1. It’s been a while since the HEAT have had all of their guys healthy, but tonight they faced off against an Orlando team missing a bunch of their own guys and the result was a choppy evening.
Very little rhythm for either side early on, Miami hitting three of their first four threes as they almost seem to do when missing multiple rotation players, with both teams struggling to stay above the 40 percent line from the field. Still, the HEAT looked like the team better equipped to handle a shortage of rotation players, running their usual offense as best they could – albeit with a few more turnovers thanks to a handsy Orlando group – while the Magic were asking Paolo Banchero to carry an even heavier load than usual, their approach looking much more heliocentric around a single star than intended.
Miami jumped out to a double-digit lead in the second quarter, but Orlando slowly pushed back to take a brief lead just before the break as Caleb Houstan managed a trio of triples for a team otherwise struggling from the field. As good as Banchero was, scoring 13 on a necessary 13 shots while often seeing a second or third extra defender, Jaime Jaquez Jr. was the standout, shooting 7-of-8 in the paint for 15 points on his usual blend of timely cuts and spinning, pivoting, contact-seeking drives. Miami by one at the break, a true January In The NBA finish – unmemorable, unattractive, well earned – promised.
Again a little separation for the HEAT early in the third, never up by quite as much as it appeared they should be, again Orlando scrounged enough offense together to close the gap and take a brief lead. An uneventful quarter, neither side topping 20 points, outside of a Joe Ingles flagrant foul on Caleb Martin (back in the line), Miami by two going into the home stretch.
Orlando just kept hanging around even as Duncan Robinson (23 points on 19 shots) worked his downhills stylings, Mo Wagner finishing well inside on some tough catches. Bam Adebayo (21 points on 17 shots, +17) worked the closing moments, up just two with two to play, as he put Wagner through the hoop on a dunk out of a post-up. And yet, Banchero rose to the moment himself, putting Orlando up one with 38 seconds to play with a tough fadeaway over Jaquez Jr. with Adebayo’s help looming. But there was Adebayo again, with a simple jumper in the upper paint, taking what was right in front of him, to retake the lead, 18.5 seconds left. Then, just a little bit of luck as Banchero had a wide-open look rebounding his own miss and simply lost the ball going up, leading to a 99-96 Miami win. Each season, Adebayo finds ways to get 10 percent better and he’s made himself into a bonafide go-to option down the stretch, with another game winner on his personal ledger.
2. Two men can never be a defense all on their own, but if you caught the right possessions of tonight’s game you would have thought Bam Adebayo and Haywood Highsmith were covering all five positions. With Orlando lacking tertiary attackers around Banchero, Miami was able to always have one of Adebayo and Highsmith on him almost at all times (with Jaquez Jr. doing well feeding Banchero’s drives into Adebayo’s help when Highsmith was off the floor), switching both on and off the ball in such a way it almost looked as though Miami’s lead defenders were the top of a zone that was determined to keep Banchero from gathering any comfortable momentum going downhill. If Banchero managed to find a pick-and-roll combination involving any other player, the screener defender simply held a long show in Banchero’s face as the original defender fought through, with an overloaded defender helping over on any paint-directed passes. The open man for Banchero was often in the far corner – he’s a good passer but he’s not LeBron James or Luka Doncic with the skip passes – and Orlando wasn’t shooting well enough to capitalize when that play was made.
And when Banchero went to the post to invert the offense and give himself some interior breathing room, Miami again had multiple defenders at the ready, not with a hard double but with the constant threat of help, either from a digging defender from the top or another coming over for a strong-side zone. In short, a big night for Banchero would have had to be truly magnificent, and even the fact that he scored 25 points on 26 shots (with six assists and four turnovers), Highsmith forcing a tough look on the last and most important one, was somewhat remarkable given the type of shots he was getting.
Once again, you give Erik Spoelstra an opponent with one obvious lead creator and few other live attacking and/or shooting options, he’ll find a way to slow down all but a select few.
3. One might call this is a relentless night for Jaquez Jr. even if it wasn’t his most efficient only by his own lofty standards (19 points on 16 shots is of course efficient for most anyone). It’s still a bit unclear just how scouted Jaquez Jr. is, with how often he’s able to get to his spots, both in transition and in the halfcourt, without anyone truly challenging much less stopping his dribble, but it also may be that this is his talent and skill level regardless of how prepared his opponents are, no longer caught off guard by a surprising rookie. We’ll leave the jury out a little longer to deliberate on that point, especially with the postseason being an entirely different animal altogether, but make or miss Jaquez Jr. has continued to play his way and get off the ball whenever he draws extra attention. His Bully Ball moment of the night was drawing point guard Cole Anthony in the post and absolutely putting him in a blender, hard charging his way into one of Miami’s easiest scores of the night. He didn’t get to play the hero on what was otherwise Adebayo’s night, but at 37 minutes he was as much a factor as anyone.