Couper Moorhead

1. This one felt like the early stages of the Eastern Conference Finals, at least early on.

Miami looked like the more composed team through the first few shifts, with Bam Adebayo (27 points on 24 shots) attacking the Kristaps Porzingis matchup, Adebayo shutting down the Jaylen Brown matchup on the other end and Tyler Herro (28 points on 19 shots) making all the shots he never got to take in the postseason. At one point Miami was up, 16-13, but Boston was half a second away from forcing a shot clock violation. Instead, Herro got the ball up on the rim from 30 feet, and 30 seconds later, after a pair of Herro threes, Miami led by 11.

That lead held for a bit, even as it shrunk, with Duncan Robinson and Dru Smith – including one in transition – each dropping in a pair of threes, but as the Celtics calmed their turnover nerves with offensive boards and drives, they eventually took the lead on a backcourt steal from Brown. By halftime, despite 29 combined points from Adebayo and Herro, it was Boston by five having a 25-3 advantage on restricted area attempts – more than Boston had taken in any postseason game against Miami in the past two seasons, though we should note that Haywood Highsmith, Caleb Martin and Josh Richardson were all out for the HEAT on the defensive side of things.

All Herro and Adebayo from there as Miami tied it up midway through the third, only for Kyle Lowry to immediately take the lead with a scrambling transition three. With Miami 12-of-22 on above-the-break threes at that point, you could excuse Boston fans for having flashbacks to the most recent seven-game series.

Boston by six early in the fourth after a quick run by Derrick White (28 points on 15 shots), but sure enough there was Smith with his third three of the night to keep things within one possession. Another clutch game, because of course, even as Boston stretched the lead to eight just after the clutch qualifications were met, each side trading incredible defensive plays (Adebayo, as you’d expect, was heavily involved). Miami’s shooting – 15-of-30 above the break at the close – kept them very much in it while the Celtics threatened to punctuate the evening, but their final threes missed as Boston held on, 119-111. The story of the past few seasons has often been Boston’s struggles to score in the final period against Miami, but with their roster changes things looked a little looser as they won the fourth, 32-23, though the HEAT held them to just five restricted area attempts in the second half.

2. For Adebayo, this was a continuation of all the offensive development of last season that he carried into and built on in the playoffs. For Herro, this was a chance to show what he could have offered had he not broken his hand in the first-round last year. Both delivered, and then some.

While Adebayo has hardly been reticent to attack Al Horford in recent seasons, the length of Robert Williams III has given just about every HEAT player a little pause when it came to attacking the rim. Now Williams isn’t there anymore, having been traded to Portland for Jrue Holiday in the aftermath of the Damian Lillard deal, and in his place is Porzingis. Porzingis is an interior deterrent in his own right, but you wouldn’t know it by the way Adebayo was going at him from tip. Granted, Porzingis got caught in a highlight just trying to help on an Adebayo roll and got a couple stops on his own, but Adebayo established early that he was going body to body and getting to his spots, either out of picks – Miami had a lot of success with pocket passes against Porzingis last year – or straight post-ups. The aggression sustained, too, as Adebayo was still taking Porzingis off the dribble in the fourth for an and-one.

Porzingis also factored into Herro’s night, in a different way. When Horford was starting, Boston would often switch 1-through-5. Even with Williams in the lineup, they were pre-switch him out of actions so they could then switch screens small-to-small. But with Porzingis now, the Celtics have him in a more comfortable drop coverage while they otherwise switch 1-through-4, which means Herro has space to shoot anytime he can cleanly come off a screen. And sure enough, with Miami fighting to stay in striking distance, Herro nailed two top-arc threes early in the third – while also taking Holiday off the dribble to the rim at one point and getting Miami within four with a three in the final 90 seconds.

3. Miami point guard rotation has been a popular discussion topic for the past couple of weeks, with Lowry turning 38 in March and Smith needing to prove himself, but tonight we saw great work from each of them as they combined for 21 points on 13 shots, 6-of-8 from three, with eight assists to just two turnovers. Nobody is expecting fireworks from these two, but fireworks aren’t often going to be necessary for them to contribute to winning.

If last season is any indication, Lowry is going to pick his spots for when to be aggressive. After taking just one shot against Detroit on Wednesday, he took seven tonight as he was also more aggressive getting downhill to draw in the defense. Lowry might still be the best passer on the team, setting up Adebayo and Herro and Butler in all of their comfort spots, so even when he isn’t shooting much he’s still adding value – not to mention his defensive playmaking – but aside from Herro he’s also the most likely threat to pull-up off the dribble from deep and that still might be the most important skillset in the league. Miami doesn’t make their run last season without Lowry. His skillset today is still tailor made for that time of year.

Smith also hasn’t been particularly aggressive from preseason through the first week of the season, so it was a bit of a revelation when he pulled up on a fast break to drop in a three. You don’t have to watch Smith, with three steals tonight, for long to see what Erik Spoelstra would like about his defense – good hands always fit into Miami’s assertive scheme – but if he’s going to be a consistent and aggressive shooter, with low turnovers throughout, then he could be of much greater value than people seem to think. He’s a different player than Gabe Vincent, or at least he started as a different player while Miami molds him into a similar role, but the same outline is there in terms of impact, eventually.

coups-takeaways-adebayo-herro-clutch-boston-celtics

Coup’s Takeaways: Bam Adebayo And Tyler Herro Give Miami Their Chance As Celtics Holds On In Final Minutes

On one side, you have a veteran, experienced team coming off their second consecutive deep postseason run in their home opener. On the other, a young, hungry and talented group with minimal continuity getting their first minutes together this season. Think for a few seconds what that matchup would look like.

You just watched HEAT vs. Pistons. Well, most of it.

Detroit found themselves up 12-5 early, hitting threes using their size on both ends, but it was the attrition of youth and inexperience which plagued them for the rest of the half as the HEAT no-mistaked their way to a double-digit lead. Only Cade Cunningham (18 points on 11 shots in the first half) had the patience in the half-court to attack Miami’s floor-shrinking defense as Detroit ran up 14 turnovers to Miami’s four. The rest of the Pistons were full steam ahead, brute forcing their way through driving lanes closing in on the ball, and on the other end the gap in game reps was best shown by who jumped at one, Miami consistently the pump fakers, Detroit the pump fakees biting on at least six rather mundane mid-range fakes as the Bam Adebayo (12 points on six shots in the half) got to the line and rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. – in the rotation tonight with Josh Richardson and Haywood Highsmith sidelined – got himself to the rim. Miami by 11 at the break despite average half-court efficiency, both teams making at least half their threes.

As they got out and got running in the second half, the Pistons momentarily threatened again, but the HEAT just kept running their stuff – and hitting their threes, albeit on low volume – to stay up by teens as Cunningham began to miss a few jumpers and Bam Adebayo did not. Still, Detroit hung around as they cut down their turnovers (none in the third), Miami leading 83-75 after three.

Miami’s bench took things from there, stretching the lead out to 19 just a couple of minutes in the fourth, and it looked like it would be a formality from there, but Cunningham flipped the youth vs. experience script and kept Detroit’s train on the rails as the lead shrunk to five following a 14-0 run. Fittingly, on the very next possession Jimmy Butler (19 points on 18 shots) got another player into the air with a fake and got himself to the line.

The first game of the season became a clutch game (editor’s note: we are so back) a one-point game with 1:44 to play after a Cunningham three. Adebayo (22 points on 13 shots) stopped Cunningham a couple of times to hold the lead, but Detroit still had a chance with 2.5 seconds left. A Cunningham miss as the clock expired, with plenty of nerves heard throughout the building as the shot went up. Detroit had the talent to take this one but Miami wins, 103-102, in exactly the way they know how.

2. Even though it’s the first game of the season and there’s a hunger for the fresh and the new, Miami looked almost exactly like you would expect them to look – a good thing if you’re thinking about postseason viability.

Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love joined Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler and Adebayo in the starting group and despite a slow start the process was mostly a carryover from last season, with Adebayo getting post touches, Herro calling Adebayo up for pick-and-rolls and Butler picking his spots to get into the paint. The rest of the rotation filled out with Thomas Bryant as the backup center, Caleb Martin the first off the bench, Dru Smith handling some point guard duties, Duncan Robinson – playing just as well as he did in the postseason, hitting 3-of-5 from three and leveraging his gravity to get himself downhill when appropriate – and, in perhaps a minor surprise, Jaquez Jr. While Jaquez Jr. is a four-year college player, thus just a bit more experienced than your typical one-and-one draftee, it’s not small thing that he looked like he belonged as Erik Spoelstra directed mid-post touches his way – touches that either became up-and-go fakes, attacking smaller players like Joe Harris, or patient and on-target passes for Robinson. Perhaps most encouraging was one possession where Jaquez Jr. (six points on 3-of-3 shooting, two assists, two steals) tried a move on the bigger Isaiah Stewart, ran into a wall and instead of forcing it, immediately found his escape route and got off the ball. Self-awareness is sometimes just as valuable as a deep bag.

As most everything about Miami’s offense looked every bit the part we’ve become familiar with and accustomed to – especially since last season when Herro joined the starters and Adebayo found his balance on that end – it was the rookie working out of the post and even bringing the ball up the floor, with the trust of his coach, who is the pleasant surprise of the night.

3. While this is Cunningham’s third season, it’s just the third game against the HEAT for the former No. 1 pick after missing most of last season. As such, even while all the buzz will be about the HEAT after winning their season opener in professional fashion, it’s always notable when they run up against a young player who is less-than-phased against a defense that has thwarted and confused many a talent.

In a similar manner to the way Luka Doncic has given them problems, Cunningham was patient but not passive with the ball, not allowing himself to get baited into driving at help while taking the open space when Miami afforded it to him because of the threat of his passing. There wasn’t much going to the rim, but with Detroit often having multiple big men on the floor there wasn’t much available going towards the rim, either, as nobody would claim that the Pistons are perfectly set up around Cunningham as most young teams are not as they learn about their building blocks. It was Cunningham who settled his team in the second half and Cunningham who scored or assisted on nearly Detroit’s entire run that nearly stole the game.

There aren’t many young talents in the league that have looked like Cunningham (30 points on 26 shots, nine assists) did tonight against a Spoelstra defense, and those players tend to be the ones you meet in the playoffs somewhere down the road.

coups-takeaways-bam-adebayo-leads-detroit-pistons-cade-cunningham

Coup’s Takeaways: Bam Adebayo Leads The Way, Secures The Win As Miami Tops Detroit In Final Seconds

1. The Heat were once again not at full strength, missing Jimmy Butler among others, which means the entire preseason has expired without a real dress rehearsal. Caleb Martin did play limited minutes for the first time after missing the first four games with knee tendinosis.

At least Bam Adebayo (11 points on six shots) got plenty of reps in over the past two weeks and once again much of the offense was running through him in the early going, with plenty of post-ups to chew on. While he spent much of the past two games attacking Jaren Jackson Jr. and Nic Claxton, tonight it was Alperen Sengun on the other side as Adebayo ran off Miami’s first seven points with a face-up drive and a couple of jumpers. We’ve said it before already, but after so many years when it felt like Adebayo’s offensive development was one of the top three items to watch this time of year, now everything just looks comfortable and consistent. Adebayo did not play in the second half, nor did the rest of Miami’s starters as Tyler Herro added 13 points on nine shots.

With Houston playing its regular rotation, until midway through the fourth, they led for much of the evening though Miami hung around in single digits into the fourth quarter in a bid to get into clutch minutes in all five preseason games. And sure enough, it happened. Is it a world record? It’s at least a tie for one, and a fitting follow-up to last regular season. Don’t let anyone ever tell you not to dream big.

Miami finishes up the preseason at 2-3, falling tonight 110-104, with their home opener, against the Detroit Pistons, coming up on Wednesday.

2. After missing some time injured, R.J. Hampton made a good impression in this one as he took over starting point-guard duties in the second half, feeding Thomas Bryant for a pick-and-roll lob, hitting couple of jumpers – including a pull-up three – and finishing a beautiful double-clutch drive in the fourth to get Miami within striking distance. Hampton finished with 17 points on nine shots, five assists in what was a relatively mistake-free evening.

Tough to know where things are with Hampton after he missed so much time, but he’s currently on a two-way contract and rosters are due to be pared down this weekend so at the very least it couldn’t hurt to put some good minutes into the jar tonight. On that note, also worth mentioning that Justin Champagnie had his best night of the preseason as well, contributing 11 points on eight shots.

3. Nikola Jovic (10 points on eight shots) had his best stretch of the preseason in the second quarter, scoring on two catch-and-go moves from the perimeter, including a crafty opposite side finish off the high glass, while getting fouled on a third drive. Still finding his NBA game after spending the FIBA World Cup as a release valve for Serbia, it might have been the most aggressive, in terms of putting the ball on the deck, sequence of Jovic’s young career.

With even more opportunity coming his way in the second half, Jovic hit an open mid-range jumper early in the third, then a righty hook shot out of a true post up against Jabari Smith Jr.

It’s not all perfect (four turnovers), or even pretty. Never is with players this young. But the flashes mean something, and for someone who doesn’t have much experience under his belt the flashes are sometimes all you can go on.

coups-takeaways-rj-hampton-nikola-jovic-houston

Coup’s Takeaways: R.J. Hampton Makes His Mark In Comeback Bid As HEAT Fall In Houston

1. Another preseason game without many regulars available because that’s the preseason, though Brooklyn was nearly at full strength, but that only means opportunity for others.

At first it seemed Josh Richardson would be one to benefit, with plenty of playmaking burden to shoulder in the absences of Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Kyle Lowry, but he exited for the evening after six minutes with a right foot injury. So instead, it was Dru Smith soaking up all that usage at first, with seven assists – including a nice open floor find of Nikola Jovic – in the first half and 10 overall. Later, it was a guy like Haywood Highsmith working a bit with the ball in his hands, dribbling into push-shots and even a pull-up three, while auditioning for three-point contest at 3-of-3 in the first half.

It hasn’t exactly been a seamless preseason, with injuries preventing many answers to some of the rotational, stylistic and developmental question you might have had for the early stage of this slate, but if there has been one no-doubter it’s that Highsmith (15 points on eight shots) looks every bit like an NBA rotation player. The shot is there. The defense has always been there. He plays hard. He plays tough. He fits. Everything we’ve been talking about Jamal Cain doing this past week, Highsmith was doing this time last year. Now Highsmith is at the stage of his career where he looks ready to be an every-night player. Whether the current roster will allow for that is a different matter, but it’s tough to argue Highsmith hasn’t made the most of his opportunities for the past 12 months. And we know Erik Spoelstra trusts him because he played him in some important spots during the Finals run.

As for the game, even the depleted HEAT kept pace, and then some, with a Nets team running everyone it had available until the fourth. Not too surprising for preseason, where the guys fighting for their careers often play at a different intensity than veterans finding their rhythm, but that’s also a credit to Spoelstra and his staff. No matter who is on the floor, they’re put in the best spots possible to thrive. Another clutch game, this one ending 107-104 in Brooklyn’s favor in the final minute, which means it’s 4-of-4 in the preseason. Is there a preseason clutch record? Maybe? These things matter.

2. Preseason is preseason, but you can sometimes tell what a coach thinks about a player by how they’re used very early on. And you can tell that Erik Spoelstra trusts what Thomas Bryant is adding to the offense. You can tell by the way that Bryant is used in many of the same sets as Bam Adebayo, particularly in bench units when Herro is running the action, and you can tell by the way, on a night like tonight, the offense was running through Bryant’s steady hands with nearly all the team’s ballhandlers out. There were elbow touches for handoffs, post touches as the team tried to run their splits and plenty of high screens. Little of it is going to wow you beyond the occasional finish – watch Bryant’s second or third step when he puts the ball on the floor, he covers more distance at the end of his dribble, with more force, than it looks like he will – but few teams are asking to be wowed by their backup centers. Trust and consistency is the name of that game.

As for the player Bryant is backing up, Adebayo only played in the first half but spent just as much time attacking Nic Claxton as he did Jaren Jackson Jr. on Sunday. The result was often one of his patented mid-range jumpers, but it was often a result that came swiftly and decisively. Adebayo knows exactly who he is on offense these days.

3. Nikola Jovic returned to the court after missing a couple games with a knee contusion, flashing the same playmaking and vision we’ve seen since his first Summer League. He might not always make the perfect read. Sometimes it’ll even lead to a turnover, as happened after one full-court push where he tried to fire it to the far corner, but then he’ll make an unconventional, snap decision pass which creates an open shot and you see the foundational skillset that can be built around. The shot still needs to prove itself (2-of-6 from three tonight), as does the defense, but every time he plays it’s those handful of passes that catch your eye the most.

Another productive night for Cain, with 14 rebounds and seven points in his 28 minutes. As with Highsmith before him, the roster isn’t always going to hold the opportunity you’ve done enough to earn, but there isn’t much more Cain could have done for himself over the past three games. To a different extent, with a different target role, Cole Swider has done much of the same, adding 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting tonight, including late scores during a comeback bid.

coups-takeaways-haywood-highsmith-nets-preseason

Coup’s Takeaways: Haywood Highsmith Shows His Value As HEAT Fall Short To Nets In Final Minute

1. If this were a regular season game, it would have qualified as one of Tyler Herro’s better games of the season as Herro scored 30 on 19 shots (4-of-7 from three) while running large chunks of the offense with much of Miami’s rotation – including Jimmy Butler, Josh Richardson and Caleb Martin – unavailable.

Herro’s prettiest score of the night might have been taking Jaren Jackson Jr. baseline, sealing up under the rim and going to the opposite side for an and-one. He’s mentioned on numerous occasions his desire to get to the free-throw line more often (4-of-5 there tonight) and while he’s not going to be Butler or LeBron James or James Harden, he’s so much more comfortable taking contact and getting a shot up than he was even two years ago. Even if the attempts do less spiking and more trending upward, that willingness and ability to play through physicality only helps Herro’s pace and control of the half-court game. His best possession of the night, however, came in the third quarter when he drew Jackson Jr. on a switch and, instead of trying to take on the difficult challenge, pulled Jackson Jr. out of the paint and waited for Adebayo, with Herro’s man now on him, to establish position near the rim for a catch. Being a good playmaker isn’t just being a good passer, it’s controlling the flow of the game and seeing where the passes will be. More than any other area of his game, that might be where we see the most progress this year.

As for the game itself, it was hilariously – if you remember how last season played out – the third clutch game in a row in three tries this preseason. Memphis led for most of the night and was often up double digits in the third quarter while most of the available regulars were playing – the Grizzlies were also missing quite a few – but just as they did against Charlotte the guys trying to make the roster came in like their season depended on it and took the victory, 132-124. Not that it should matter, but Miami is now 2-1 in preseason with two games to go before the real thing.

2. Fun little game within the game in this one with Bam Adebayo and Jaren Jackson Jr. – last season’s Defensive Player of the Year – taking turns going right at each other. Because each of them is such a strong individual defender, neither team seemed particularly interested in sending help which meant we got around 10 possessions of the kind of pure one-on-one action we rarely see much of between stars.

Jackson Jr. took a few of the early rounds, scoring a couple and getting a couple of stops, but Adebayo answered right back by spiking one of Jackson Jr.’s driving shots out of bounds immediately after Jackson Jr. had used to same move to draw a foul. Adaptive defense, one might say. Later, Adebayo missed a floater as he drove at the space Jackson Jr. was conceding in a pick-and-roll, but soon after he opted to go to the post and hit a nice hook over the top. Jackson Jr. did hit a couple of threes – Adebayo took one, too, top of the arc off a sideline out of bounds situation – so the tracking data might give him an extra point or two off the individual matchup, but to our eyes it was mostly even. Adebayo finished the night with 26 points on 20 shots, looking at comfortable as ever with his toolkit and finishing with force whenever he got a catch in the paint. And it’s never too early to start talking about his defense, even in preseason, which included a left-handed swat of Desmond Bane’s up-and-under layup that should have been geometrically impossible.

3. While Thomas Bryant continues to fill in seamlessly for Adebayo during the bench shifts, he’s also a relatively known quantity and we don’t need to spend much of preseason analyzing his play when we know much of what he’s going to bring. Pretty much everything Miami runs with Adebayo, they can run with Bryant, which simplifies the requirements of everyone else around him.

Of the younger players, though, Jamal Cain – getting minutes in the first half as part of the rotation with so many players out – had his second straight very good game, going backdoor for alley oops, hitting a corner three and coming up with several offensive rebounds that it didn’t look like he had a chance of grabbing, all while pestering Derrick Rose on the perimeter. We’ve been watching Cain (14 points on nine shots) long enough, including with the Sioux Falls Skyforce last season, that it would be easy to take some of what he does for granted, but you still have to do it with consistency in the big league to earn your minutes and after a relatively inauspicious start to training camp and preseason, Cain has done everything he's needed to do in order to keep his name firmly in the conversation for the 14th roster spot.

coups-takeaways-tyler-herro-bam-adebayo-preseason-memphis

Coup’s Takeaways: Herro, Adebayo Lead The Way As HEAT Earn Second Preseason Victory

1. Miami left most of their rotation, save a few veterans to hold things together, back home tonight to give the young guys – those fighting for standard or two-way contracts – a real opportunity. As such, this being preseason after all, the beat-by-beat didn’t matter nearly as much as the performances.

With R.J. Hampton injuring his hamstring during pregame warmups, that left the HEAT with precious few ballhandlers outside of Dru Smith, which meant the offense for long stretches ran through Duncan Robinson as he flew around handoffs. Robinson didn’t end up topping his career high of seven assists, but his presence and gravity did keep the offense moving well enough, creating open looks all around the court. We’ll get to Jamal Cain in a minute, but there were plenty of good minutes from Haywood Highsmith – drawing the Victor Wembanyama assignment as he continues to look like a reliable rotation player – Smith (13 points), in his best minutes of the preseason so far, and Orlando Robinson (12 points), steady as ever, as he continues to push Thomas Bryant for backup center minutes.

This run may have been light on star power from Miami’s side, and nobody will remember much of what happened tonight, a 120-104 loss for the HEAT, but these are the games where all those undrafted, undervalued stories progress. You can’t be the next diamond in the rough making an impact in a postseason series without first earning your spot in games – the second clutch game of the preseason in two opportunities – like these.

2. Everyone wants great 3-and-D players to put next to their stars, but the reality of the league is that those who are truly great at both the 3 and the D are nearly stars in themselves – that’s how valuable that skillset is. Typically, you’ll get a good shooter who is passable on defense, or a great defender who strives to get to league average from the perimeter, and typically the latter has a bit more projection in them because those who struggle defensively often do so due to physical limitations.

All of this is to say that Cain fits somewhere along that spectrum, but his three-ball might be more advanced than it seems. He shot 37.5 percent from three with the Sioux Falls Skyforce (in 15 games) last year, on four attempts a night, and with much of the rotation back in Florida he took the opportunity tonight to drop in six threes (his regular season career high is four) on eight attempts – all of the catch-and-shoot variety, which is all his role would require – for 24 points on top of 10 rebounds, and even had a nice driving dump-off pass to Orlando Robinson after drawing help. Cain’s willingness, and capacity for proper timing, as an off-ball cutter has always suggested a good awareness of half-court offense, and his defense will certainly play with his length playing right into Erik Spoelstra’s scheme, which emphasizes help-and-recover in both zone and man-to-man. It had been a somewhat quiet preseason for Cain before tonight, but he showed exactly why the HEAT have invested multiple years in him – and why he’s a candidate, currently on a two-way deal, for a regular roster spot.

3. With this game being nationally broadcast on TNT, most around the country were tuning in to catch a glimpse of No. 1 overall pick Wembanyama. Anyone who did surely didn’t come away disappointed, as Wembanyama ended his evening midway through the third quarter with 23 points, four blocks, four rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes as he dunked off the catch, without a dribble, from the three-point line, hit crossover and pull-up jumpers and even had the wherewithal to move the ball out of double teams in ways that it takes some All-Stars years to develop. You might be tired of the hype, but Wembanyama is the real deal.

Why does this matter for Miami? Well, with the Spurs winning the draft lottery that means Wembanyama is in the Western Conference and as such the only truly impactful games Miami can play against him in the foreseeable future would be in the NBA Finals. If Wembanyama ends up being an MVP-caliber player, that distance can only be beneficial to Miami’s postseason advancement odds. The other side of that, however, is that it would have been a ton of fun to see what sort of defenses Spoelstra, with Bam Adebayo available, would draw up for one of the league’s most unique players, particularly in a seven-game series. What’s good for championship odds isn’t always what’s good for storylines – after all, the Finals was really the only time Spoelstra had the chance to truly gameplan for Nikola Jokic.

coups-takeaways-jamal-cain-preseason-san-antonio

Coup’s Takeaways: Jamal Cain Makes The Most Of Opportunity As HEAT Drop Shorthanded Preseason Outing In San Antonio

1. With Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo all cemented into the starting lineup, on top of Kevin Love getting the first stretch next to Adebayo in this one after starting most of his games last season, the main position of intrigue in the opening group at the moment might be who starts at the second guard spot – or point guard spot if you want to be official about it. With Butler not playing tonight, we weren’t going to get anything close to an answer, but Erik Spoelstra started both Kyle Lowry and Josh Richardson next to one another tonight. Nothing to do there but wait and see.

As for the rest of the rotation, Nikola Jovic and first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. got minutes – more on them in a minute – but not withing the first handful of shifts that typically establishes the rotation. That doesn’t mean they aren’t in the rotation, only that they weren’t the first options that Spoelstra wanted to look at. Also noticeable that Haywood Highsmith was among the first subs, and it was as a wing rather than coming in for Kevin Love at the four spot. Again, that doesn’t mean Highsmith won’t play minutes at the four, only that it wasn’t the very first option. Thomas Bryant was also the only backup center to play in the first half – Orlando Robinson is, at least in concept, making a push for some of those minutes – while Dru Smith was the other true ballhandler to appear in the first half as Spoelstra played 11. Spoelstra says he hopes to get a look at the full rotation in the coming games, so stay tuned.

2. Move of the night goes to Jaquez Jr. (11 points on eight shots), who curled off an elbow screen from Bam Adebayo, took Gordon Haywood to the edge of the restricted area and proceeded to triple-fake Haywood out of his boots for a layup. Apparently, Jaquez Jr. worked out with Hakeem Olajuwon this offseason (this did not actually happen). He also snaked through a pick-and-roll for a layup, again moderating his pace, that eventually was goaltended, and later drop-stepped his way into another footwork score in the post.

Jaquez Jr. has always been seen as something of a plug-and-play rookie, insofar as those exist, because he’s 22 years-old after playing four years at UCLA. Granted that Is sometimes better in theory than in practice, but there’s little doubt that Jaquez Jr. looks like he belongs in the pro game, both in the sense of size and athleticism and with the measured, alternating pace approach he has on the floor. There will be good days and bad days as there are for any rookie, especially on the defensive side, and we’ll have to see how the shooting plays out in the short term, the fact that he is already making plays that some veterans can’t even pull off is a good sign that he’ll earn a chance to be a contributor at some point this season, even if it isn’t in October.

As for the other young player everyone is excited about, it was a non-descript night for Jovic as he only took one shot in seven first-half minutes. He did have a nice help side block on Mark Williams under the rim – he knows his ticket to minutes is on proving his defense is viable – and used his best asset, his playmaking, to help Adebayo draw a foul on a post seal.

3. This was Tyler Herro’s (22 points on 22 shots) first official (preseason) game action since breaking his hand in Game 1 against Milwaukee last postseason, and he looked exactly like you would expect him to look. I know, News at 11, but such things are always notable after a significant injury. We know he’s going to run a ton of pick-and-rolls with Adebayo after that was his bread-and-butter, but in the third quarter tonight – before leaving the game for good, with Adebayo, Lowry and Love only playing the first half – he ran quite a bit of effective two-man action with Thomas Bryant (15 points), whose skillset might resemble that of Adebayo more than any HEAT center since Kelly Olynyk was on the roster. While the questions with Adebayo off the floor were centered on the defensive end last year, it’s a positive that they might be able to run some of the same offense no matter which lineups are out there.

As far as the fourth quarter goes, when both coaches went deeper into their benches, the most notable thing that happened in an energetic comeback was five Cole Swider (17 points, 5-of-9 from downtown) threes from just about everywhere around the arc – because that’s what Cole Swider does. Of all the young hopefuls trying to earn themselves a roster spot, his name has been the one that has come up most often.

coups-takeaways-tyler-herro-cole-swider-preseason-comeback-hornets

Coup’s Takeaways: Tyler Herro Returns And Cole Swider Leads Preseason Comeback As Erik Spoelstra Gets First Look At Rotation Options

1. An exceptionally weird start to this one. Extremely physical play. Missed shots galore. Denver turning the ball over a ton. Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic both in foul trouble. DeAndre Jordan minutes.

Basically, a perfect situation for the HEAT, a team that thrives in the weird and strange. They certainly earned the off-kilter nature of those first two quarters, mucking up the game about as well as you possible can, and Bam Adebayo took advantage between the lines, attacking early and going after every mismatch in front of him on his way to 18 first-half points on 13 shots. Still, the lead at the break was just seven for Miami – they trailed by eight early on after missing eight shots in a row – despite all of Denver’s struggles, including 1-of-15 from three and 3-of-8 from the free-throw line. A good, earned lead, but a tenuous one with Miami not as much finding answers as finding a way to contort the game to their own terms.

Six minutes into the third, as Jamal Murray hit Denver’s second three of the night after a 1-of-17 start overall, it was tied. Still a mess of a game, though, and as Denver missed another couple of threes the HEAT ground-and-pounded their way back to a four-point advantage. Miami by one after three after Denver briefly took a lead, Kyle Lowry hitting his third triple after an offensive board, but anyone who would tell you how the fourth was about to go, a title and a season on the line, is lying. There was nothing available with which to make any real predictions, not with rocks covered in mud being desperately slung around with Denver missing their jumpers and Miami hovering below 40 percent from the field.

Quick 5-0 burst to open the quarter for Denver, their fourth three falling in 24 attempts, and after nobody scored for seemingly five minutes after that outside of another Lowry three, Denver led by five, a title on the line for one side, a season on the line for the other, with six to play. Good time for Jimmy Butler, having a rough shooting night to that point, to come alive, hitting two straight threes, getting fouled on another, and working his way into the paint for four more as Miami jumped out by one. But Denver, resilient as ever, led by three after a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope steal, 24 seconds left in Miami’s season. The next shot, another Butler attempt from three, bounces off, and that was that, 94-89. The Nuggets earned their title the hard way in this one, you have to give them that, and the HEAT clawed their way to the bitter end.

2. Fitting that the season ended with another clutch game, a record 45thgame to be decided by five-points or less. Fitting that it was maybe the ugliest game of the season, pure competition as some might call it, with bodies flying and every point a struggle. This is what playoff basketball used to look like, in some ways, and Miami’s guys probably wouldn’t have had it any other way. As strong a start as Adebayo (20 points on 20 shots) had, as much as Butler (21 points) almost saved the night with his late flurry, nobody looked more at home than Lowry – 12 points not nearly representative of his impact) big shots and big plays coming out of him like a slot machine. Without him pulling and pulling and pulling, Denver probably walks to their title.

No shame in losing this way, to a team as tough and talented as Denver, painful as it may be. It’s been an incredible ride for the HEAT, with memories formed that nobody will soon let go of, This is a tell your grandkids sort of run, and it didn’t end because Miami ran out of gas or magic or anything like that. They earned their right to play for the trophy by beating talented teams, and in the end they got beat, fair and square – and in many ways, on their own terms, in the mud.

3. Speaking of, Denver should have earned your respect, if not by now then on this rough and tumble night when nothing was going right for them – becoming the first team ever to win a Finals game while shooting sub-20 percent from three on at least 25 attempts. For all of what Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic – Finals MVP winner – did throughout this series, for all of what their role players did in stepping up to the moment, what will linger about them is their toughness. Miami has hit hard and hit fast all postseason, knocking other teams off their rhythm and pushing right through their stumbles, but Denver took every blow in stride, winning every which way the HEAT forced them to win. Teams that play the beautiful game sometimes have to win the other way, and the Nuggets did everything they needed to.&nbsp;

Hell of season for Miami, folks, with plenty to talk about in the coming days, weeks, months and years. They met their match in this series, but that doesn’t diminish what they did and who they were for these two wonderful, zany, unbelievable months.