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1. Great start, shaky middle, exciting finish, and a little messy throughout. The HEAT looked like they were going to run away with things for a bit in the first quarter leading by as much as nine, with nearly half the early threes falling, but the Bulls scored 68 between the second and third quarters to take a 6-to-12 point lead for what felt like nearly half the game. After an early burst from Tyler Herro, now a starter, Jimmy Butler did his best to keep the ship steady (24 points, 16 free-throw attempts) but Miami was never quite on a string defensively, the offense flattened out down the stretch behind 18 turnovers – Bam Adebayo struggled on 5-of-15 shooting with five of those turnovers – and there were no answers for keeping DeMar DeRozan (37 points on 22 shots) contained.
If nothing else, we got a clear look at the current rotation with Herro and Caleb Martin in the starting unit (as expected) and plenty of minutes with both Max Strus and Duncan Robinson on the floor together (a bit more of a surprise) as Butler effectively downshifted to the power forward spot in a number of lineups. It may not have been a win, but this is the time of year where teams figure out who they are and what they’re going to be about and that takes some time no matter how much roster continuity you have.
2. Miami’s defense looked the same, functionally at least. Erik Spoelstra’s system has prioritized keeping the ball out of the paint for years now, opting to crowd the gaps on either side of the ball – especially against matchups that might be disadvantageous to play out one-on-one – with secondary and tertiary defenders even if that meant giving up some quick kickout passes that led to threes. But with the HEAT going with more of an offense-forward rotation in this game, featuring extra shooters and a few more situations where playing the gaps more aggressively is called for, Chicago was getting threes when they wanted early on as the HEAT’s defense often found itself over-tilted. It’s only Game 1 and it’s not like Chicago’s Shot Diet was out of the norm for what the HEAT are expecting, with just 32 points in the paint, but this was also a Bulls team that struggled to put any sort of pressure on Miami last season and an average-ish Offensive Rating of 108.4 for them without Zach LaVine was more than enough. If anything, the signs from preseasons – in the limited looks we had of the rotation players together – that the offense was ahead of the defense, especially in comparison to early last season when the defense was putting up historic short-stretch numbers, tracked tonight.
3. Herro (23 points on 15 shots, 16 points in the first half) looked great, especially early on, there’s no question about that. Whereas he was often asked to run a second unit creating a ton of offense with the dribble last year, which sometimes led to games where he had more shots than points, as a starter Herro is more easily able to toggle back and forth between on and off the ball without the every-possession pressure of having to create. Considering he was one of the very best catch-and-shoot and/or relocation dribble shooters last year, there was never any question he could play alongside the HEAT’s other creators from the opening tip, but Herro being able to pick and choose when and where to attack opens up his game just as much if not more than being able to benefit off the creation of other’s. We saw a ton of Herro and Adebayo pick-and-roll early on, and with Chicago wanting to keep Nikola Vucevic out of the drop coverage Herro can easily punish, that led to Herro drawing two defenders to the ball which gave Adebayo the opportunity to get downhill. One play midway through the first quarter ending in a Caleb Martin cut-and-dunk off an Adebayo feed on the short-roll may as well have been the thesis statement for why Herro in the starting lineup is a good move. Throw in some timely and creative rim attacks and this was an excellent opening stanza for the next step in Herro’s journey.
For more News about the Miami Heat visit: www.miamiheat.com
For more sports coverage from NBA,NFL, to NCAA contact Julian Ojeda: julian@communitynewspapers.com
