Takeaways from Heat’s most impressive win of the season, led by Adebayo, Butler and Dragic

Anthony Chiang
·8 min read

The Miami Heat continues to insist its play is trending in the right direction after a slow start to the season, and Friday’s win served as ultimate proof of that.

The Heat (16-17) put together one of its best performances of the season to defeat the league-leading Utah Jazz 124-116 at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Jazz (26-7) is 22-3 in its past 25 games after the loss.

Miami, which held a 7-14 record at one point, is on a season-long five-game winning streak and has won nine of its past 12 games.

“It’s not a statement,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the victory. “We’ve been grinding for six weeks trying to get to a more consistent level. Even after some of these very painful disappointing losses, we saw progress. That’s the tough thing about this league. This team has had to manage through a lot. We haven’t made any excuses for it. We just continue to try to work to get better.”

It was a well-played and competitive game throughout, and it came down to the final minutes.

The Heat entered the fourth quarter with a two-point advantage and held an eight-point lead with 4:05 to play. The Jazz responded with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to just one point with 2:30 left.

But Miami then closed the game on an 8-1 run to secure the win. Heat star wing Jimmy Butler scored five of the Heat’s points during that decisive late-game spurt.

The Heat’s trio of Bam Adebayo, Butler and Goran Dragic combined for 78 points on 51 shots in the win.

The Jazz was led by All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who finished with 30 points on 11-of-26 shooting.

The Heat continues its four-game homestand with a Sunday night matchup against the Atlanta Hawks. Miami is 2-0 on the homestand.

“We were tired of getting our asses kicked,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s turnaround. “That’s the best I can put it.”

Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Jazz:

One of the biggest keys to the Heat’s victory was simply outshooting the Jazz.

Utah entered averaging the most three-point shot attempts (42.6 per game) and three-point makes (17 per game) in the NBA this season. Even at that high volume, the Jazz entered with the league’s third-most efficient team three-point percentage (39.9).

But the Heat was the better three-point shooting team on Friday, with the Jazz shooting 15 of 46 (32.6 percent) from beyond the arc in the loss.

Miami, which entered with a team three-point percentage of 35.5 that ranked 22nd in the league, shot 14 of 30 (46.7 percent) from three-point range.

In six of the Jazz’s seven losses this season, its opponent has shot a better percentage than it has from three-point range.

The Heat also finished with an offensive rating of 122.8. Utah, which owns the league’s second-best defensive rating, is 0-3 this season when allowing 122 or more points per 100 possessions in a game.

Duncan Robinson led the Heat’s impressive shooting display with 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting on threes.

Butler also played a very important part in the Heat’s win by consistently getting into the paint and either scoring or drawing fouls.

The five-time All-Star finished with a game-high 33 points while shooting 12 of 22 from the field and 9 of 11 from the foul line, to go with 10 rebounds and eight assists.

Butler scored 27 of his 33 points from either inside the paint or at the free-throw line — 18 points in the paint on 9-of-13 shooting and nine points at the foul line.

During the Heat’s 9-3 stretch, Butler has averaged 21.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 9.1 assists and 1.8 steals. Miami has outscored opponents by 9.1 points per 100 possessions with Butler on the court and has been outscored by 10.3 points per 100 possessions when Butler has not been on the court during this 12-game span.

Adebayo was listed as questionable entering the game because of left knee tendinosis. But Adebayo was able to play in his usual starting role.

Adebayo finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in 34 minutes. The midrange game was working for Adebayo, who shot 7 of 11 on midrange shots but 0 of 3 at the rim.

“Everyone knows me around here, man. I want to be in every game,” Adebayo said of playing through the injury. “I feel like that’s the best thing about me. I’m always available. I think it takes the stress off Spo a little bit because I’m playing every game. He looked real worried when I was like ‘Hey I’m going to be okay.’ I felt good out there.”

The last time Adebayo missed a regular-season game because of a legitimate injury came during his rookie season in 2017-18. He played every regular-season game in 2018-19, missed the regular-season finale last season as a precaution with the start of the playoffs just days away, and has missed two games this season because of contact tracing related to the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

“Bam is an absolute throwback, a warrior,” Spoelstra said. “He wants to be out there and compete, be there for his team and he also wants to play against the best teams.”

But the Heat remained with guards Avery Bradley (calf strain) and Tyler Herro (right hip contusion) on Friday. Bradley missed his 12th straight game and Herro missed his third straight game.

The Heat had 14 players available against the Jazz, with three unavailable: Bradley, Herro and center Meyers Leonard (season-ending shoulder surgery).

The Heat needs a healthy and effective Dragic, and Miami got exactly that against Utah.

Dragic continued to work his way back into form after missing almost three weeks of game action, tying a season-high with 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes in 33 minutes off the bench in Friday’s win. It marked Dragic’s second game back from a sprained right ankle that forced him to miss the previous nine games.

“We need it to be able to beat a quality team like this,” Spoelstra said of Dragic’s performance against the Jazz. “If you really look at it, you need players to make plays and often times create something out of nothing. That’s what Goran was able to do.”

Friday marked only the 19th game that Dragic has played in this season. He has missed 14 games — two because of health and safety protocols, three because of a strained left groin and nine because of a sprained ankle.

“I feel great,” Dragic said. “I feel confident enough. I have been through a lot. I just need consistency and to try and stay on the floor as much as possible. This year is a little bit crazy. I was in protocol and I lost a couple of games and then an ankle injury. It has been up and down for me. Hopefully, finally now, I can stay with the team.”

There was one noticeable change to Miami’s rotation Friday, with rookie center Precious Achiuwa left out despite being available to play. It marked Achiuwa’s first DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season, as he played in each of the Heat’s first 32 games.

Instead, the Heat used Kelly Olynyk as its center when Adebayo wasn’t on the court and went small. Second-year forward KZ Okpala stepped into Achiuwa’s spot in the rotation against the Jazz, finishing scoreless but grabbing four rebounds in eight minutes.

It marked the most minutes that Okpala has played in a game since Jan. 28.

“It’s not really an indictment on anybody,” Spoelstra said of his decision to play Okpala over Achiuwa on Friday. “This team, Utah is really unique with the skill level, shooting and spacing. All of it just felt like we needed a little bit more perimeter defense. Look, KZ had some quality minutes. He had three offensive rebounds, he had a nice defensive play before he came out.”

Miami’s bench rotation on Friday included Dragic, Okpala, Gabe Vincent and Andre Iguodala.

This was the Heat’s most impressive win of the season.

Last Saturday’s win over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in an NBA Finals rematch was nice, but the Lakers were short-handed without injured superstar forward Anthony Davis.

Friday’s victory came against the team with the league’s top record, as the Jazz entered at 26-6 and a 22-2 record in its previous 24 games. Utah also arrived as the only team in the NBA with both a top-five offensive rating and top-five defensive rating.

“I don’t want to say that we’re good yet,” Butler said after Friday’s win. “I think we’ve got so much more to figure out. We’ve got so much more that we can be better at.”

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