Whether 3-pointers are ‘smokescreen stuff ’ or not, Heat digging the longball
MIAMI — If you didn’t know better, you might think Erik Spoelstra isn’t enjoying the 3-for-all that has kept the Miami Heat afloat amid the injury absences of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
But it’s more than that.
It’s that the Heat coach doesn’t believe in easy answers.
So, yes, the longball has been part of the success. But so is quality play inside the arc.
“It’s really been more about trying to get to our identity,” Spoelstra said earlier this week, before his team tied the franchise record with 22 3-pointers in Tuesday night’s victory over the Indiana Pacers at FTX Arena. “We still want to be an aggressive, attacking team. We have to do it in a slightly different manner. And that’s why some of the narrative out there about all the threes and everything, that’s like smokescreen stuff.
“It’s just an initial layer of offense and what we’re trying to do. That’s really not the whole deal. And I don’t really have time to explain what we’re trying to get to.”
Actually, it likely would take mere minutes to offer an explanation. But that also might sound like settling for an easy way out.
And that simply is not the Heat way, even with this latest stretch of thriving behind the shooting Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Tyler Herro and even Dewayne Dedmon and KZ Okpala.
“I think what we’ve been able to do is at least stay consistent to our identity,” Spoelstra said. “That’s been the most important thing, even with some different personnel in there.”
Twice in the last seven games the Heat have tied the franchise record of 22 3-pointers.
It is not by coincidence. “They are probably the best in the league in generating 3-point looks,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said after the Heat’s 22 of 49 on Tuesday night. “They have three or four guys that have an uncanny knack at making difficult ones. Duncan Robinson rises up, Gabe Vincent can create one-on-one. And Max Strus is having a hot 10 days here. You have to be on them the entire time.”
Over the past seven games, the Heat have had outings of 22, 19, 18, 19 and 22 3-pointers. Their 126 3-pointers over those seven games are a franchise record, breaking the previous seven-game mark of 117 set in 2019-20.
As a matter of perspective, entering the season, the Heat, over the franchise’s first 33 seasons, had only six games of 20 or more 3-pointers, with one of those performances coming in double-overtime.
“It’s coming from within the context of our identity and how we want to play,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat turning their attention to Thursday night’s visit by the Detroit Pistons, the second game on this four-game homestand. “We still have an aggressive
attack. Guys are a putting a lot of pressure on the paint. Our spacing certainly helps. But our paint touches are key for us.
“We might not get to the line as much as we previously would with Jimmy and Bam playing. But we still can put a lot of pressure on the paint and that leads to
open threes and guys have really worked on that: Making the extra pass, finding the open man, and those guys capitalizing on those plays.”
With Tuesday’s performance, the Heat have made at least 13 3-pointers in seven consecutive games, one game off the franchise’s longest such consecutive-games streak. Going into Wednesday night’s play, the Heat stood fourth in the NBA with a .369 3-point percentage, seventh in the league at 13.3 3-pointer conversions per game, and 14th in the NBA at 36.1 attempts per game. But since playing the past seven games in the absences of both Butler and Adebayo, they lead the league at .419 from beyond the arc, are atop the league at 18 conversions per game and second only to the Utah Jazz at 43 attempts per game.
“These guys are making shots,” point guard Kyle Lowry said. “These guys work at it. Max has been playing well, shooting the ball extremely well. Duncan’s been getting back in his groove a lot more. And Gabe has been shooting the ball extremely well. Tyler came off injury, he got some fresh legs, he got some pop, and then KZ.”