Miami Heat hope to stay up to speed with Indiana Pacers
MIAMI — Thursday night was a blur for the Miami Heat, and yet, through it all, something significant came into focus.
For all the defensive bent that coach Erik Spoelstra stresses, his team not only can play at pace, but, if needed, can actually outpace the high-scoring Indiana Pacers.
That not only stands as somewhat of a revelation, but also stands as necessary, with the two teams to meet again Saturday night at Kaseya Center, in the second of their consecutive games.
At the outset of Thursday night’s 142-132 victory, it appeared the Heat would be blown off their own court, allowing 38 points in the first quarter and 73 in the first half.
Then something rather remarkable happened — the Heat became the Pacers, scoring 78 points in the second half, including 45 in the fourth quarter.
No, not the game of choice from the team of defensive deterrence. But the game required — with Friday an opportunity to exhale before potentially being required to do it again.
The Pacers went into Thursday night leading the NBA in scoring at 127.6 points per game, with the Heat 24th at 110.6.
“You definitely take notice when they’re putting up these kinds of numbers,” Spoelstra said. “At least in this modern NBA, this is probably similar to the Denver Nuggets, when Doug Moe was there.”
As a matter of perspective, Moe last coached his final game with the Nuggets in 1990.
“They’re not an easy team to defend, as you can see,” Spoelstra exhaled after the victory that snapped a three-game Heat losing streak.
Even with center Bam Adebayo, who was coming off a 31-point game on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, sidelined for the night in the second period with recurring hip pain, the Heat took it to a level heretofore practically unseen:
— The 142 not only was the third-highest point total in the franchise’s 36 seasons, but the Heat’s second highest total in a regulation game.
— In their 45-point fourth quarter, their highest-scoring quarter of the season, the Heat shot 15 of 18. As a means of comparison, the Heat had scored 59 total points in the fourth quarters of their three previous games. It was just the fourth time in their 36 seasons the Heat scored 30 or more in a fourth quarter.
— The game’s 274 points were the most ever in a Heat non-overtime game, surpassed only in a 149-141 double-overtime victory over the Nuggets on March 19, 2018.
— The Pacers are now allowing a league-worst 125.8 points per game in their all-or-nothing 9-8 season, with eight games scoring at least 130, but with Thursday the third time they have allowed at least 140.
“It took us a long time, but yeah. Look, they do that to everybody,” Spoelstra said of his team finally being able to get a handle on the game. “It’s not like it was exclusive to us. They get you on your heels, they do everything full speed.”
The singular challenge Saturday will be one the Heat never fully mastered Thursday, with guard Tyrese Haliburton scoring a career-high 44 points.
“They play at such a pace, and Haliburton reads the scheme and coverage probably as well as any player in this league,” Spoelstra said. “He can process extremely fast, and then find the weakness in the coverage.”
Eventually, Jimmy Butler stepped up to the pace and the challenge, closing with 36 for the Heat.
“I do like it like that, ’cause it’s just free-flowing basketball,” he said. “You ‘ve got to make so many reads on the fly. But that’s kind of like what today’s game is anyways. So I think you’ve got to be able to win no matter if it’s a halfcourt game, calling plays, or playing up and down in transition.
“It shows that we are capable of playing like that. But it’s definitely not our style of basketball. But a win is a win, so I guess we need to start playing a little bit faster.”
Josh Richardson, who added 19 points off the bench, said the Heat finally got a grasp on the situation.
“They play at a crazy fast pace, they shoot a lot of shots, they speed you up,” he said. “And I think as the game went on, we started wearing on them a little bit and started trying to slow it down, execute, get the ball where it needed to get.”
And, now, do it again.
“I mean it’s no real way to prepare for that,” Richardson said. “So even us seeing them again in two days might be a completely different game. So it’s really read and react — and hope for the best.”
Knowing what’s coming.
“It just takes a little bit to get used to it,” forward Caleb Martin said.
