Lowry is being unselfish as he directs, pushes the Heat offense
Shortly after Kyle Lowry turned his ankle late in Thursday’s loss to the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was asked for an update on the starting point guard’s injury.
“I know him well enough that it’s very similar to Jimmy,” Spoelstra said. “You ask him how he’s doing and he’s like, ‘Fine.’ But we’ll have to see how it responds.”
Two days later, Lowry was in the Heat’s starting lineup and produced a triple-double performance that included 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in Saturday’s impressive 118-115 win over the Utah Jazz at FTX Arena. It marked Lowry’s first triple-double with the Heat and the 19th of his NBA career.
But Lowry, 35, and Heat teammate Jimmy Butler, 32, don’t just share a propensity for quick returns from injury. As close friends, they have a lot more in common than that.
“Probably the bottom line with them, particularly where they are right now in their careers, it’s just about winning,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat (7-2) now embarking on a five-game West Coast trip that begins Monday against the Denver Nuggets (9 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “They read situations. A great feel and an IQ , intuition on what’s necessary for the team.”
Similar to how Butler approached the beginning of his Heat tenure in 201920, Lowry has worked to make others comfortable around him by using a pass-first mentality at the start of his first season with the team.
Butler averaged the fewest shot attempts (13.1 per game) in his first season with the Heat since 2013-14 and Lowry has taken 10 or fewer shots in six of his first eight games with the Heat this season.
“When Jimmy was first with us, he was doing a lot of playmaking and getting other guys going and giving them confidence and I think you’re seeing something very similar with
Kyle,” Spoelstra said. “The level of confidence our guys have, you can’t put a number to it or analytic to it. It’s tangible, though. And that’s a big credit to Kyle playing unselfishly, getting off the ball, getting the ball to them in spots where they can be really confident and comfortable.”
On Saturday, Lowry took a more aggressive approach in looking for his own offense early in the Heat’s win over the Jazz. He generated 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, with those eight shots representing his season-high for any half.
“Elite high-level competitors know that you have to be on it against a team like Utah,” Spoelstra said. “They had the best record in the league, the best point differential. Everybody in our locker room has great respect for their program and how they play and what they can do to you if you’re not on top of your game. Kyle really set the tone for that with a triple-double. It just shows that he can impact the game in a lot of different ways.”
One way is simply Lowry’s
relentless pursuit of perfection.
“He wants the best available shot every possession,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “That’s what I really like about Kyle. He’s one of those guys, he wants every play to be right. Make or miss. He doesn’t care. He just wants to get the right play every time.”
The Heat entered Sunday with the NBA’s thirdbest offensive rating (113 points scored per 100 possessions) after finishing last season with the 18thbest offensive rating (110.6 points scored per 100 possessions).
The addition of Lowry is a big reason for that jump. Miami has scored 113.1 points per 100 possessions when Lowry has been on the court compared to 108.3 when he’s not playing.
“It’s not about stats, not about how many numbers they can put up,” Spoelstra said. “They just want to win. And they’ll do whatever it takes to win.”