1. In the past 10 seasons, the Miami HEAT and Utah Jazz have played a total of 10 games that have ended with a scoring margin of five points or less. Since they’re in opposite conferences, they’ve only faced each other 20 times over that span, meaning for going on a decade there’s been a 50/50 shot that any meeting between these two franchises will end a very close affair in the final minutes.
This one wasn’t looking any different in the early going. Even as Utah led by one point at the half, both sides had a solid argument for being happy that the game was so close. Miami was 5-of-17 from three with 10 turnovers and very little rim pressure, but they were 12-of-20 in the upper paint and mid-range, most of those looks jumpers from Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. Utah, meanwhile, was hurting Miami with downhill drives but were struggling from outside, shooting 3-of-21 from deep. Not much rhythm, not much rhyme and certainly not much bobsled time for either side as each had just as much to hang their hat on as to apply a nice cold shoulder to.
Much of the same in the third even with Miami cleaning up their turnovers. With both teams marching to the free-throw line – pump fakes all around – the proceedings were more stop-start than back-and-forth, Miami pulling ahead for their largest lead at six as Adebayo worked his way to the charity stripe until Utah ran off a 10-2 burst capped off by a hard earned three – they were 3-of-27 from three before that one. All tied up going into the fourth, as it should be given the history of the matchup.
Strong floor running minutes from Jamal Cain to open the fourth, the lead trading places seemingly on every possession until Utah jumped ahead by four as clutch minutes were triggered. Utah, behind Kelly Olynyk’s decelerating drives, was getting into the paint so often that Erik Spoelstra temporarily turned to zone defense. The Jazz got a couple threes to fall, rookie Keyonte George (21 points on 10 shots, 5-of-8 from three) shooting with confidence, but the HEAT (their own percentage from deep sinking late) kept getting to the line to stay within reach. Seven-point game with 90 seconds to play, a tough hit on a loose ball sent Haywood Highsmith to the floor and eventually the locker room, and it was a free-throw game from there. It didn’t end a five-point game like so many others, 117-109 the final, but it felt like one.
2. Pretty telling that Spoelstra went to zone for a couple of possessions with under five minutes to play – leading to an Olynyk jumper and a top-key three – when he rarely does so in games he hasn’t already used a ton of zone in. But the zone tends to pop up when the defense isn’t working as intended as far as keeping the ball out of the paint and with Utah shooting 30-of-36 for 60 paint points it’s safe to say that’s the case.
While Utah, mostly George, found their shots late typically any game where a Miami opponent is shooting sub-30 percent from deep ends up a good defensive night, statistically, for the HEAT because of how reliable they are at stopping the ball before it’s gets into dangerous zones. And while a player like Olynyk has a very unique staccato to his downhill game, it’s starting to become a bit more common than the HEAT are used to giving up so many opportunities at the rim. Adebayo is holding the defense together in an All Universe manner, his three steals and three blocks tonight saving just as many scores, but he can’t be everywhere – especially when the cause of the paint points are blow-by drives from the three-point line.
It's early still and Miami will no doubt be focused on cleaning up those miscues – it certainly doesn’t help that they have a different rotation just about every night due to injuries – but for now they haven’t been elite in an area where they’ve been so for years. Utah might have taken this one because George got hot at the end, but they were in the game despite their own poor shooting because of their paint pressure.
3. It looked like Miami was finally starting to get whole regarding their rotation – Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin and Josh Richardson remained out – with the return of Jimmy Butler but Butler would injure his right foot and exit for the evening in the third quarter. The good news is that Herro and Adebayo have been more than willing to soak up extra usage whenever necessary.
Nothing particularly new for Herro (25 points on 22 shots), who enjoyed himself against Utah’s drop coverage – even after moving Rudy Gobert, they’ve spent plenty of time with big centers hanging back – with a shot available around just about any screen that Kris Dunn wasn’t chasing him around. Herro may have cooled down the stretch, but games like this are why Herro so badly wanted to be healthy during last season’s postseason, knowing he could find opportunities against teams using the same scheme.
The story for Adebayo (28 points on 13 shots) meanwhile, was in playing the Butler role as Miami’s designated free-throw earner, setting a new career-high with 20 free-throw attempts and tying his career-high with 14 makes. It’s not longer surprising when Adebayo drives his way into the paint in transition, rises into an automatic jumper off a pocket pass or posts up into a shoulder-fake jumper, but bringing his free-throw rate up after it dipped last season was a piece of low hanging fruit for him to pluck and he’s done so. Sometimes you watch defenders leap at his pump fakes and wonder what they’re doing, but just as it was with Dwyane Wade players are jumping for a reason – it’s a good fake.