Kembali
The Miami Heat break their free fall getting a win in Atlanta 129-117. The pressure was building and the media was in a frenzy after the Heat’s anemic start to the regular season. They bounced back tonight with an outstanding team effort and clutch play from their mega star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Here are 5 takeaways from tonight’s game.
The head coach always takes the heat when a team is losing. This is no different for coach Spoelstra. He deserves credit for when things go right as well. He made some adjustments that the casual fan may not have noticed that had a huge impact on the team winning tonight. We will cover them in the takeaways below.
He bounced back tonight in a major way. He was able to get into a rhythm by Spoelstra splitting his minutes separate from Giannis for large stretches of the game. He finished with 24 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
This was the most active and decisive seen him also season. Bam broke the Miami Heat all-time career rebounding record with 5792 previously held by Udonis Haslem.
The floor spacing was much better tonight. You didn’t see Giannis and Bam occupying the same parts of the floor. You saw more ball movement and man movement as was evident with the Heat racking up 36 assists on the night.
The pick and roll made a comeback in the Miami Heat offense. It worked all night long with Davion Mitchell playing with force and hitting the roller time and time again. Davion recorded his 5th double-double of the season finishing with 10 points and 10 assists. He was a blur again in the open court and pushed the pace all night.
You saw multiple people involved in the high pick and roll with Giannis setting some of them. Pelle Larsson fits very well with Giannis, Niko Jovic played an impactful short stint on a pick and roll. You also saw Bam and Giannis both cutting without the basketball rolling downhill with force.
He played his best basketball of the season tonight breaking out of his slump. He scored 18 points on 66.7/57.1/66.7 shooting splits. He was aggressive and his shot was falling from the opening tip. He helped set the tone along with captain Bam.
He closed out the game tonight for Miami while he let others handle the ball tonight. He may have sacrificed some usage but the overall process as a team looked better. He rose to the occasion as the league shrunk late.
The Heat turned the ball back to Giannis and he put on the cape. He finished the game with a 24 point 18 rebound double-double. This is the blueprint for future Heat success. The two leaders are at the forefront of it just in a slightly different way than we predicted split minutes early and close games together late.