cain | 15 | 12.4 | 52.0 | 16.7 | 75.0 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 4.4 |
| Orlando Robinson | 29 | 13.7 | 53.5 | 0.0 | 72.4 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 4.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 3.9 |
| Jamaree Bouyea | 4 | 16.3 | 46.2 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 3.8 |
| Dru Smith | 5 | 13.4 | 35.7 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 2.2 |
| Omer Yurtseven | 5 | 6.8 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.8 |
| Udonis Haslem | 6 | 7.6 | 8.3 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 0.5 |
