Game Thread: Hawks at Heat, 11/27/18

[jayu70]

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[Jamaaliver]

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[PG13]

5-16

[Jamaaliver]

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Bam Adebayo has received one short, but direct message from his Heat teammates.

“Be aggressive.”

That’s exactly what the 21-year-old big man has done on the offensive end lately, and it’s resulted in his two best performances of the season. Adebayo averaged 15 points and 17 rebounds, and posted his first two double-doubles of the season during the Heat’s two-game trip that ended with Sunday’s loss to the Raptors.

On Sunday, Adebayo was especially impressive. He finished with 16 points and a career-high 21 rebounds while playing a team-high 36 minutes in Toronto.

It’s not a coincidence that his recent success has come as his shot attempts have gone up. While Adebayo is averaging just 5.1 shot attempts for the season, he took eight shots in Friday’s win over the Bulls and a season-high 10 shots in Sunday’s loss to the Raptors.

Since Adebayo was drafted by the Heat with the 14th overall pick last year, aggressiveness on the offensive end usually equals success for him. Of his nine career double-doubles, six have come when he’s taken at least eight shot attempts.

But defense is still a strength for the athletic Adebayo, who limited those he was guarding to 42.3 percent shooting as a rookie. He is holding the player he’s defending to just 38.7 percent shooting this season, which is 8.9 percent worse than those players shoot overall. Among centers who have played in at least 10 games this season, Adebayo’s 38.7 opponent shooting percentage ranks fourth-best in the league.

[PG13]

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Bam Adebayo has received one short, but direct message from his Heat teammates.

“Be aggressive.”

That’s exactly what the 21-year-old big man has done on the offensive end lately, and it’s resulted in his two best performances of the season. Adebayo averaged 15 points and 17 rebounds, and posted his first two double-doubles of the season during the Heat’s two-game trip that ended with Sunday’s loss to the Raptors.

On Sunday, Adebayo was especially impressive. He finished with 16 points and a career-high 21 rebounds while playing a team-high 36 minutes in Toronto.

It’s not a coincidence that his recent success has come as his shot attempts have gone up. While Adebayo is averaging just 5.1 shot attempts for the season, he took eight shots in Friday’s win over the Bulls and a season-high 10 shots in Sunday’s loss to the Raptors.

Since Adebayo was drafted by the Heat with the 14th overall pick last year, aggressiveness on the offensive end usually equals success for him. Of his nine career double-doubles, six have come when he’s taken at least eight shot attempts.

But defense is still a strength for the athletic Adebayo, who limited those he was guarding to 42.3 percent shooting as a rookie. He is holding the player he’s defending to just 38.7 percent shooting this season, which is 8.9 percent worse than those players shoot overall. Among centers who have played in at least 10 games this season, Adebayo’s 38.7 opponent shooting percentage ranks fourth-best in the league.

“I’ll take 38.7%” - Trae, probably

[Jamaaliver]

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[jayu70]

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[lethalweapon3]

Brrr! It’s getting frostier, even down in Miami, where the heat has been dissipating in more ways than one. On another Vice Night, Miami’s trying to stop their slide down the NBA standings with a win against the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Sun in MIA).

Go pound… snow? heat team prez Pat Riley went Mr. Bumble on Tom Thibodeau’s Oliver Twist, when the Timberbulls exec pleaded for more on their previously agreed-upon deal for Jimmy Butler. Now, Jimmy’s getting big buckets to satisfy the Philly phaithphul, Minnesota appears to be over their migraine, and it’s Miami (7-12; 2-7 in last nine games) that seems to have been left out in the cold.

Keeping the powder dry has left super-productive Josh Richardson in South Beach. The good news is the new J-Rich (43.3 3FG%; career-bests of 20.4 PPG, 3.2 APG, 3.9 RPG) has emerged as the face of the franchise. The bad news is that Miami’s second-rounder from 2015 has become the face of the franchise, almost by default.

The short-circuited pursuit for Butler failed to alleviate Miami of its short-term contract issues. While Chris Bosh’s committed salary comes off the books next season, contract anchors Tyler Johnson (out, hamstring), Dion Waiters (out, ankle) Kelly Olynyk and James Johnson stay on. The slow-developing Justise Winslow’s extended contract ups his rookie-deal salary four-fold next season. And while there will be no Return of the Dragon tonight, there’s no certainty that Goran Dragic (out, sore knee) won’t return by picking up his nearly $19 million player option, as Tyler Johnson will be sure to do.

The injuries and bloated, inefficient contract values leave professional alchemist Erik Spoelstra little room to work his magic. Numerically, Hassan Whiteside is giving Coach Spo almost everything one could expect of a conventional defensive-minded center, posting NBA-highs of 34.0 D-Reb% and 3.0 BPG. But Count Blockula has been a drain on the tempo Spoelstra wishes to reach offensively, and he continues to be a prime hacking target (53.9 FT%, 2nd-lowest among anyone getting 4.0 or more FTAs per game).

So, the 29-year-old with $52 million left on his multi-year deal finds himself riding the pine in fourth quarters. Through 18 contests, Whiteside has been around to take a total of 23 field goal attempts during the final frames of games.

Whiteside, when he’s on the court, and second-year pro Bam Adebayo ought to be imposing offensive options around the rim. But there’s no good reason why Miami, of all teams, is dead-last in the league with a 47.5 2FG%. They rank 8th in shot frequency within 10 feet of the rim (Atlanta’s 46.3 percent of 2FGAs rank 9th). Yet while the Hawks’ conversion rate is a modest 54.9 2FG% from this short range, Miami’s is the league-worst, the only team sinking less than half of those shots (49.4 2FG%).

It would help the bigs to have more reliable point guard play. Richardson, Dragic and Dwyane Wade are at least as likely to Go For Theirs than dish the rock. The Hawks (4-16) and heat roughly share the same assist-to-turnover ratio (1.38, 25th in NBA), Atlanta’s value weighted down by turnovers, Miami’s by a high degree of clear-out, iso action supplemented only by a lot of board-crashing (30.3 team O-Reb%, 7th in NBA).

Thinned by Dragic's, Waiters' and Johnson’s injuries, there’s little wonder that the heat need Dwyane Wade to dial back the clock a bit just to stay in the running with decent opponents. The soon-to-be 37-year-old legend’s 35 points (13-for-22 FGs) and team-high six assists in 34 bench minutes kept Miami within shouting distance of the first-place Raptors during a 125-115 road loss on Sunday night. Particularly given the limited ball movement exhibited by the current starting five, Coach Spo will hope that Wade’s output wasn’t merely a Flash in the pan.

Things could get worse for the heat before they get better. Much like tomorrow’s payback-seeking opponent (Charlotte), Miami has yet to delve deep into Western Conference play – they’ve played just four games, and the Hornets two, unlike the Hawks’ seven so far. That changes for the heat this Friday, when the ensuing schedule includes nine of the next ten games against the NBA West, including a six-game road trip.

Until then, they must solve the riddle of failing to produce victories in what is clearly the NBA’s weakest division. Much like the curious lack of proficiency finishing around the rim, there is no excuse why Miami, of all clubs, has the most in-division losses in the league (1-5 vs. Southeast opponents). That includes their 123-118 loss in Atlanta back on November 3, also without Dragic, where the heat had to rely on Winslow (8 assists, 5 TOs), not Richardson (32 points, 6-for-10 3FGs), to be the team’s primary play-setter.

The Hawks haven’t had that problem, not with Trae Young’s wizardry (24 points, 15 assists, 6 rebounds vs. MIA on Nov. 3). The challenge for Lloyd Pierce’s club has been to find a secondary playmaker to take extra defender eyes off of the rookie. For now, that has meant giving Trae’s fellow first-rounder a shot with the first unit. Kevin Huerter filled in for conventional starter Kent Bazemore, and he collected a season-high five dimes, three in the final quarter, as Atlanta ended their ten-game slide at the Hornets’ expense on Sunday.

Heurter’s silent-but-deadly play didn’t stink up the joint, coupled with a monster game from John Collins (career-high 23 points on 11-for-16 FGs, 4 assists, 11 rebounds) to help Atlanta turn the tables on Charlotte after yet another defensive collapse out the gate (32-43 opening quarter). The Hawks’ minus-16.5 first-quarter net rating remains the NBA’s worst. Yet their 41-31 blistering of the heat at the outset of their previous meeting helped secure this young team’s third win of the young season.

Watching Wade’s potential Farewell Tour can be mesmerizing, but the Hawks’ off-guards can’t get off-guard caught ball-watching. To kick off this crisscrossing Southern road trip, Atlanta will need a stronger start from Dewayne Dedmon upfront, and his fellow defenders must properly rotate and contest shooting starter swingmen Richardson, Wayne Ellington and Rodney McGruder.

The Hawks will also need to rely on the youngsters, their superior backcourt depth, and Bench Boss Baze late if they hope to dance to victory mambo #5 on their way up to Charlotte. Hoping to greet Atlanta with a chilly reception, Wade may indeed try to go for 30 again today. But don’t you get any bright ideas, Vince Carter!

Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article222192175.html

Drive carefully

It’s not a surprise the Heat’s drive-and-kick offense has it averaging the most drives to the basket this season at 52.8 per game entering Tuesday. But Miami isn’t converting them at a high enough rate, as it’s shooting a league-worst 40.9 percent on its penetration attempts.

“Make more shots. This game is simple, man,” Wade said when asked how the Heat can improve in that area. “We can try to complicate it all we want. But one, you got to understand how the defense is playing you, you got to understand how to get your shots up. That’s the thing, we have some young players that they just have to go through it.

“But if you notice, even though I’m not super-duper athletic, I never just fly down the paint and just jump. I’m always trying to keep the defense off balance before I shoot a shot because I’m not allowing them to corral me, I’m not allowing them to be as explosive as they can be. I’m trying to use what I have, my shot fakes, my timing and this and that. We got a lot of guys that this is new for guys, trying to get to the rim and play this game that we’re trying to play this year. So, like I said, it’s going to take some bumps and some lumps. But hopefully over the course of the season, we get better at it.”

[kg01]

Man, this new guy's pretty nice on them words. Not sure where he came from but I guess we should let 'im stay around a while.

[ducler]

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[Spud2nique]

Man, this new guy's pretty nice on them words. Not sure where he came from but I guess we should let 'im stay around a while.

ya he is. Sorry with realgm u only have like 5 seconds before a viagra ad kills my screen. Awesome lw3 as usual. Didn’t realize collins 23 was a career high. Good stuff

[Spud2nique]

I think we take the heat tonight. Outside of Jrich as explained they have nobody scary I got Bam in fantasy let’s go!

[Robo_Claw]

damn i love the whole miami vice scheme, if you are miami why wouldn't you just always go full 80's neon pink and teal cocaine madness all the time.

[MaceCase]

The vision, ability, and balls Trae had on that Huerter breakaway.

[DirtybirdGA]

striking distance...

[MaceCase]

Pour it on to close the half.

[DirtybirdGA]

Hawks can't make a clean pass sometimes.

[bws94]

68 points!

[Robo_Claw]

Huerter finally getting some baskets! good sign