1. You would be excused for getting some extreme Saturday night vibes off the start to this Monday night game, with Miami leading 12-2 – scoring on their first five possessions – after leading 22-1 in their loss over the weekend.
Sure enough, Chicago made up the gap soon enough, quickly going on an 8-0 run and knotting the game at 40-40 in the second quarter. But where the first of this two-game series was a defensive battle, this was a veritable offensive explosion, the threes falling – Duncan Robinson and Coby White both hit three early on – and the paint opening up far more than it had before, the HEAT making more shots at the rim in the first half than they did in all of Saturday’s contest. Miami found themselves up, 65-53, at the break after a second-quarter burst from Kevin Love, and running, with an Offensive Rating of 151.2 on 8-of-17 shooting from three.
It wasn’t all thrilling, one Jimmy Butler “skyhook” aside, up-and-down basketball, but that’s not typically how Miami’s grinds out an efficient night absent opponent turnovers. They get to the line, they take care of the ball and they find mismatches to post-up. The write their names in the margins with pen. Doesn’t guarantee you anything, though, and Chicago shot their way back within three minutes into the third only for Bam Adebayo (23 points on 14 shots) to push it back to eight. Back within three again a couple minutes later only for Miami to again push back. HEAT by 12 going into the fourth, their hot offense sustaining just a little better than Chicago’s.
No drama tonight. No clutch. As Chicago’s shooting cooled and they watched defensive rebounds bounce off their fingertips, Miami kept making. This was Miami’s first double-digit victory of the season, 118-100, and we doubt anyone is going to complain about being able to breathe calmly at the end of this one.
2. Some nights, it’s all pretty simple. Miami shot 17-of-35 from three as part of their 129.7 Offensive Rating, with Duncan Robinson going 6-of-9 -- Miami is 32-9 in the past five seasons when Robinson makes at least six threes -- and Kyle Lowry, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Josh Richardson and Kevin Love all hitting at least a pair.
The HEAT have only lost two games in the past five seasons – one loss by one point, the other by two – while shooting at least 48 percent from three, winning 34. The implication of a statistic like that is that the defense generally holds solid enough that any molten hot night like this one is almost always going to be enough to put you over the top. This is a good time for a reminder that Miami shot at least 50 percent from deep six times during last season’s run to the NBA Finals, including twice against Milwaukee, three times against Boston and also in their only win over Denver in the last round. You can never just decide to shoot that well no matter how much you want to, but nights like this – even on slightly lower volume than they have put up in the past – are a big part of greasing the wheels for an offense that can get bogged down when games slow down.
3. Coming into this game Jaime Jaquez Jr. (19 points on 13 shots, team-high +24) was shooting 25 percent on corner threes on 20 attempts, that number being the only real blemish on an otherwise excellent start to his rookie season. With little baseline to go off of and some lower percentages in college – albeit better on catch-and-shoot opportunities – you couldn’t have said it was just a matter of time like you would with an established NBA shooter, but there also wasn’t anything noticeably off about his mechanics.
Tonight, the shots fell. Jaquez Jr. shot 3-of-4 from the corners, and that’s all there is to it. If he can make those at an average or better clip, you’re going to have a hard time picking apart his game. Erik Spoelstra is already having a hard enough time keeping him off the floor as it has already been made perfectly clear how much the team trusts him. All you have to do is watch how often he heads right for the post whenever Jaquez Jr. senses a mismatch, and how often he gets the ball in those spots. It’ll be months until we have a real feel for Jaquez Jr.’s shot, but nights like tonight are all you can ask for.