Washington Wizards

none

Couper Moorhead

1. After Friday’s 60-point drubbing of the Portland Trail Blazers it would be easy to expect every game against a lottery team to be just as easy, but that’s not how the game nor the league works – especially in March.

Everything went as reasonably expected in the early going, Miami enduring an 0-of-7 start from three to go up a few possessions, but as soon as the bench rotations began to filter in the HEAT started giving up straight-line drives in bunches, a 12-4 Washington run to end the quarter keeping things knotted at 29 as Anthony Gill (12 first-half points, one off his season high for any full game) offered an unlikely scoring punch. Once Bam Adebayo returned the ship was righted on the defensive end and once a few threes started falling – Terry Rozier hitting in bunches, 20 points on 13 shots with four threes in the first two quarters – Miami was back in front. Washington kept it nip-and-tuck for a bit, trading leads as both sides traded free throws, but back-to-back Rozier threes kept the visitors in front by seven headed into the break.

More Miami to open the third, Washington giving up wide open looks to good shooters – Duncan Robinson had time to test the wind in semi-transition, Rozier springing open after two defenders went with Butler on a rim cut – the lead quickly at 14. Washington kept it moving and competent on the offensive side, preventing the avalanche which befell Portland, but otherwise this second half was much like Friday’s, every three Miami hit a shot the Wizards were unlikely to make up. No such run coming from that Washington bench this time, either. HEAT by 15 after three quarters.

This wouldn’t have made for a very good movie script because the third act was nonexistent, most drama excavated from the story as Miami’s lead hovered around the mid-teens, Washington throwing the ball out of bounds and losing their dribbles uncontested. Washington did close to 10 with about four to play, hanging around, but Adebayo and Butler took care of that in quick order and that was that. Miami wins, 119-107, business taken care of before a tough upcoming week of games.

2. Great shotmaking night for Rozier, with 27 on 11-of-19 shooting by the close, and Adebayo worked the post with efficiency (22 points of 6-of-12 shooting), but it was one Adebayo assist in the fourth quarter that kept that stiff arm strong against a Wizards group that was keeping the window open.

After Washington closed it to 10, Erik Spoelstra called timeout and came out of it with a classic HEAT look, Adebayo holding outside the left elbow as Rozier and Butler ran a split action at the opposite elbow – actions Miami will run with just about any combination of offensive-minded players, especially with a good shooter – and as Rozier set a back screen for Butler the Wizards failed to switch, Rozier’s defender opting to stay with the outside threat, and Butler had daylight on a cut to the rim. One nice bounce pass from Adebayo later, Butler was dunking and Washington’s mini run was deflated, Spoelstra settling his team’s offense with an intentional set. Those plays were a big part of Miami’s postseason run last season – remember Butler springing free into the paint during the comeback bid in Milwaukee for Game 5 – and it’s typically a good sign for those moments ahead. Playoff games always have deciding moments, where things are starting to turn and you need a bucket or two, and the HEAT being able to get easy looks coming out of the huddle should be encouraging. If you go back and look, quite a few of Adebayo’s lobs come out of similarly designed actions, with specifically designed spacing.

3. This was not a game with much of anything that could be held against Miami outside of maybe allowing Washington to hang around a little too long in the final period, but it did provide a little note for something that has come up before which is those straight-line drives allowed. Miami has tried to minimize those plays this season by playing Adebayo in more drop coverage than he’s played in years, but teams try and scheme their offense around Adebayo no matter what coverage he’s in, drawing him to the ball and getting off it to allow someone else to attack where Adebayo isn’t. With Washington shooting sub-30 percent from three it was those drives which allowed the Wizards to stay attached – attached in the same way they were a couple weeks ago when a barrage of threes pushed them to victory – as they shot 19-of-30 at the rim and an additional 9-of-16 in the paint.

Adebayo cleaned everything up as best he could, Washington only finishing with an Offensive Rating of 104.9 at the end, but the solution that jammed up the Wizards for a stretch was, again, the zone. Miami’s secret weapon has been as important as ever at stopping dribble penetration this season, especially with a weaponized Adebayo calling the shots from the backline of it rather than it being reserved for bench units, but there are good teams looming in the postseason that will handle the press-zone with more consistency. The defense won the night, in the end, and Adebayo continued his push for Defensive Player of the Year, but it’s always worth taking stock of nights when a team hangs around without the typically requisite good shooting against what may soon be a Top 5 defensive side.

coups-takeaways-terry-rozier-bam-adebayo-lead-businesslike-win-at-washington

Coup's Takeaways : Terry Rozier, Bam Adebayo Lead Businesslike Win At Washington

The Miami HEAT are 35-29, No. 8 in the Eastern Conference with a Net Rating of +0.6, No. 16 in the league. With a rematch against Denver coming Wednesday before a pair of road games in Detroit, here’s what we’ve been noting and noticing.

Dallas coach Jason Kidd made an interesting comment during his pregame press conference on Thursday night, as tweeted by the Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman, noting that a priority that night was to take away corner threes from Miami, a team that had been outside the Top 10 in corner three attempt rate headed into that game. Still, that logic tends to track given the value of an open corner three. Taking it away is generally not a bad plan.

Then the Mavericks did just about the exact opposite.

During this three-game losing streak the HEAT have scored 110.1 points per 100 possessions, just below their season average of 113.4, while shooting 38 percent from three – an odd combination but one that tracks when you consider Miami is shooting 68 percent from the free-throw line and just 41 percent in the upper paint as compared to their season average of 46 percent.

The free throws will come around but those upper paint numbers, where Miami leads the league in frequency at 27.5 percent of their total attempts, are key given their role in the offensive system. As much as there is always going to be variance baked into small sample sizes, the past three games have provided good reasons for the temporary efficiency dip in that zone, and here’s where we get back to Dallas. While the Mavericks may have wanted to take away corner threes – you also have to consider the possibility that Kidd was employing a bit of gamesmanship – they wound up allowing 18 attempts in total, a season high for Miami. Washington gave up 15 corner threes – tying Miami’s previous season high – and the Thunder allowed 11, still in the Top 20 for HEAT games this season. Altogether, Miami has averaged 15.3 corner three attempts per 100 possessions in these past three games (making 40.9 percent of them), up from their average of 10.4. The season leader, Dallas, attempts 11.9 per 100 possessions.

How are those corner threes related to the dip in upper paint percentages? In their own ways, all three opponents played a style of defense that involves providing extra help – early, late or both – in the paint. And when there are extra bodies in the paint, that means there are fewer defenders on the perimeter than there are shooters stationed at the arc. Once teams get into rotation, the ball will often naturally find the corners if it is moving as intended, or the player with the ball in the paint can make the play to the weakside corner left uncovered by the collapsing defensive shell.

While the Mavericks disrupted Miami’s offense last season with hard doubles in the post, on Thursday they were a bit more advanced, stacking help behind Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler’s post-ups and isolations with peeled defenders or strong-side zones before sending help in late clock situations. Shooters were open, but the paint was clogged.

notebook-72-dallas-triplet-coverage

Notebook 72: Dallas Triplet Coverage

The Thunder did much of the same, fewer soft doubles but plenty of timed – based on the clock, the dribble or the move – help with defenders zoning up in the paint to deter anything going downhill. If the ball entered the paint, the defense did everything it could to get it out.

notebook-72-okc-triplet-coverage

Notebook 72: OKC Triplet Coverage

Washington, meanwhile, playing small without centers, sent hard doubles at Adebayo post-ups while again strong-side zoning his and Butler’s other-angled attacks, with defenders peeling off their perimeter assignments to cut off the lower paint. There was very little in the way of true one-on-one play.

notebook-72-washington-triplet-defense

Notebook 72: Washington Triplet Defense

“It’s just something we got to adjust to,” Adebayo said of the similar coverages Miami has been seeing. “Get in the film room, watch and see how we can correct it. Get in more of a flow. When you start to see more of the same type of defense you get in more of a flow, you start seeing the skip passes, you start seeing the guys who cut backdoor. Because when you collect all that attention sometimes guys are ball watching. Sometimes as the offensive player, you got to make plays.”

Miami’s shot quality has been right at their season average the past three games, as has their effective field-goal percentage. It’s their free-throw attempts, many of which come from that upper paint area and on restricted area attacks, and percentages that have been down. The shots have still been there, especially against the Wizards where some good looks from three would have turned the game, there just haven’t been any truly sustained explosive offensive performances, the past three defenses succeeding in taking away one strength while putting themselves in rotation to cover others.

The HEAT have adjusted to these sort of coverages before – notably the New York Knicks favor this sort of style – after they started seeing more of them last season, but they also represent the next step in their evolution in some ways. Drop coverage gave the HEAT issues for years, then they adjusted and regularly have great scoring nights against it. Switching defenses have been a problem in the past, and they still flatten Miami out some with the right personnel, but behind Butler and Adebayo the offense has shifted to better exploit mismatches with post-ups and isolations. Now some teams respect what Adebayo and Butler can do in their one-on-one matchups so much that they’re doing everything they can to get the ball out of their comfort zones. This isn’t so much a concern as it is a very specific three-game trend against teams with practiced habits.

Sure enough Miami also still had plenty of restricted area attempts in all three games –matching their season average of 19.8 per 100 possessions, surpassing their percentages with 73.7 percent shooting – they just had to get to them in different ways, hitting cutters and using second-side drives against a bent defense. The puzzle was solved, in a sense. It was execution that eluded the HEAT, particularly in the second halves of the losses where their defense (130.9 Defensive Rating) after halftime has been a greater issue than the offensive side of the ball.

One final note on this is that these amorphous strong-side zones, with help coming every which way but never the same way twice in a row, is partially what had Miami’s offense out of whack in the 2011 Finals as Dallas loaded up bodies in front of LeBron James. There’s no greater level of respect for forwards and centers than double teams and quarterback-spy style zones. Butler and Adebayo have earned that.

One of the more positive stories of the past two weeks for Miami has been the play of Terry Rozier, averaging 18 points a game on 48-38.9-93.3 scoring splits in his seven games since returning from a knee injury on February 27. Of note, though all four of Miami’s losses during that stretch have been clutch games, Rozier is second on the team in fourth-quarter scoring at 5.1 per quarter on 55.6 shooting and 40 percent from three.

While Tyler Herro being out has prevented us from seeing all of the HEAT’s primary scorers and playmakers together at the same time – the sorting out of that blend of usage rates remains one of the most interesting unanswered questions of the season – Rozier has been Miami’s lead ballhandler in terms of pick-and-roll actions, leading the team with 180 pick-and-rolls during this seven-game stretch, ahead of Butler in second place with 105 and Duncan Robinson in third with 50. Rozier and Adebayo has been the lead combination, as would be expected, with 104 pick-and-rolls, 65 more than any other pair on the team. With Adebayo in a shooting slump the efficiency, 0.95 points-per, hasn’t jumped off the screen, but Rozier has put together 1.04 points-per across all of his pick-and-rolls, even higher than the 0.99 he was posting during his career-best stretch in Charlotte.

As they’ve dropped recent clutch games, Miami’s is still +9.6 per 100 possessions in fourth quarters during this seven-game stretch. Even in the losses, they’ve generally had a chance to win down the stretch because of Rozier’s shotmaking. Still plenty to sort out when the team in healthy, but after that initial feeling-out process Rozier has been doing exactly what he was acquired to do.

Last week we discussed how Erik Spoelstra has been utilizing zone in fourth quarters, patiently waiting to spring it on some teams like a trap when they won’t have time to adjust. Against Detroit last Tuesday it appeared as though it was going to happen again as Spoelstra only sprinkled in a handful of zone possessions across three quarters versus a team that would, on paper, be susceptible to it due to their deficiencies in shooting and playmaking, and then ran off a couple zone possessions in two minutes – followed by another in a dead ball situation – in what was otherwise a clutch game.

Detroit didn’t score on any of those possessions – two ended with Jaden Ivey, career 34 percent three-point shooter amid a slump, taking open but end-of-clock threes – and it looked like the HEAT could confidently ride that coverage to victory. But just as quickly as Miami settled into zone, they got out of it. Adebayo did switch onto Cade Cunningham once, blocking him on a drive, but then Miami went back to drop coverage for a couple possessions, alternating between Adebayo being up at the level of the screen and playing back in the paint, before Adebayo started blitzing Cunningham to get the ball out of his hands and close out the game. In the span of five minutes, that’s four or five different coverages all executed by Adebayo.

But with the zone initially working just as well as it had in other recent victories, and Cunningham barely touching the ball on those possessions, why the initial change up from Spoelstra’s change up? Sometimes it’s not about what just happened but about what you see coming, and the need to be more than one thing at a time.

“They were getting to that pick-and-roll a few too many times and it was paint by numbers a little bit,” Spoelstra said. “They were getting this, they were getting that, then they were setting up that and getting this. All the little reads they were getting off of that. Cunningham is a great decision maker with the ball, he can read the scheme and is big so he can make all the different type of passes, then if you play the passing angles he can score. Some of this is just to try to get them out of that, for right or wrong.”

“It felt like [Cunningham] was getting to too many open spots, too many open looks, so let’s switch it up and see what happens. That’s my game, I feel like, when I get to switch and play that dynamic defense for us. But [other coverages have] been working for us all season, so if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

Adebayo wound up blitzing six pick-and-rolls against Detroit, one off his season high of seven that came against Charlotte earlier this season. He also hasn’t switched more than 10 screens in a game since mid-January. Also worth noting that Adebayo only defended six total fourth-quarter pick-and-rolls against both Dallas and Oklahoma City, as both Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander attacked other spots in Miami’s defense down the stretch rather than involve Adebayo in the play at all. Adebayo only defended 11 pick-and-rolls total against the Thunder, three off his season low and his lowest total of 2024 after defending 12 against Oklahoma City in 2024. Where Detroit kept bringing Adebayo up, allowing him to toggle between variations of coverages, the Thunder avoided him altogether.

Then, against Washington and their smallball, Miami only used two zone possessions all game, both in the third quarter, and wound up switching a season-high 39 pick-and-rolls. Adebayo was his usual stout self when switched out, but the Wizards were also smart about going away from him to hunt more advantageous matchups. In the 28 pick-and-rolls that didn’t involve Adebayo switching, Miami allowed 1.21 points-per.

It had been well over a month since we’ve seen much of Nikola Jovic playing the five spot, the last semi-elongated instance being back on January 17 against the Toronto Raptors with Jovic being in and out of the rotation in that time, but we got perhaps the biggest dose of it all season Friday against the Thunder. With Kevin Love injured and neither Thomas Bryant or Orlando Robinson getting minutes, Jovic played backup center for 32 possessions stretched across 17 minutes as Miami went plus-11 in that time.

Love’s absence was clearly a major factor here as he’s been entrenched at the backup spot whenever he’s been available, but the other matchup-specific factor was that the Thunder were rotating in backup center Jaylin Williams to play a decent amount of minutes against Adebayo leaving Chet Holmgren across from whoever Spoelstra played as Miami’s backup five. So this wasn’t Spoelstra throwing Jovic out against a bigger, traditional center, but the look does allow Miami to mimic the five-out – five-out doesn’t always mean all five players are outside the arc, as the HEAT always have their cutters and players rotating into the dunker spots, just that all five players are a threat to shoot – spacing they get with Love, and sure enough they scored 140 points per 100 possessions in those 17 minutes while allowing just 106.25 per 100 from Oklahoma City. Those small-sample numbers are affected by Miami shooting 45 percent from three while allowing 21 percent, but you win the minutes you can win however you can win them.

On that note about five-out spacing not always meaning all five players are out, Spoelstra utilized Jovic a decent amount in the post when he was at the five, leveraging his playmaking skills inside the teeth of the defense against the geography of the floor.

notebook-72-jovic-post-assist

Notebook 72: Jovic Post Assist

You’re not always going to have Patty Mills sitting under the rim wide open on a split action, but Jovic has been showing for weeks now that he can make most any pass on the floor, at least from a stationary position. His entry passes continue to be among the best on the team, and perhaps the best at emulating Kyle Lowry’s past chemistry with Butler.

notebook-72-jovic-entry-pass

Notebook 72: Jovic Entry Pass

With Washington effectively not having any centers available on Sunday night, playing small the entire game, Spoelstra went back to Jovic at the five for another stretch. Miami won those 10 minutes by four points, but this time the value was primarily on the defensive end as they scored just 104.7 points per 100 while allowing just 94.7 to a Washington bench lacking in playmaking.

-While we wrote last week about Spoelstra using zone in fourth quarters to shut teams down – which, again, they tried against Detroit as well before changing coverages – they didn’t use any fourth quarter zone against Dallas or Oklahoma City after trying it earlier in those games. The Thunder scored 1.33 in 18 zone possessions, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joining Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic in the rare tier of player who has adjusted to just about any coverage Miami throws at them, and Dallas scored 1.71 against seven zone possessions.

-Miami had four restricted area scores in the first four minutes against Dallas, the second time they’ve done that this season after scoring six times in that zone early against Atlanta in mid-January.

-Kyle Kuzma's pull-up transition three that gave Washington the lead for good with 8:17 left was just his third such make of the season. He had previously only even attempted six pull-up transition threes.

coup-notebook-vol-72-defensive-coverage-triplet-terry-rozier-leading-the-pick-and-roll-game-nikola-jovic-at-center-and-changing-up-fourth-quarter-defense

Coup's Notebook Vol. 72: A Defensive Coverage Triplet, Terry Rozier Leading The Pick-And-Roll Game, Nikola Jovic At Center And Changing Up Fourth Quarter Defense

1. If you were looking for the beautiful game this Sunday evening, you weren’t going to find it in this one.

The Washington Wizards have been officially eliminated from the postseason race, but for a team that has ranked at the bottom of the league defensively all season and was missing it’s two primary centers tonight they came out with a defensive focus that had Miami a bit out of sorts for stretches. Washington wasn’t exactly sorted on their own offensive end, either, with both teams combining for 18 first-half turnovers, which led to a bit of a slog in the early going, Miami missing at the rim and the free-throw line while Washington struggled from the perimeter. Still, the HEAT were able to get enough via Bam Adebayo offensive rebounds and Terry Rozier drives to push out to a double-digit lead in the second quarter only for Washington to come back – transition offense, the occasional three, a ton of matchup hunting on the perimeter – and make it a three-point game. That lead was back to six before the break, but those who sought inspiration were left waiting.

Fewer mistakes, a little more flow to the offense in the third, Rozier and Adebayo working the side pick-and-roll to Washington’s detriment, but the Wizards were still hitting enough shots to hang around. Even with Jimmy Butler (23 points on 20 shots) working his way to the rim so, too, did Kuzma, who also worked his way to the line with early, determined drives. Miami by just one entering the fourth having assisted on just half of their makes while Washington’s three-point volume, even on lower efficiency, kept them close.

More mintues for Nikola Jovic as the backup five with Kevin Love still out, Jovic taking advantage of the floor spacing for a couple of strong drives, but more Kuzma early in the fourth gave Washington a one-point lead with eight to play, a transition pull-up three following up a couple of interior scores. Washington found their threes at that point, hitting more in a span of a couple minutes than they had in earlier quarters, putting them up five with four and a half to play, seven on another pair of Kuzma free throws and ten, with two to play, on another Kuzma three even as Duncan Robinson hit a pair from the corners. Miami was on the precipice, but quickly on the comeback trail as Washington killed clock against the zone, the deficit down to four with just over a minute left after Butler reached the line, then two with 30 seconds to go after a Butler tip-in on a wild sequence of offensive rebounds.

For as much as Kuzma had hurt Miami, he also gave them a chance with a traveling violation and an offensive foul in the closing minutes as Washington failed to score after going up 110-100. Miami had the ball, down two with the shot clock off, but solid looks for Robinson and Butler bounced off and Washington took it, 110-108.

2. Washington may not have a ton to play for, but they’re clearly still playing hard and the longer you let a team playing hard hang around the more susceptible you are to the variance of the game down the stretch. Variance came back to bite Miami in a big way tonight as Washington shot 6-of-9 from three in the fourth while the HEAT shot 3-of-14 from the same distance. You give Corey Kispert (22 points on 8-of-15 shooting) credit for setting screens all night as Washington ran their small-ball lineups, Deni Avdija for hitting his first three of the night right in front of Miami’s bench and to the always low-turnover Tyus Jones for managing Miami’s press in those closing minutes, making sure the clock drained even though Washington wasn’t scoring. But in the end, even with those two mistakes, this came down to Kuzma making plays, including a contested three from the left wing in a go-nowhere possession, while Miami struggled to finish at the rim – Washington wasn’t quite collapsing the same as the Thunder the other night, but they brought enough help to clog things up at the right times – 20-of-38 in all (52.6 percent) and 4-of-10 in the fourth. The Wizards aren’t going to win any awards for offensive process, for the game or the final period, but as the HEAT have learned so many times throughout the years, you play hard and stick to your defense long enough, you’ll often be rewarded with the shots you need to give yourself a chance.

3. Washington is not a team that runs a ton of particularly advanced offense but they did come out with a particular plan in mind, mostly to find desirable pick-and-roll combinations and one-on-one matchups and attack them from the perimeter. That meant a ton of time for Kyle Kuzma and Deni Avdija with the ball in their hands seeking out Miami’s smaller or less fleet-of-foot defenders and barreling into the lane with spin moves – seriously, there were a lot of Kuzma spin moves – and euro steps for tough finishes at the rim. It kept Washington’s offense above water for a bit before the perimeter struggles pulled it under, but beyond tonight it was, in a backwards way, an interesting reminder of what lies ahead in terms of the postseason. Most teams don’t matchup hunt, especially in the first three quarters, to this degree because they want to build up a diverse offensive menu and the good habits that come with those over the course of a season. Inevitably, however, the slower, more deliberate playoffs become about who can find the weak links in the chain and exploit them. For a young player like Nikola Jovic who has never experienced competitive postseason minutes, those are healthy reminders. When you get to April, May and June, it’s, as Adebayo would put it, Guard Your Yard time.

coups-takeaways-wizards-catch-fire-fourth-heat-comeback-falls-short

Coup's Takeaways: Wizards Catch Fire In The Fourth As HEAT Comeback Bid Falls Short

1. The sailing wasn’t so smooth after a 38-assist affair against Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, but Jimmy Butler is more than happy to work in choppy waters.

Some awkward turnovers to open this one on Miami’s side as the Wizards gained a little early comfort as the score remained tight until the bench rotations transitioned in and Corey Kispert’s shooting carried Washington to a couple double-digit leads. Every time Washington would start to pull away, Jimmy Butler would pull Miami right back into the thick of it, the Wizards unable to deal with his physicality on the drive. And yet, Washington, a team well aware of its best chance at victory, just kept on firing away while their perimeter switching jammed up most non-Butler actions. Nine offensive rebounds, for near-perfect second-chance efficiency, raised the floor enough to allow for the occasional burst to keep the HEAT around, an 8-0 run right at the end of the second period – and a Butler three at the buzzer – keeping the deficit at three, just a bump in the road rather than a hill to climb.

The third quarter resembled the Sacramento game in a very specific way. With the man-to-man looks once again on the shaky side, Erik Spoelstra dialed up the press-zone midway through the third for a long stretch. And like Sacramento’s offense, Washington’s completely unraveled, converting just two field goals through the final six minutes of the quarter – Miami doing their usual Miami things, scoring off cuts, opportunistic drives, getting to the line and eventually getting a couple threes to fall – as the third goes 31-15 Miami for an eventual 87-74 lead going into the fourth.

Miami didn’t quite keep the lead high enough for Butler to be able to rest on the bench for the rest of the night, though, as the Wizards fought back with a 7-0 run after falling behind by 17. The night was giving few hints that Washington would threaten after that, but with two minutes to go, after a Kispert drive, they were within seven. In the final minute, the clutch game threshold reached, Jordan Poole had the opportunity to close to three with about 30 seconds to go as he missed a free-throw. And that was that, Miami overcoming their own 7-of-31 shooting from the arc for a 110-102 victory.

2. While the defense won this game in the second half, particularly in the final 18 minutes even with the Wizards making a late push, and the HEAT had Washington’s defense looking the wrong way plenty of times – the HEAT shot 20-of-22 at the rim with so many passes caught right near or going to the restricted area – it was Butler (24 points on 10 shots) who paced the game early and prevented his team from having too big a boulder to push up that proverbial hill.

Washington has some bigger, switchable bodies to throw Butler’s way, they just couldn’t do much of anything with him in the first half as he dipped his shoulders down and worked his way through contact. Then, when the Wizards committed even more help Butler’s way in the second half, pulling in a second defender from the weakside to stop his drives at 12 feet rather than six, Butler slowly and methodically used his allowed steps after the gather to spin, turn or pirouette away from the help and find an open player to keep the offense moving. He only finished with three assists with the shots not falling – Miami had 24 assists on 38 makes – but that total doesn’t reflect the degree to which he pulled the HEAT out of the mud with his paint attacks. Throw in a team-high four offensive boards (Miami finished with 14) and you have yourself a typical, yet hugely impactful, Butler evening.

3. It’s a movie we’ve seen plenty of times before. A team with a weak Offensive Rating for the season gets going in the first half behind some good shooting and a dedication to mismatch hunting, gaining a lead on a HEAT group struggling with their own efficiency on the road. Miami hangs around thanks to the talents of Butler, their dedication to moving in the half court and an assortment of random plays they always have in their back pocket – backcourt steals, offensive boards, opportunistic transition attacks – keeping them within striking distance. Then, when the man-to-man gives up another burst of scoring in the third quarter, Spoelstra pushes the zone button and that same team that came into the game with weaker offensive numbers discombobulates for a long stretch, shifting the entire game in Miami’s direction.

That’s what the zone does to teams, that’s what the zone has been doing to teams for years on years, and it’s the second game in a row where Spoelstra’s gambit completely changed the rhythm and tenor of the proceedings. Like Sacramento, Washington lacked anyone who could consistently make plays in the middle of the zone – Josh Richardson and Caleb Martin at the head of the snake up top – it’s typical soft spot, with Bam Adebayo ready for all combatants in that particular arena, and with Washington struggling mightily from deep on relatively high volume – 11-of-42 for 26 percent, Poole going 2-of-14 on his own – there existed few avenues for efficient offense. For the night, Washington scored just 0.68 points-per in 25 possessions, with 21 of those coming in the second half.

coups-takeaways-heat-hang-around-behind-butler-in-first-half-pull-away-with-defense-in-the-second

Coup's Takeaways: HEAT Hang Around Behind Butler In First Half, Pull Away With Defense In The Second

1. After facing a series of opponents with elite defensive personnel, the HEAT opened the In-Season Tournament with against a Wizards team allowing 118.3 points per 100 possessions after finishing No. 21 in defense last season.

It showed, with Miami running an Offensive Rating of 147.8 in the first quarter, generally getting any looks that they wanted and enjoying free lanes to the rim, especially when Daniel Gafford subbed out and Danilo Gallinari slotted in at center. Problem was, at least in the early going, Washington was enjoying what might end up as one of the most efficient first quarters of the season, making 10 of their first 11 shots and all five of their first five threes. But even as Washington had only missed two shots through the first eight minutes, they trailed by two thanks to a series of turnovers.

Once Washington cooled off, their bench units slowing down against Miami’s full-court pressure and the cutting lanes drying up, their defense kept allowing the same looks it was allowing before and the HEAT started to create a little separation, going up by as much as 10 late in the second. Eight Miami players scored at least four points – Jaime Jaquez Jr. sliced inside for a couple of explosive layups – and Tyler Herro was in full control with 12 points, eight boards and seven assists. Only a six-point lead at the break, but considering Washington’s torrid shooting start, any advantage at all was significant.

A couple minutes into the third it was Miami by 13, Washington players running into screens like walls as Herro sprung comfortably open while Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler moved off the ball for easy paint touches. There was resistance, but not much of it. By the late stages of the quarter, Miami was up 20 and it sure felt like it thanks to a staggering difference in shot quality. Sure, it helps to be shooting 60 percent (12-of-20) from three, but that’ll happen when you know great looks are coming your way.

No need for the clutch this time – though Washington getting back within 10, after a 15-0 run, prompted Spoelstra to reinsert Adebayo and Butler rather than cruise with his bench – as the HEAT improve to 2-4 and 1-0 in their In-Season Tournament group with a 121-114 final.

2. While this was another excellent, patient and controlled game for Herro (24 points on 17 shots, 10 rebounds and nine assists), flirting with a triple double for most of the night, Herro was already playing well. This a far more important night for the team as a whole, after a mostly inefficient first five games of the season, to get back on track after Erik Spoelstra noted they spent much of practice the day before getting their approach right.

Decent chance we won’t be able to look back on this game as a panacea in a couple months if Washington continues to defend like this – the degree to which the HEAT casually eviscerated the Wizards defense in the 41-point third, cutting through it like butter at a jogging pace, cannot be overstated – but you play who is in front of you and sometimes you just need a game to get everything back on track, from the spacing to the ball movement to the shot selection, and the opponent doesn’t matter beyond that. This early in the season, you just need to see it happen, to know what a team is capable of when everything is clicking and the shots are falling.

Did Miami prove themselves as an elite offense tonight? Hardly. But they proved they can have elite offensive performances, albeit against a weaker defensive unit, and there were stretches last season where that was the sort of evidence we had to work on as far as projecting postseason viability. There’s may be more to prove, you just have to start somewhere and this, with a 121 offensive rating and 35 assists on 48 scores, is as strong a first step as they could have possibly made.

3. Changes to the starting lineup can only be so dramatic in the first two weeks of the season, especially when you open the schedule will multiple potential rotation players on the injury report, nevertheless the most important big-picture item to come out of this game was Haywood Highsmith taking over starting duties for Kevin Love after Jaime Jaquez Jr. had previously been given an opportunity in Highsmith’s first game back from his knee injury.

It wasn’t a dramatic evening for Highsmith (eight points, 2-of-3 from deep), but Highsmith isn’t a player who is going to do that very often in the same was P.J. Tucker wasn’t going to do it very often. Highsmith’s job is to provide excellent, multi-positional defense on one end and reliable spot-up shooter on the other – again, much like Tucker two seasons ago – and we haven’t seen anything to suggest he can’t, or won’t, provide just that. Given Spoelstra’s history, as long as the HEAT are winning at a reasonable rate he’ll stick with his most recent move, so there’s a decent chance Highsmith is a starter for at least the near future if all goes well enough.

Washington Wizards

Coup's Takeaways : Terry Rozier, Bam Adebayo Lead Businesslike Win At Washington

Coup's Notebook Vol. 72: A Defensive Coverage Triplet, Terry Rozier Leading The Pick-And-Roll Game, Nikola Jovic At Center And Changing Up Fourth Quarter Defense

Coup's Takeaways: Wizards Catch Fire In The Fourth As HEAT Comeback Bid Falls Short

Coup's Takeaways: HEAT Hang Around Behind Butler In First Half, Pull Away With Defense In The Second

Coup's Takeaways: HEAT Open In-Season Tournament With 41-Point Third Quarter As Herro Nears Triple Double