Fifth straight win moves Heat to 11-3. But Butler believes Heat can be ‘so much better’

The question these days is not whether the Miami Heat will win, but by how much?

On Friday, the Heat defeated the Bulls 116-108 at the United Center. It marked Miami’s fifth consecutive win.

The Heat led from start to finish, with its lead growing to as many as 26 points. The Bulls put together a late rally to cut the deficit to just seven with 1:02 to play, but that’s the closest they would get.

The Heat’s 11-3 start is tied for the best 14-game start to a season in franchise history. The last time the Heat began a season at 11-3 was in 2013-14, the final year of the Big 3 era.

Next up for the Heat is a matchup against the talented 76ers on Saturday night to complete the road back-to-back set. It will mark Jimmy Butler’s first game back in Philadelphia since leaving the 76ers in free agency this past summer to join the Heat.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t care,” Butler said when asked how he expects 76ers fans to welcome him. “I was there, gave it my all for them. Now I’m here. So however they want to welcome me back. We’re there to do a job anyway. We’re trying to get a [win].”

Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Bulls (5-11) ...

1. The Heat definitely has shooters.

Entering Friday with the league’s top team shooting percentage (48.2) and second-best three-point shooting percentage (39.6) this season, the Heat’s offense continued its efficient start to the season Friday. Miami scored 116 points on 49.4 percent shooting from the field and 36.8 percent (14 of 38) shooting on threes.

Butler led the way with 27 points, five rebounds, seven assists and four steals. And guard Kendrick Nunn contributed 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting in his first NBA game in his hometown of Chicago.

All of this came in another high-turnover game, with the Heat committing 19 turnovers against the Bulls. Miami entered averaging a league-high 19.2 turnovers, which is an issue that hasn’t slowed down the offense yet. Despite Friday’s win, Butler wasn’t pleased after the game about the Heat’s ongoing turnover problem.

“We talk about it way too often, keeping our turnovers down,” Butler said. “We just got to do better, man. I’m telling you. We got to start taking care of the ball. It’s the same story over and over again. We’re just lucky we made shots tonight. But we can’t rely on that every single night. We got to rebound, we got to guard and not turn the ball over.”

Ball movement was again the catalyst to the Heat’s success, as it finished with 33 assists on 39 made baskets. The Heat entered assisting on the second-highest percentage of made shots in the league at 65.1 percent behind only the Suns (68.4 percent).

Friday marked the fourth game this season the Heat has finished with 33 or more assists. Miami did that only twice last season.

It looks like a totally Heat offense than the one that finished last season ranked 26th in points (105.7), 22nd in shooting percentage (45), 21st in three-point shooting percentage (34.9) and 30th in free-throw percentage (69.5).

2. The Heat’s starting lineup of Nunn, Butler, Duncan Robinson, Meyers Leonard and Bam Adebayo continues to impress.

This group entered Friday with the league’s fifth-best plus/minus in the NBA among five-man lineups, outscoring opponents by 45 points this season.

That trend continued against the Bulls, with the Heat starting the game on an 18-7 run before it brought in its first bench player. The Bulls missed their first eight shots.

This lineup has led to many strong starts this season, but Friday’s opening minutes were the best in years. The Heat’s 15-0 start against the Bulls was its best since opening with an 18-0 lead against the Lakers on Jan. 13, 2015.

“You want to get off to good starts,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You want to set the tone for the game. It helps also when you’re defending with energy and effort and focus that you make some shots. But as we know, that’s not always guaranteed and you have to be prepared for anything. It’s having that sense of urgency. The guys have really taken that to heart.”

The second half wasn’t as positive for the Heat’s starting group, with the Bulls outscoring the lineup 14-8 to begin the third quarter. But with the Heat entering the second half with a 24-point advantage, there was certainly some room for error.

The Bulls ended up winning the second half 65-49, which was enough to cut the Heat’s lead all the way down to seven in the fourth quarter.

“I think the way that we have been winning is not the way we would like to win,” Butler said. “We played great basketball in the first half and I think we’re all proud of that. We just have these mental lapses night after night. It just can’t happen if we want to be as good as we say we want to be.”

When the game was done, the Heat’s Nunn-Butler-Robinson-Leonard-Adebayo lineup had improved its plus/minus for the season to plus-50 in 112 minutes together.

3. The Heat has dominated its opponents lately.

Miami entered Friday defeating opponents by an average of 15.2 points in wins this season. That number makes the Heat’s eight-point win over the Bulls seem like a close game.

Over the Heat’s current five-game winning streak, it has outscored its opponents by a total of 67 points. Miami has earned three double-digit wins during this five-game span.

In fact, seven of the Heat’s 11 wins this season have been by double digits.

“We’ve won more than we’ve lost. So that’s always good,” Butler said when asked if he’s pleased with the Heat’s 11-3 start. “But I don’t think that we’re where we want to be just yet. I don’t think we can be excited because we won a couple games. There are so many games left. We can be so much better. We have to be so much better.”

The Heat’s biggest lead Friday was by 26 points. Miami’s lead has grown to 20 points or more in seven of its 11 wins.

The last time the Heat trailed at any point in the second half in any game came in a Nov. 8 loss to the Lakers, which is the longest current such stretch in the NBA.

4. Adebayo is becoming one of the best all-around frontcourt players in the NBA.

Adebayo turned in another strong performance Friday, finishing with 16 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and three steals. He has eight double-doubles this season, which each one coming in a win.

In his third NBA season, the 22-year-old Adebayo is averaging 14 points, 10.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.4 blocks over the first 14 games.

“He’s going to continue to get better in all aspects because he’s wired the same as all these guys that we’re just talking about,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo. “He has got a great commitment to work and continues to try to get to another level. It’s all about winning with Bam. It’s not about his stats, it’s not about trying to make anybody notice him. He just has a ferocious competitiveness to help this team win. And he’s finding out different ways now for his game to grow to be able to impact winning. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Adebayo is one of only two players averaging at least 13 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block this season. The other name on that list: reigning MVP and Bucks All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.

On top of those numbers, Adebayo is one of the anchors of the Heat’s defense. There were multiple times Bulls guard Zach LaVine found himself guarded by Adebayo on a switch, but LaVine couldn’t get past him.

Adebayo’s ability to switch onto perimeter players and keep them in front of him helps make Miami an elite defensive team.

“That’s part of his uniqueness,” Spoelstra said, “his ability to guard, essentially, one through five.”

5. Forward James Johnson has fallen out of the Heat’s rotation again.

After not playing in the Heat’s first five games of the season because of conditioning issues, Johnson played in four straight and seemed to be working his way back into the rotation. But the 32-year-old Johnson has played just two minutes over the past five games, with both of those minutes coming late in the fourth quarter of Friday’s win over the Bulls.

Before Friday, Johnson had received three consecutive DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision).

Even with forwards Derrick Jones Jr. (strained left hip), KZ Okpala (strained left Achilles) and Winslow (concussion) all unavailable during this entire five-game stretch, Johnson has not played much. Instead, two-way contract forward Chris Silva and veteran forward Udonis Haslem have gotten minutes during this time.

In the previous four games Johnson had played in this season, he averaged five points on 47.1 percent shooting, 2.5 rebounds and one assist.

All of this comes after a turbulent start to the season, with Johnson away from the team for the first 10 days of training camp and the preseason after failing to meet the Heat’s conditioning requirements. He was sent away on the eve of training camp on Sept. 30 and did not return to the team until Oct. 11.