Thanks to a collective team effort, the HEAT remained perfect in the preseason and defeated the Magic 107-98 Thursday night at Amway Center.
Let’s see how they did it.
1. Jimmy Gets Buckets
Entering the night, Jimmy Butler hadn’t scored as much in the preseason as we’re used to seeing.
Well, you can forget about that now.
With Orlando gaining some momentum midway through the second quarter, Butler calmed things down and scored 10 straight points for Miami.
That streak culminated early in the third, but the 30-year-old vet continued to finish plays at the rim with relative ease, both in the half court and in transition.
Just check out this tough bucket with contact over Nikola Vučević for proof of that:
Gotta love it.
Of course, Butler also created for his teammates early on and played great defense on Aaron Gordon throughout the contest.
When it was all said and done, the forward stuffed the stat sheet with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, six rebounds, six assists, one steal, one block and a game-high plus-15 rating.
2. Winslow Drops Dimes
Simply put, Justise Winslow had a quick start and never looked back.
And while the 23-year-old struggled a bit from the field, he set up his teammates extremely well with fastball after fastball.
I mean, just take a look at these assists to Meyers Leonard and Butler on consecutive possessions in the third quarter:
Whoa.
Winslow ended up with seven points, a game-high 12 assists (would have been his career high if it was a regular season game), six boards and a team-high three steals.
3. KO Sharp In Return
Although Kelly Olynyk came into the contest without any prior action this preseason, it sure as heck didn’t look like it.
Shortly after checking in for the first time, he nailed a three off a pick-and-pop with Goran Dragić and converted two more buckets before Leonard came back in for him.
That said, Olynyk also did some damage in the fourth quarter and somehow got this shot to go despite being mauled by Mo Bamba:
Crafty.
In all, Olynyk amassed 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, one rebound and one assist.
Other Takeaways:
-Duncan Robinson earned his third start of the exhibition slate and ran the floor effectively for treys on the break. The former Michigan Wolverine finished with 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-8 from deep, two rebounds and a block.
-As seen above in the Winslow section, Leonard continued to make plays in the pick-and-roll and moved quite well off the ball.
Naturally, hammer time was in full effect with these two jams over Jonathan Isaac and Vučević, respectively:
In total, Leonard had 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting, three boards, two assists, a block and a plus-13 rating.
-After getting knocked down by Michael Carter-Williams in the third quarter, Tyler Herro showed a lot of moxie and drilled a three the next time down the floor. The rookie closed out the game with eight points, two rebounds and two steals.
Game Note:
-Udonis Haslem (Sprained Left Wrist) and James Johnson (Conditioning) did not travel.
Looking Ahead:
-The HEAT will get right back to it Friday night at 8PM against the Rockets. Tickets for that game at AmericanAirlines Arena can be found here.