|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
If you love defense, then have I got a game for you. It sure wasn’t pretty – what Raptors-HEAT game ever is – but with Toronto playing extra big and Miami playing extra small due to absences on either side both Erik Spoelstra and Nick Nurse were in their wheelhouse trying to out-maneuver the other. There was Haywood Highsmith playing the top of a press zone for one side, Precious Achiuwa at small forward for the other, and – after a questionable start – some of the best defense we’ve seen from the HEAT all season as they overcame a size deficit in typical, precise fashion before Toronto took control with a 27-14 fourth-quarter advantage. Both teams had their moments of dominance, yet if you want to draw a through-line to last season it was Miami’s fourth-quarter and crunch-time offense that let it down.
Toronto led for most of the first half, but a 33-23 third quarter put Miami out front on the strength of that half-court defense – Pascal Siakam did not finish 7-of-22, albeit with some huge shots down the stretch, because he was missing good, open looks – and plenty of Jimmy Butler (a typical 26 points on 15 shots). We can say this after pretty much any game of any season, but when there isn’t much happening in the flow nobody gets the ball into the paint and to the free-throw line like Butler even against defenses loaded up against them. Tyler Herro (22 points on 18 shots) again had moments attacking the basket like he hasn’t in the past, but it was Butler who, as always, kept the boat from rocking too much. No surprise, then, that so much of Toronto’s fourth-quarter momentum got going with Butler on the bench.
In the end, as so many defense-first Raptors matchups go, it came down to big shots. First, Herro hit a huge transition, pull-up three to get the margin back to three with two minutes to go. A couple possessions later, Siakam hit a tough, fading baseline jumper to get it back to five. Butler attacked for a layup that took about three seconds after that, but a Gary Trent Jr. (18 points) fake-and-relocate corner three sealed the deal with the shot clock turned off as the Raptors won, 98-90, to split the two-game series in Miami.
2. It’s early and the numbers only mean so much, but the HEAT are having trouble whenever Adebayo hits the bench. Coming into this one they were +4.2 per 100 with him on the floor and -22.8 with him off, and they were +10 in the first half (+5 overall) despite trailing by five at the break and losing by eight.
Keep in mind that the HEAT’s entire rotation is different than it was last year with both Herro and Caleb Martin going from bench to starters. In other words, that’s a full unit – even if they aren’t often playing all five at once – that is finding its way on both ends of the floor. Now you’ve got Butler playing the four with Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Duncan Robinson, which is not only asking Vincent and Butler to hold both sides of the rope together defensively but it’s lacking the instant offense of Herro that teams so often had to adjust to as the pace immediately would change a year ago. The bench defense hasn’t been great, but disconnection on one end can lead to the same on the other. It’s never any one player, and the bench certainly isn’t responsible for the offensive struggles in the last five minutes.
3. HEAT-Raptors games are already odd, but with Scottie Barnes out for one side and Miami’s starting power forward, Martin, suspended for his role in last game’s fracas, things got even weirder. Spoelstra opted to start Max Strus in place of Martin, for one, going away from the third string to first string leapfrog type of one-game replacement he’s often done in the past. Nurse went from playing small-ish (with Siakam starting at center) to just playing a normal lineup with Christian Koloko at center and Siakam at the four, but that was just a precursor to some of the more interesting groups he put out there – Achiuwa, Siakam and Chris Boucher in particular was a fun one. As they do, the Raptors kept on switching and for the most part kept length on all of Miami’s ballhandlers. Herro, for his part, beat his man – Siakam on a couple of possessions – and got into the paint, but that same length proved to be a bit of a hangup in transition where the Raptors made one defensive play after another.
It was interesting that the Raptors, in the face of the HEAT almost always having multiple guards or smaller forwards on the floor, chased a few mismatches with non-creators like Achiuwa, Boucher and Khem Birch – or with a scorer like Siakam trying to post up Butler. Most of the league has gone away from taking the mismatch bait in the post, but Nurse is a creative coach and giving him the benefit of the doubt it makes you wonder what the thinking was on that handful of possessions. Maybe the size advantages were so great they deemed those plus opportunities, but Toronto’s half-court points-per-play finished at 69.5 (which, for reference, is almost as low as you’ll ever see). Still, in the end, a few of those Siakam attacks turned the tide, and both Toronto’s star and its coach deserve credit for going back to their own set of steady hands again and again.
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
