Coup’s Takeaways: Butler Returns As Miami Survives Early Drought To Thrive Late While Philadelphia Feels The Pressure
1. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy closing out a two-week, six-game road trip with a back-to-back against a desperate, 2-10 Philadelphia 76ers team.
No Terry Rozier or Jaime Jaquez Jr. for the HEAT, no Tyrese Maxey for Philadelphia, but Jimmy Butler returned and Joel Embiid went from being doubtful (illness) to playing in the hour before the game. Butler made his presence known early, scoring Miami’s first two on very typical Butler plays. Butler clearly had the fresh legs, his teammates clearly didn’t, uncharacteristic turnovers dragging the offense down. Philadelphia wasn’t much cleaner in that early going, offense a struggle on both sides, but once the bench started to rotate in the Sixers started to find their stride.
Standout rookie Jared McCain made his mark, first draining a couple of open threes the likes of which rookies tend to get before they earn a reputation then getting to work in the pick-and-roll. Shortly into the second period the visitors were up as much as 19, nothing flukey about it. Erik Spoelstra had a call to make at that point. With Butler’s bench unit – including more fresh legs in Alec Burks and Dru Smith – eating into the lead a bit with three and free-throws, it was go with the regular rotation and get the starters back in or stick with what was working. He went with the latter, including keeping Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo on the sideline, and the result was being down just 56-53 at the break. Philadelphia was earning themselves plenty of open looks during that stretch, many from three, but their percentages from the arc sank below 30 percent same as Miami.
Tied up early in the third on a Herro three, more verve and energy from the starters as the shots started to fall while all those good Sixers looks, generated off Embiid pulling in second defender, continued to strike iron as Duncan Robinson gained the lead with a pair of outside hits. By the time Miami hit their fifth three in six minutes, they were up eight, all that work from the bench giving the starters a chance for improved, regrouped play to mean something. Philadelphia, all those misses piling up, had lost their groove.
Sixers tried out a little zone at the end of the period to try to get anything going and Haywood Highsmith hit a three over the top of it anyway, Miami sitting pretty with Herro closing out the period strong and an 88-72 lead, the game flipped right on its head off a 61-26 run spanning the middle quarters.
Miami’s offense stalled a bit in the final period but it didn’t matter much. All those open looks started to dry up for Philadelphia as the defensive pressure dialed up, turnovers following turnovers, even relatively clear attacks sped up to the point that the rare good look was missed. Miami by 20, Dru Smith playing with plenty of confidence, and both sides played out the string from there, the HEAT taking it, 106-89, with long, five-day break ahead of them between games.
2. You’ll hear us say that it’s a make or miss league in this space fairly often and it’s true, often enough, whether or not teams make their open looks deciding many games. What’s also true is that make-or-miss can affect the rhythm of the game, the energy of a team. When Miami was missing early on Philadelphia was feeding on that misfortune. When the Sixers couldn’t convert on all those good looks in the second period, Miami fed off of that. And when all those threes fell for Miami, finishing just 29.5 percent from the arc, in the third, it gave their defense the life it needed to carry them to the finish.
Those fresh legs helped, of course. Burks contributed some makes to help, Smith played his regular, solid game and Highsmith (3-of-3 from the arc) was one of the few players to have a good shooting night, but Butler returning, showing no ill effects of the layoffs, for his typically ridiculous line of 30 points on just 12 shots, made the difference. Before Miami got rolling in the fourth, it was Butler pacing the offense, getting himself to the free-throw line (13-of-13) to keep points going on the board. The HEAT have enjoyed so much good shooting lately that it was easy to forget there would be games where those threes wouldn’t be there, where they would have to grind out enough points, and nobody grinds quite like Butler, a perfect remedy on a night when the overall offensive rating sat at just 105.0.
Spoelstra’s decision in the second was massive, too, leaving the deeper bench in with Butler when they were the only thing the team had going for it. That group may not have dominated, their run a slow, methodical one, but they followed Butler’s pace and ate into the lead, point-by-point. It’s not every day that Spoelstra will sit Herro and Adebayo during their regular rotation spots, both stars likely flat at the end of a long trip with longer minutes. It paid off in spades tonight, with Herro and Adebayo responding with far better energy in the second half while Butler finished a team-high +29.
3. McCain is most definitely a promising rookie, among the leaders for Rookie of the Year, but with younger players you always wonder how they’re going to react to all the various reads a Spoelstra defense, anything but conventional, is going to throw at them.
McCain had his way early on, getting those open looks and scoring off a couple of screens, but from then on Miami’s defense was far more focused on him. It’s important to remember here that without Maxey’s services the 76ers have relied some on McCain’s offense at times to keep the train moving forward, but after that first stretch where the shots were open and the lanes were wide Miami started applying the pressure. Instead of having Kevin Love show out on pick-and-rolls, for example, Spoelstra dialed up the blitz, Love jumping out to stop all forward momentum. McCain handled it well, in spots, delivering the ball to Embiid, but there were turnovers, too, and passes delivered late and off target, the ball going East-to-West rather than getting acquainted with the rim.
That pressure on McCain summed up Miami’s entire second half. The threes in the third helped them gain the lead but when the offense stalled and left the door open that defense, the pressure dialed up, slammed it shut, the Sixers on their heels with nowhere to go. McCain had a good game, 20 points on 16 shots, but as the HEAT started to make him a bit more uncomfortable so, too, was Philadelphia’s offense taken out of rhythm, so much did they need him to free up space for Paul George (5-of-13 for 18 points) and Embiid (5-of-11 for 11).