1. It shouldn’t have been surprising if you’ve been paying close attention to this team over the years.
Down Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson from the rotation, Miami came right out the gate throwing fireballs against a Milwaukee team working on the second night of a back-to-back, Nikola Jovic – getting the start – and Duncan Robinson hitting early and often, combining for 31 through two quarters plus another 13 from Tyler Herro, to earn a quick double-digit lead that ballooned out to 17 by the end of the half. Milwaukee hung around for a bit thanks to their downhill drive, Miami unable to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo (19 first-half points on 9-of-11 shooting) out of the paint, but while the threes kept flowing – Miami’s 12 threes, on 21 attempts, marked their season-high for makes in any half – it was the opportunistic approach to the paint, always working inside-out, that pushed them to a 138 Offensive Rating. And with the turnovers low while Milwaukee struggled with sloppy passing, it was effectively a perfect half on the scoring end, one not too different from some of the halves they had against the Bucks in the postseason last year, only minus Butler.
Milwaukee came out firing in the third, finding their range behind two deep pulls from Damian Lillard, to get back within single digits before the midway point of the period even as Miami continued to create workable separation on any Bam Adebayo screen. The HEAT’s offense proved more sustainable, especially with Jovic finishing play after play, banking in a few on the right side and hitting another corner triple. Four minutes after Milwaukee’s 14-4 run, Miami was back up 20 after Robinson drained another hand-in-face three.
The Bucks would never threaten again, their starters removed from the game midway through the fourth as the lead flirted with the 30-point mark. A feel-good night all the way through with no silver linings for the other side as Robinson (23 points on 12 shots), Herro, Jovic and Kevin Love (19 points on eight shots) combined to hit all 19 of the HEAT’s threes through the competitive portion and Adebayo completed his seventh career triple double. Miami takes it with aplomb, 123-97, as they held Milwaukee to a 96.0 Offensive Rating, a game in Philadelphia looming Wednesday before the All-Star break.
2. New Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers has spent much of the early stages of his tenure discussing his team’s defense, and after a convincing victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night Rivers spoke at some length about how much better his group was at not getting picked, at fighting over the top of screens and contesting shots. While that certainly was true against the reigning champions, tonight any Adebayo screen was almost always followed by an open look.
If Adebayo set a screen for Herro or a handoff for Robinson to run off, he was stonewalling Milwaukee’s guards to the point that either Herro or Robinson either had a clear three against Milwaukee’s traditional drop coverage or a clear path to getting deep in the paint, where a big inevitably had to make a choice to help or stick to Adebayo’s roll. It was an untenable situation for Milwaukee, one that Miami was happy to repeat over and over and over again, getting on such a roll that by the time the Bucks’ guards were able to manage some good contests, Robinson was in such a rhythm he hit shots with a hand in his face anyways.
That’s how it went all night for the HEAT. They had to make the shots, sure, but they were generating them with such ease. At one point in the first half, Herro got a standstill, wide-open three when Milwaukee sent an obvious double at Kevin Love just one pass away. In the third quarter, Robinson drew three defenders on a drive which left Jovic wide open in the weak corner, no defender in sight. Also in the third, Love stepped back off a routine double screen during an inbounds play and had time to test the wind before firing. Good process, a commitment to movement and spacing, is going to beat bad process more often than not, and you don’t get many better examples than this. Nights like this might seem like magic, but the reasons behind them are rooted entirely in reality.
3. While Miami eventually ran away with this one, and then some, after Milwaukee’s brief third-quarter push, with veterans like Robinson, Herro, Adebayo and Love all turning in excellent evenings while Jaime Jaquez Jr. put in some of his better minutes since returning from a groin injury, it was Jovic, back in the starting lineup, who was the first surprise of the night.
One of the first things you think of on night’s like this, Jovic coming out firing with zero hesitation, is how much confidence Erik Spoelstra and his staff pump into their young players when the opportunity is staring them in the face. You’re here to do the things you do well, we know you can do them well, so go do them, one can imagine them saying. And so Jovic goes from being out of the rotation to starting on the road against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, taking advantage of every glimmer of advantage he could find, taking the first shot of the game and never hitting the brakes from there. We’ve seen Jovic have some good shooting nights before, his five threes tonight a career-high, but he also mixed in some finesse finishes, getting downhill and softly dropping the make in off the glass, on his way to a career-high 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Time will tell how Jovic factors into the rotation once Miami starts getting some options back off the injury report, but whenever the minutes come these are the kind of games that stand as a touchstone on a player development timeline.