No Jimmy? No problem. Heat blows out Cavaliers without Butler on Dwyane Wade night
The Miami Heat took all the drama out of Dwyane Wade’s jersey-retirement game early. The Heat built a 31-point lead in the second quarter and cruised to a 124-105 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the blowout win, which pushed Miami 1 1/2 games ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers for fourth place in the Eastern Conference:
1. The Heat offense dominated even without Jimmy Butler.
A few hours before it took the floor against the Cavaliers, the Heat found out it would be without one of its two All-Stars. Jimmy Butler was away from the team for the second straight day for personal reasons. After a disheartening loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday, it was fair to wonder how the Heat would fare without its leading scorer and top perimeter defender, especially with forwards Tyler Herro and Meyers Leonard, both of whom have started games this season, also out with ankle injuries.
“We have enough,” coach Erik Spoelstra insisted before the game. “We’re focused on this game and we’re trying to play better than we did against Atlanta.”
The Heat unloaded for a franchise-record 82 points in the first half, shooting 76.9 percent from the floor and 60 percent from three-point range to go into the break ahead 82-52.
It took more than four minutes for Miami to finally miss a shot. The Heat opened up 9 of 9 and scored on nine of its first 10 possessions.
Sharpshooting swingman Duncan Robinson, who went 7 of 12 and finished with 19 points, opened with a three and post player Kelly Olynk followed with another to give the Heat a quick 6-0 lead. Robinson added another, then All-Star post player Bam Adebayo flushed home a dunk and hit a jumper from the left elbow.
Guard Kendrick Nunn dropped home a runner, Robinson scored on a layup, Nunn hit another three and Adebayo scored again on a layup to cap the perfect 9-of-9 start.
Miami shot 68.2 percent in the first quarter and took a 38-32 lead to the second. In the second, the Heat unloaded.
Miami went 15 of 17 from the field in the second quarter with the only two misses coming from long range.
The Heat has enough options on offense to survive without Butler.
Olynyk, who has been out of the rotation at times this season, scored 11 in the first quarter and 17 in the game. Adebayo dished out nine assists — eight in the first 16 minutes — and scored 15 points. All five starters scored cracked double-digit scoring in the first half.
“Right away, when I got back to Miami, you could feel that he’s special. He’s a special person,” Wade said of Adebayo. “Basketball — the sky is the limit for him.”
The Cavaliers are one of the worst teams in the NBA, but so are the Atlanta Hawks, who beat Miami with Butler on Thursday. On Saturday, the Heat fared better when neither of its All-Stars were on the floor in part because of better defense, but more so because of fantastic three-point shooting. Olynyk, Nunn and guard Goran Dragic, who were the primary scorers in a first-quarter lineup without Adebayo, went a combined 10 of 18 from long range.
“We’re bringing in three new players just as we brought them in that were prominently in our rotation. Meyers starting, that group was set, goes out. Then Tyler basically with Goran anchoring that second unit goes out. So there have been some moving parts that the head coach is trying to stabilize a little bit,” Spoelstra said. “I’m trying to figure out where we can help with that. With Jimmy out tonight, we just felt like this group, the starting lineup, that group has played together and they felt comfortable. At least we would have one part of the lineup that was not too fluid.”
2. The Heat’s defensive issues aren’t stopping, though.
As good as the Heat’s opening minutes were, Cleveland nearly matched it. Miami started off 9 of 10 from the field and only led 22-20 with 5:59 left in the first quarter because the Cavaliers were 8 of 10.
In the first quarter, Cleveland shot 12 of 18 from the field and 3 of 6 from three-point range.
Miami’s defense has been disappointing this season, and Butler’s absence made it even worse. The Heat was missing Butler, Herro and Leonard, so it had to go with a starting lineup it had only used three times all season. Nunn, Robinson and Adebayo started as they usually do, and Jones and Olynyk joined them. Olynyk is a defensive downgrade from Leonard and Jones is a downgrade from Butler. The defense, which has been top 10 in the NBA at home, struggled without them.
Miami made subs after the Cavaliers 8 of 10 start and they helped stabilize the Heat. Forwards Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder, both of whom joined the Heat in a Feb. 6 trade with Memphis Grizzlies, were two of the first players off the bench and there’s a reason they’ve been in crunch-time lineups for Miami since the trade deadline.
The Heat outscored Cleveland by 22 points in the first half with Iguodala on the court. It outscored the Cavaliers by 20 when Crowder was on the court in the half.
Both of the new additions have had their issues since joining the Heat. For Miami to reach its ceiling, it needs those two to be reliable defensive stoppers.
3. Kendrick Nunn’s resurgence continues.
The All-Star break has done Nunn good. The rookie hit a slump just before the NBA All-Star Weekend.
He came back from a left Achilles tendon injury Feb. 1 to play the final seven games before the break and wasn’t himself.
After averaging 16.2 points per game while shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from three in his first 44 games, Nunn averaged just 9.9 points on 29.8-percent shooting and 24.3-percent shooting from deep heading into All-Star Weekend.
“Things like that happen,” Nunn said. “You don’t make 100 percent of your shots, so when you have games like that you just have to be mentally tough and to stick with it and take the same shots you would take if you were hot.”
He showed life in the Rising Stars Challenge, scoring 17 points, and then scored 14 in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. He kept it rolling Saturday, scoring with the wide variety which turned him into a surprising NBA Rookie of the Year contender.
Nunn finished with 24 points and eight assists on 7-of-12 shooting. In the first half, he was a team-best plus-24. Most encouragingly, his three-point stroke has returned.
Nunn went 4 of 7 on threes. Shooting was his supposed strength when he came into the NBA as an undrafted free agent and it’s the one skill he should be able to lean on even when other parts of his game aren’t working.
4. Duncan Robinson’s value can’t overstated.
He’s not the prototype of a go-to scorer, but he’s one of the Heat’s most reliable. There were more shots to go around Saturday with Butler out and Robinson was one of the most largest recipients of the extra workload.
Robinson, who competed in the Three-Point Contest on Saturday, attempted a team-high eight shots in the first half and he took as many threes — six — as anyone else did shots in the first 24 minutes.
The synergy between Robinson and Adebayo — and the two-man game they often play together — is becoming Miami’s most reliable non-Butler offense. Four of Adebayo’s first half assists went to Robinson — three for three-pointers and another when Robinson cut to the basket as the Cavaliers’ defense sold out to deny Robinson a three. Robinson brings the best out of Adebayo and vice versa.
5. Dwyane Wade celebration delivers.
The Heat made sure Saturday was all about Wade by blowing out Cleveland. Wade made sure the efforts were worth it.
After reminiscing on the 13-time All-Star’s career for about two and a half hours Friday with “The Flashback” at AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami officially retired Wade’s jersey at halftime Saturday. Wade spoke for almost 20 minutes and the Heat played in front of one of its best crowds of the season, there to take in a fantastic speech by the legendary guard.
Most of the 19,754 in attendance were in their seats from opening tipoff. Fans were given black, white or yellow T-shirts with “L3GACY” written across the front to honor the former superstar. On one side of the court, the shirts were arranged to spell out “MV3” as Wade’s No. 3 was lifted into the rafters.
Wade walked to his courtside seat with his wife, Gabrielle Union, between the first and second quarters after a video recapping some of the former guards greatest accomplishments played on the video screen.
Most of the crowd rose to its feet and pointed phone cameras at the court as Wade walked out of the tunnel and out to midcourt to wave at the fans before taking his seat across from Miami’s bench.
A few minutes later — and sporadically throughout the night —chants of “MVP” rained down upon the 2006 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.
Video messages from Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul, and a litany of Wade’s family members, including Wade’s father and children, played on the big screen during timeouts. Miami-Dade County officially recognized the day as “Wade Day” and mayor Francis X. Suarez presented Wade with the key to the city.
At halftime, Wade thanked a lot of people — president Pat Riley, every coach he ever played for, everyone who works behind the scenes for the Heat and a long list of former teammates — including LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Bosh, Caron Butler and power forward Udonis Haslem, who actually got to play in the second half after fans serenaded Spoelstra with chants of “We want UD!”
Wade talked about his wife and his children, his mother and his father. He closed with a message to the fans.
“Thank you for making me a part of your legacy,” he said to the crowd. “Please know you are a huge part of mine.”
