From Adebayo’s dominance to Robinson’s growth, 10 Heat observations from first 10 games

The first three weeks of the season have been far from perfect for the Miami Heat.

There have been injuries to key players, a bunch of different starting lineups, blown double-digit leads, shaky offense and at times shaky defense.

But after a rough 1-4 start to the season, the Heat won its fifth straight game 118-113 over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night to move to 3-0 on its current four-game trip and 6-4 overall. The Heat carries that momentum into Tuesday’s matchup against the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center (7 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) for the final stop of its four-game trip and second group-play game of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament.

“Just finding ways to win, keep impacting winning and we’re getting the job done right now,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “We’re keeping the main thing the main thing. And just moving forward, keep collecting wins.”

Here are 10 observations (and a bonus one) from the first 10 games of the Heat’s season:

▪ Just like last season, the Heat again finds itself with a winning record despite having a negative point differential. The Heat is 6-4 this season despite holding a point differential of -8. Miami is one of only two teams that entered the week with a winning record while having a negative point differential, along with the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Heat finished last regular season with a 44-38 record despite having a negative point differential of -26 on its way to becoming the first team since at least 2000 to advance to the NBA Finals after posting a negative point differential.

Why? A lot of close wins, as the Heat tied the single-season NBA record for the most wins by five points or less with 24 such victories last regular season. Three of the Heat’s six wins have been by five points or less this regular season.

▪ Quality defense is again becoming the Heat’s most reliable path to wins. The Heat entered Monday with the NBA’s 22nd-ranked offensive rating and ninth-ranked defensive rating. Miami is 4-2 this season when posting a defensive rating of 110 points or fewer points allowed per 100 possessions.

▪ The Heat is 5-0 since Haywood Highsmith replaced Kevin Love as the starting power forward. With the Heat’s preferred starting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Highsmith and Adebayo on the court, it has outscored opponents by a dominant 13.4 points per 100 possessions in 37 minutes this season.

▪ It’s still early, but Adebayo is on pace to have the best season of his NBA career. He’s averaging career highs in points (23.2 per game), rebounds (10.4) and blocks (1.4) this season.

And Adebayo is again proving he’s one of the NBA’s top defenders. According to NBA stats, he has defended 16 isolations and allowed just 0.5 points per possession in those situations for one of the best marks in the league. Adebayo has also limited those he has guarded to just 47.7 percent shooting from within 6 feet of the basket (13.8 percent worse than those players’ usual combined shooting percentage from that range) and 40.2 percent shooting from the field (7.4 percent worst than those players’ combined overall shooting percentage). Adebayo is still one of the NBA’s most switchable defenders, but he continues to show off his versatility by also anchoring the Heat’s zone and drop scheme.

▪ Before Herro went down with a sprained right ankle last week that will force him to miss at least two weeks, he was also off to a very strong start. He’s averaging career highs in points (22.9 per game), assists (4.6) and steals (1.4) while shooting a career-best 44.7 percent from the field and 41 percent on threes.

▪ Butler has been relatively quiet on offense end so far this season, averaging 18.5 points per game on 42.2 percent shooting from the field. That would be Butler lowest points per game average and worst shooting percentage since the 2013-14 season. Butler is also averaging 6.9 free throws per game, which would be his lowest mark in a season since joining the Heat.

But Butler has been hitting threes through the first 10 games, shooting 8 of 17 (47.1 percent) from deep this season. At this pace, Butler would finish the regular season with 65 made threes. The most three-pointers Butler has made in a season since landing with the Heat is 36 and that happened last regular season.

▪ As those numbers indicate, Herro (before he went out with a sprained ankle) and Adebayo have taken on bigger offensive roles this season. Herro and Adebayo are each on track to post career-high usage rates (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) at 28.1 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

On the other end of the spectrum, Butler’s usage rate is down from 24.8 percent last regular season to 22.4 percent this regular season. Also, Lowry has a team-low usage rate of 11.3 percent this season, which would go down as the lowest single-season usage rate of Lowry’s NBA career.

▪ One of the Heat’s goals this past summer was to acquire a backup center who can help the team survive the non-Adebayo minutes, so veteran Thomas Bryant was signed in free agency.

So far, Bryant has not been successful in providing positive minutes when Adebayo is on the bench. The Heat has been outscored by 10.6 points per 100 possessions with Bryant on the court.

That has led Heat coach Erik Spoelstra to give Love an opportunity to play as the Heat’s backup center, and those minutes have been more positive. The Heat has outscored opponents by a total of 19 points with Love on the court and Adebayo on the bench in the last two games.

▪ Heat three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson is shooting 35.7 percent on seven three-point attempts per game. That’s not great by Robinson’s high standards, but it’s the growth of other areas of his offensive package that has stood out.

Robinson’s off-the-dribble game has been a revelation, as a career-high 22.9 percent of his field-goal makes have been unassisted this season. His previous career-high was 6.6 percent in the 2021-22 season. Robinson also already has 17 makes from within the restricted area in just 10 games for a pace that would have him with 139 such makes at the end of this regular season, shattering his previous single-season career high of 49 baskets from within the restricted area set in 2020-21. Robinson is also averaging a career-high 2.2 assists this season.

Robinson scored a season-high 26 points in Sunday’s win against the Spurs.

▪ The Heat holds a winning record despite key players already missing time because of injuries and rest/personal reasons. Caleb Martin has missed nine games, Highsmith has missed four games, Josh Richardson has missed three games, Herro has missed two games, Butler has missed two games, Love has missed two games, Adebayo has missed one game and Lowry has missed one game.

The Heat entered Monday with the seventh-most missed games in the NBA this regular season due to injury based on Spotrac’s injury tracker, forcing Spoelstra to use a league-high seven different starting lineups in the first 10 games.

▪ Bonus: Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr., who was selected with the 18th overall pick in this year’s draft, is already making a positive impact with the Heat. Jaquez, 22, has played in each of the Heat’s first 10 games and has already logged the fourth-most fourth-quarter minutes on the team this season with 65 behind only Adebayo (87), Herro (80) and Robinson (79).

The Heat has also shown trust in Dru Smith, as the guard who was added to the standard roster just days before the regular season has logged more than 20 minutes in four of the Heat’s first 10 games.

Heat second-year forward Nikola Jovic, who the Heat drafted in the first round of last year’s draft, has not been in the rotation to start the season. Jovic, 20, has received six DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) through the Heat’s first 10 games. Spoelstra said after Sunday’s win that Jovic could soon be sent to the G League “just so he can play and compete.”

INJURY REPORT

The Heat ruled out Herro (right ankle sprain), Martin (left knee tendinosis), Jamal Cain (G League) and R.J. Hampton (G League) for Tuesday’s matchup against the Hornets.

Richardson is listed as probable with back spasms.