1. What a breath of fresh air. After weeks, months of games where it always seemed like one side, or both, was missing multiple players of significance, we got a true-blue matchup of contenders. Back-and-forth basketball throughout, both teams making big runs, getting stops and playing hard. This is the basketball we love, regardless of result. Everyone once in a while you need a game that makes you feel alive.
Also, the HEAT won, 106-98, and clinched their spot in the postseason. Not only that, they won a game by outscoring their opponent, a great opponent, in the clutch. For anyone who has been following this season, you know how significant that is. The most interesting thing that happened all night is that Erik Spoelstra decided to close those final minutes with both Tyler Herro and Max Strus (14 points) after P.J. Tucker had been a mainstay in those minutes all season. Was the offense perfect in those moments? No. But it was better than Boston’s as the HEAT found more shotmaking and better yet, Strus made some of the biggest defensive plays of the night taking a big-time charge on Jayson Tatum in transition and blocking Jaylen Brown at the rim. Miami won because they locked in on defense – Bam Adebayo made getting into the paint a nightmare – and hit their jumpers (13-of-34 from three to Boston’s 11-of-37), but finishing with two high-volume shooters and getting stops with that group is the move that may cause ripples down the line.
2. This felt like a playoff game, especially with the No. 1 seed in the conference on the line, and both coaches treated it as such as Spoelstra stuck with his newly tightened nine-man rotation – Max Strus still starting – while Ime Udoka played just eight as Tatum hit 40 minutes. The same ideology didn’t quite extend to the proceedings on the court. While Boston spent much of the night matchup hunting from pretty much the opening tip, to mixed success, the HEAT stuck with running their offense rather than stray from their comfort zone. It was a struggle at times in the halfcourt, as tends to happen against an excellent defensive team, and they had to hit some tough shots along the way, but for as much as the HEAT have tried to diversify their menu this season they still look their best flowing into one action after another and trying to play with and into space.
Win or lose, the best the HEAT can do is to play to their own strengths. That they managed to get to them enough through the first three quarters against a Boston team designed to flatten them out, with switching, is encouraging as far as how the offense will translate to the second season. And even as things bogged down in the final minutes, this time they got enough to fall with both Jimmy Butler (24 points) and Lowry (23) coming up with jumpers.
3. It might be one of the most overused terms in the sport, but Kyle Lowry is a gamer. He may not come out looking to score every night, but he has a veteran sense of the moment and against a Boston team that can put a stranglehold on the paint he knew the team needed him to make. For as much as Lowry’s playmaking and defense stabilizes so much of what the HEAT want to do, when he signed with the team back in August it felt like one of the most important skills he was going to bring to the table was his ability to shoot from any range off the dribble – both for how those shots raise the offensive ceiling for the team and how they can draw two to the ball and open up the floor for Bam Adebayo. That shot has come and gone – though it’s always gone in at a good rate when Lowry puts them up – as Lowry focused on setting everyone else up, but there are absolutely going to be games in the playoffs where the best shot on a given possession is Lowry pulling up when a big is dropping back into the paint. That was the case tonight, with plenty of Lowry-Adebayo pick-and-rolls, and Lowry responded with 6-of-12 from three.
-Next Up For Miami: Saturday – April 2, 8:00 PM ET at Chicago, IL Watch It Live On NBA League Pass