Coup’s Takeaways: HEAT Set Franchise Scoring Record in New Orleans as They Lock in Play-In Seeding

There’s been a few games like this lately, but that doesn’t mean this one gets to be any sort of exception. You win, you move on. That’s all there is to it.

New Orleans is simply playing out the string, the vast majority of their regulars shut down for the season. Miami came into the night with a very slim chance of climbing out of the No. 10 spot, but for even a tiny chance to matter you must keep adding to your win total. So Erik Spoelstra played his regulars to make sure the job got done.

Miami’s incredible stretch of shooting – particularly early in games – continued from the jump, Alec Burks and Tyler Herro opening with a couple from outside before Bam Adebayo another pair all on his own. Adebayo and Herro combined for 17 of Miami’s first 21, but the Pelicans were almost equally as hot, chipping away when Adebayo and Herro hit the bench, closing the gap to 35-24 after the first.

Duncan Robinson converted on a four-point play to push the lead all the way up to 17, but New Orleans wasn’t ready to cool off, either, Jose Alvarado hitting and old HEAT player Jamal Cain having himself a quarter. Cain got all the way up to 15 in the period, tying his season high in a short amount of time, and again New Orleans made a push against Miami’s bench, within 55-49.

Then Adebayo and Herro returned and all was right in the world, the lead back to 71-54 by the break. Nothing special in any way beyond Adebayo eventually reaching a career-high four threes, this was not a night for schemes and strategies.

Little doubt was left in the third, Miami opening the period on a 10-0 run and the lead eventually sprinting past 30. The evening was effectively settled there and there was little reason left for Miami’s regular rotation to remain as the Eastern Conference postseason picture came into sharp focus with results settling in elsewhere.

Up 40 in the fourth, threes still flying and Keshad Johnson getting enough run to string together a bunch of dunks, and Miami takes it, 153-104, setting the franchise scoring record – for any game, including overtime games – in the process as 10 players reached double figures.

If there was to be any drama this evening, most of it was quickly drained away with scores around the league, Atlanta holding off an early Philadelphia run to win convincingly and lock themselves into the No. 8 seed by the time Miami’s game had hit halftime.

Chicago, meanwhile, was leading the Wizards by almost as much as the HEAT were up on the Pelicans, that victory locking the Bulls into the No. 9 spot and officially slotting Miami into the 10.

The end result? The HEAT will head up to Chicago to play the Bulls on Wednesday – Miami has beaten Chicago in the Play-In round in each of the past two seasons – the loser going home and the winner earning the right to play the loser of the Orland-Atlanta game for the No. 8 seed and a First Round matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It will end up going under the radar a bit but with Miami finishing this one shooting 44.4% on 45 attempts from three they’ve locked in one of the 10-12 – there won’t be quite an official number because of how multi-game spans are logged – best shooting stretches of 11 or more games in league history. Granted one of the qualifiers there is that three-point shooting volume today is far higher than it was 15 years ago, but even then approaching 44 percent over more than two weeks is not something that happens very often.

If your next question is whether that shooting is sustainable, it’s right to be skeptical about any hot, or cold, streak. More often than not, if someone is asking if something is sustainable, it probably isn’t. But sustainability is about time, about water finding its level as the sample size grows. A single game like a Play-In game is not much of a factor there, anything liable to happen in one night – which is exactly what can simultaneously give you hope for next week and offer an equal amount of healthy concern. The good news is Miami’s Shot Quality has been up a little bit of late, and nothing makes it easier to stay hot than manufacturing good looks.

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By ML Staff. Courtesy of NBA.