Miami Heat Offense ERUPTS in Blowout Over Grizzlies | Has Erik Spoelstra FIXED the Offense?

Miami Heat Offense ERUPTS in Blowout Over Grizzlies | Has Erik Spoelstra FIXED the Offense?

An offensive explosion in Memphis. We got to talk about it. You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. All right, what’s up everybody? Wes Goldberg here. Welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat. whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We usually don’t record on weekends, but u doing a little solo bit here because I just have to talk about that game last night. The Heat blowout the Memphis Grizzlies 146 to 114. Uh this was incredible to watch. Everything that Eric Spolster wanted to install in the preseason offensively, we saw it in that game. We just saw that last night. Uh the pace was there, the shooting was there. Uh everybody getting involved, right? There was no primary initiator the way that uh he’s been talking about in preseason. It was going to be an everybody eats offense. Well, everybody ate and went back for seconds and went back for thirds and had some dessert in Memphis last night. It was one of the most entertaining heat games I’ve seen in a very long time out like since the big three era. I don’t know that I’ve seen the offense perform quite at that level. It was modern. It was fast. It was enjoyable. You never really knew what was going to happen next. And based on these first two games, even that loss against Orlando, right, we came out, we came, David Ramil, my co-host and I came out of that loss in Orlando and said, “Yeah, you know what? I kind of have more positives than negatives despite the loss.” Like the Heat were up by eight or nine in the fourth quarter. They did blow the lead uh and blow that game late, but the offense looked good. Right now, the Heat have the number one pace in the league uh as of Saturday morning, and who knows if that’s going to hold. I want to touch on that a little bit later as we spin things forward in a second, but everything that Spo wanted to install, it looks like it’s been there these first two games. Um, I just let’s just again I want to I want to try to capture exactly what happened here. So, I I’m going to share a bunch of these stats that the Heat racked up last night. So, the Heat scored 44 points in the first quarter. They had 86 points at halftime and they led by 39. Those 86 first half points are the highest scoring half in Heat franchise history. It’s the biggest halftime lead in franchise history. That 39 point lead, the biggest halftime lead in franchise history. They scored 20 fast break points in the first half alone. Miami never scored 20 or more fast break points in a half uh last regular season and they’ve done it now in game two. Their largest lead of the game was 45 which happened in the second half. Eight different Heat players finished with double digit points. Bam. Adabio led the way with 24 points. We’ll talk about him more in a second uh in his bounceback game. The Heat outscored the Grizzlies 72 to 44 in the paint. I think that’s a huge part of this offense is this this team’s ability to get into the paint. We even saw that despite the 0 and6 preseason, they weren’t shooting a ton of threes in the preseason. Something that David was flagging over and over again. But one thing I kept pointing out was uh they’re getting they’re they led the preseason or they were near the top of the league in the preseason in points in the paint. and that is going to be a fundamental part of this offense. So, the Heat outscored the Grizzlies 72 to 44 in that game in the paint. The Grizzlies, by the way, a very good paintscoring team. Uh, they outscored Memphis 57 to 39 from three-point range. They outscored them 2619 in transition. The 146 points that they scored in total are the third most the Heat have scored in a game in franchise history. I mean, literally, statistically, one of the best offensive performances in the Heat’s 38-year history. And just anecdotally watching it entertainment-wise, one of the most fun offensive games I’ve seen since the big three era. And uh there’s there’s a number of guys that were involved in this. We got to start though with Bam Adabio. What a bounceback game from him. He finishes with 24 points on eight of nine shooting, four of eight from three-point range. Uh had five rebounds, four assists. Um scored, I think it was 18 of Miami’s first 24 points or something like that. Just went off in that first quarter to really set the tone. A bunch of guys contributed. Bam. Set the tone in this one. And it was a huge bounceback game from him after a really disappointing game in Orlando to start the year. This is how you respond. And we talked going into it. He takes this match up with Jiren Jackson Jr. personally and you could tell in this game that he was taking it personally. Uh Eric Spoler made a ch starting lineup change. He went with Khal Wear at center and moved Bam to the four. I think that matches up with Memphis, right? Memphis likes to start Jock Landale and Jiren Jackson Jr. as a duo front court, duo, big man front court. So Spo went into this game said, “I’m going to match you guys.” Uh where played 23 minutes, Bam played 28 minutes, Nikoloic came off the bench and played 27 minutes. Um, and all these minutes were low because there was just a ton of garbage time in the fourth quarter. But these guys, they played the bulk of the meaty minutes of the game. So he comes out, matches it, and as interesting as that is defensively, right, with the two bigs, Keller, the seven foot fly swatter, Bam unlocked a little bit more defensively as a switch kind of more versatile, do everything defender, I’m more intrigued by what that pairing means for Bam Adabio specifically on offense. And we saw that early in this game with where planted in that dunker spot, right, where he’s going to be there available for offensive rebounds and lobs and putbacks uh and little dump off passes. That allows Bam to get out on the perimeter. So with with Keller at the rim, you saw Bam on the perimeter. He goes four for four from three-point range in the first quarter. And I don’t think that happens if he’s starting Nikico next to Bam, right? That only happens if Bam’s able to be out on the perimeter because Wear is able to handle the rim protect uh the rim stuff with the rebounds and all that kind of thing. So, uh is Bam going to go four for four from three-point range every single night? No. But we know that three-point shot for him is legit, right? He he’s not a 50% three-point shooter, but he’s a respectable three-point shooter now. The stroke look good looks good. We know that he’s practiced it over the years. We saw that last season, especially when We entered the lineup. It’s just something that gets unlocked when Wear is in there. Uh but Miamiy’s best stretch in that first quarter. It was a little tight. Wear goes to the bench. Bam ends up uh back at the five and and Haime Hake Jr. comes in for KL Wear. And then that’s really when Bam like BAM had already gotten going at that point. And then when they made that switch and went a little bit smaller with Hime in there for wear, that’s when the offense really took off. Haime Hakas Jr. was a plus 43 in his 27 minutes in this game. He finishes with 17 points, eight of 12 shooting, uh 10 rebounds, six assists. He was uh two steals. He was phenomenal in this game. Phenomenal. And his ability to put pressure on the defense and play with this speed, right? He gets down the court quickly and then the first thing he’s doing is he’s finding a small guy. He’s getting the angle on him and he’s going to put his back into him, get into his little onetw post move stuff, and then score at the basket. Really good at getting to the basket and then finding the dump off pass or kicking out. Uh the bounce back for Haimeh Hawkeyes Jr. after last season has been immense. And look, I pointed this out after the first preseason game. And some people made fun of me. I said, “Haimeme Hawkeye Jr. looks more comfortable than anybody else in this new high uptempo offense.” And some people made fun of me because he had a couple of turnovers early in that game. Like what are you talking about? He’s turning the ball over. He wasn’t scoring very well. And I guys, this is why you trust me on stuff sometimes. I can be right about these things. Process over results. I was watching him in that game. Haime wants to play fast. I think there’s this idea that because he’s a little bit old school and he kind of has these post moves that he almost wants to slow it down Jimmy Butler style. That’s never really been Haime Haka Jr’s game. I wrote um his rookie year, I wrote the big feature on him for the ringer. And when I went back and talked to his high school coaches, college coaches, um even his prep coaches, they would all of them said the same thing to me. The number one thing we had to do with Haime is figure out how to slow him down. He wanted to play so fast. He had this kamicazi type of attitude about playing basketball. And I think with under the Jimmy Butler years, those last two years of Haime’s first two years of Haime’s career, he was sort of forced to slow it down a little bit more. But in this offense, he can kind of let loose a little bit. And we’re seeing the Bronco buck here, in other words. And and I think this offense suits Hamehakas really really well. So we we’re seeing the I think their results now right away with him. The other guy the other guy that I want to spotlight here is DaVon Mitchell. It wasn’t the craziest box score for DaVon. He only had two points on two shots, had seven assists, no steals, did have three turnovers, but I’m telling you guys what he means, and I thought his impact early in this game particularly was really important, um, especially in helping get Bam set up and stuff. His ability to get downhill, get two feet into the paint, and then make stuff happen is huge. And it was huge in that Orlando game. And it was huge in this early on, especially in this game, too. And I when Tyler Herro comes back, that is a separate conversation about what it is that Eric Bolster is going to do. But DaVon’s importance to this starting group so far through two games has been immense. And he looks every bit an offensive factor on offense. Again, the scoring numbers not necessarily there. He had a better scoring game against Orlando, not so much against me. Didn’t have to, right? Everybody else was doing it, but he was setting all of it up. A lot of it up, I should say. A lot of it up. he has really taken to um Eric Spolster. One of the things that Spo was doing uh at F in Boca Raton for training camp was uh a lot of these drills where there would be no passes, right? So they would run these scrimmages on the FAU campus where they were doing training camp. They would run these scrimmages where the the it was and if you’ve ever played like even like middle school basketball, like this is one of the drills that they would do is don’t pass, you’re just going to pass the ball or don’t dribble, you’re just going to pass the ball until you get a bucket. and he went back old school and did that with his team. Um, I bring that up because you really see DaVon kind of taking to that here. The hit- ahead passes from DaVon Mitchell are huge. He’s making quick decisions with it. And when he’s not hitting the and when he’s not uh uh advancing the ball with the hit ahead passes, he’s running at a break neck speed. He’s getting into the paint. He’s getting two feet in there and he’s finding shooters. And he’s got he’s the one real guy on this roster who has that natural point guard attitude. the one guy that’s playing Kasparis Yakonis obviously has that too, but he’s injured, not part of the rotation right now until he gets back. Um, but even a guy like Drew Smith, not a natural point guard, even though that’s technically his position. Um, he had a really nice game, too. Not to take anything away from Drew, but in terms of getting into the paint, setting guys up, old school point guard mentality, and being that unselfish guy, not necessarily looking to score, DaVon’s that guy on this team, and he’s been so important uh for them early on this year, and especially uh when it comes to pushing the pace while doing all those things. Um, we talked about Bam, we talked about Mitchell, we talked about Hawz, Andrew Wiggins. What a game from him. And the box score doesn’t really show it again with him. 10 points on just eight shots, seven rebounds, had three assists, did have a steal. Um, I’m telling you, I love that game from Andrew Wiggins. And the thing that really stands out to me more than anything, the four offensive rebounds. And that’s sort of the hidden superpower that Wiggins has. He’s 6’8. He’s big, but he’s not like the biggest guy. He’s really strong. I remember when I was covering him with the Golden State Warriors when the when the Warriors first traded for him, talking to Steve Kerr and people were asking him like, “Are you going to play him at the four?” Because that’s not something he had done, but the Warriors obviously like to play small, which at the five and are you gonna play him at the four? And one of the things Steve Kerr said right away is like Wiggins is way stronger than you think. He’s abnormally strong even for his size and you saw that and what Wiggins meant for that team in the 2022 finals run with his ability to obviously score and defend Luca and things like that but uh Luca in the Western Conference Finals and then obviously played good defense in the finals against Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But really it was the offensive rebounds, those extra possessions that he was creating. When he’s when Wiggins is getting those offensive rebounds, that’s kind of when you see his game take that next level. That’s when you see that energy from him that you want to see that ser that he’s taking every possession seriously, that urgency that people just always want Andrew Wiggins to play with. When you see the offensive rebounds, that’s the that’s the ultimate barometer for Wigs to me. When you see those offensive rebounds, you know, that’s a game where Wiggins was really involved and played with a lot of urgency and energy and did all the things that you wanted him to see. So, I I think that was very much 2022 finals Wiggins. It’s not about the points. It doesn’t have to be the points, right? when Bam is going off, when Norm Powell’s giving you 15 points, when Hime’s got 17 points, when Yoic has got 20 points off the bench, you don’t need those points necessarily from Wiggins, but he’s creating those extra possessions. And I thought he was also really good defensively. I thought he was really, really strong with his rotations, with his contests. Uh, and in terms of guys playing fast, his leakouts off of defensive stops are just next level. Uh, I want to go back to Bam though really quick. The other, it was not just the threes that I liked from him. I wanted to mention this too. Maybe my f my favorite possession from Bam was actually uh one that he didn’t score on. There was one possession, I think it was the second quarter where he catches the ball. H uh Jiren Jackson Jr. is in front of him and he gives him a little hesitation dribble uh into that mid-range area and then dribbles by him uh puts his shoulder into into Jiren Jackson Jr. and then tries to finish at the basket. Now, he missed the shot, but it was a good look. And the reason I think that that’s my favorite is that he was using the threat of the mid-range game to his advantage, right? Jiren Jackson uh Jr. jumped out on him. It gave Bam the angle and he threw the shoulder into him and he was really aggressive and it was this interesting sort of off the dribble isolation play that it’s a that’s the level of aggression that I want to see more from Bam where he’s not just selling for that mid-range shot. I don’t care that he missed it. He’s going to make that shot a bunch more times and he’s going to miss it. That might have been my favorite play from Bam. In addition, and obviously the threes were amazing, but you don’t count on him hitting that many four three-pointers uh in a first quarter every single night. Um the other guy I want to talk about is uh Simone Fenteo. He had uh 14 points off the bench, four of eight from three-point range. I think he made his first three, maybe his first four. Um he was awesome, and we’re seeing why the Heat were so excited to get him. Not only is he a good three-point shooter, really quick release, quick decision maker, kind of just knows what he wants to do. I thought he actually had some really good defensive possessions in this game, too. He was a plus 25. Yep, he was a plus 25 in this game. Uh, in his 23 and a half minutes, f five of nine overall, four of eight from three-point range, had the 14 points, had uh four rebounds, two assists. Like, he’s really also taken to this uptempo offense, and um his ability to just kind of get around screens, find openings. That bench unit of Simone Feeko, Drew Smith, Niko Yo, Hackers Jr., and KL Wear gave them really really good minutes in this one and Eric Sper talked about that after the game. I mean, you look at the plus minus of the starting lineup and the plus minus of the bench unit. It was that bench unit that really kind of took things over uh and and extended that lead after the uh that starting unit kind of set the tone there. So, look, a awesome offensive night. I can keep going on and on and on about this, but I want to zoom out again here. I want to read you this quote from Bamabio and then this tweet from Anthony Chang of the Miami Herald. Here’s the quote from Bam after the game talking about the new look offense. So he said, quote, “You can’t really scout plays for us. There are no plays in the whole first half. I don’t think Spo ran a play.” End quote. Uh I rewatched the first half this morning. Not sure that’s quite accurate. There were some out-of- bounds plays that obviously were drawn up, but for the most part, yeah, no plays were really called in the flow of the game. And here’s the part from Anthony uh Chang who write who who tweeted, “I can confirm some scouts at tonight’s game in Memphis were having trouble because so few plays were being called out from the Heat bench.” So, this brings us back to Eric Bolster’s vision in this offense. And David and I were talked all summer, this team needs to play uptempo. They need to play fast pace. Jimmy Butler’s not long no longer here. You look at the way this roster is constructed and this team like it suits them to play fast. These guys are better playing fast, especially after the Norm Pal acquisition. Pal is one of the best transition players in the league. Has been for years. Um Bam is better playing fast, right? He’s better like in the half court, we’ve seen where Bam can struggle. You get him out in the open, he can start using that athleticism that we don’t always see, right? Hameakas Jr., Nikolai Yovic, these guys all are able D’Von Mitchell, like all the young guys, they’re good at playing fast. They want to play fast. This is a young roster and young rosters tend to play fast. Now, here’s the thing. Almost every team in the league during preseason media day, they’ll talk about, “Hey, we want to play uptempo. We want to play fast.” And I think you heard that even more after last year’s finals where you saw the Thunder and especially the Indiana Pacers set the tone with playing fast um and and picking up half uh full court and and forcing turnovers and getting into the open floor that way. Playing fast has never been a bigger deal. And one of the things that I’m always a little cautious of is when I hear that kind of talk, I’m like, h I don’t know. Like I really want to see it. It’s one thing to say that you want to play fast, it’s another thing to do it. It takes a really huge commitment to play quickly, to play fast, to play uptempo and create those possessions that way over and over and over for a 48minute game, especially at the beginning of the season, but more as when you get into the middle of the season and as the season goes on and guys get tired and guys get injured and things like that. So, we’ll see. But right now, it’s not just talk. The Eat are backing it up. They are doing it. They are the number one team. They are the number one pace in the league. This is a team that has been in the bottom of the league over the last several years in pace. One of the slowest teams over and over again. They were 27th in pace last year. They’ve been around that for the last five, six years. So to go from that to the fastest team in the league is quite the jump. I don’t know that I expect the Heat to be the fastest team in the league by the end of the year, but based on what we’ve seen these first couple games and everything that Eric Spolster was talking about and the strengths of this roster, the fact that they don’t really have a choice but to have to play fast. They have to play fast in order to score. I think they’re going to finish in the top 10 in pace if they’re able to keep this up. And it’s that commitment. It’s playing fast all the time off of makes, off of misses. Uh they crash the offensive boards. they get extra possessions defensively. The job is one shot, get the defensive rebound, and then leak out, start getting out into the open floor. And rebounding was an issue really the first half of the preseason, they started to address it as the preseason went on. Um I think as they were playing fast, they almost forgot to box out and rebound. They forgot to do the little things. They were almost getting ahead of themselves. Suddenly, they look very in control, right? I mentioned uh after the Orlando game, it feel it feels like they got two hands on the wheel, right? Um, and that’s really what’s going on here is they’re doing those little things. They’re not turning the ball over as much like they were in the preseason. They are boxing out. They’re rebounding like they weren’t necessarily in the first half of the preseason. And when you’re doing those little things and you’re getting out into the open floor, it’s huge. They’re getting the stops. They’re getting the rebounds. And then even off of Memphis makes, they’re just running. And what really stuck out to me watching that game now twice um after re-watching it again this morning, Memphis just wasn’t ready. And part of this, by the way, part of this blowout is that the Grizzlies were just not ready to play. That was a bad Grizzlies night. Eric Per even called it probably an off night for Memphis. That that’s true. Even if Memphis was playing well, the Heat win this game, right? And again, to me, I’m more especially at this point in the season, process over results. And the process through the first two games, even as disappointing as that first loss was in Orlando, offensively, the process is there that I trust it and that I’m excited to keep watching it. And what they’re doing by playing fast is they are keeping the defense on their heels. They are faster than Orlando. They are faster than Memphis. The Grizzlies time and time again just didn’t seem ready. It wasn’t hard. When you’re talking about not running plays, oftentimes it was just running faster than the Grizzlies. And then Haime Hakees Jr. having an angle on somebody and just blowing by him. Bam Anabio having an angle on somebody and then just getting to the rim. DaVon Mitchell just playing faster and kicking out to a shooter. Andrew Wiggins leaking out and just having a wideopen dunk or layup on the other end cuz nobody else is around him. Those are the easy points. The offense looked easy. And that’s the part that was so surprising and fun to watch. It wasn’t complicated. Spo wasn’t calling out plays from the sideline. He was just saying find an advantage, create an angle with your speed, and go for it. And it’s not nec it’s not like a Celtics thing where they’re just going to start jacking up a bunch of threes and not playing real offense. They’re they’re getting downhill. They’re getting to the basket. That is the first option for this offense is get to the rim. The Heat the way that they’re playing, they could lead the league or be top 10 in the league in points in the paint despite not having a Giannis type guy on the or a Zion Williamson type guy or somebody like that on the roster. This guy who just overpowers you time and time again to get into the paint. They don’t have that guy. But with their speed, with their tempo, with their priority to be get to the rim first and then everything else second, that’s huge. Um, so I’m I’m a believer. I’m a believer in this offense. I think Eric Spolstra has really done something here where I think it’s really hard to scout them. Memphis just looked shell shocked the entire game. They were surprised over and to the point and they’re moving so fast that there was a number of possessions or the Grizzlies just lost shooters. They just lost Miami shooters. The Heat. What were they from three-point range? They were 13 of 45 from three-point range. They only shot 29% from three and still blew the doors off of the Grizzlies. They’re going to be nights where I mean it was really just Bam and Fonte that were making threes. Yoic went three for six from three. That that was really it. Nobody else really made a ton of their threes. Norm Pal went two for four. Um they’re going to be nights where they shoot better from three-point range. They’re good three-point shooters on this roster, especially when Tyro comes back. But um they just the Gri like the the the Grizzlies were scrambling defensively. they were losing guys over and over and over again whether it was on the perimeter or at the rim. And when you play fast and you’re getting into a quick screen or whatever it is or just getting a guy on isolation, finding an angle and then putting that defense into the blender, good things are going to happen for you offensively. And I think Spo almost isn’t overthinking it. He’s saying, “Hey, I got a bunch of guys who can do stuff off the dribble. I got a bunch of guys who can do stuff off the dribble. let them cook, but we got to do it fi quickly. We got to do it fast. We got to establish an advantage in some way. And one of the things I talk about all the time, you need a primary advantage creator on offense. The Heat don’t have that still, but their advantage creator could be the tempo that they play with. That’s the advantage creator. Create that advantage essentially before the possession even starts by just playing faster than your opponent and making sure that they’re scrambling, making sure that they’re unsure of where things are. and without actually calling plays, it’s really hard for them to scout stuff. So, they’re they’re not going to be able to be ahead of the play, right? So, a lot of really interesting stuff here. I don’t want to spend too much time on it because again, it’s only been two games, but this is what Eric Spolster wants to do. This is the offense. I told you they were going to scrap the offense. I told you it. I told that to you. The playbook from the last few years went in the recycling bin. It is a brand new offense built from scratch. We heard that again from Eric Bolster at media day and now we are seeing it play out right now in these first two games. Super excited to see what this thing looks like on Sunday. But that’ll do it for me today on a Saturday morning. We’ll be back. I’ll be back with David Rmill from the home opener at CASA Center uh on Sunday night. Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. We’ll talk to you again uh later on Sunday

The Miami Heat blew out the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night in one of the greatest offensive performances in franchise history. Wes Goldberg discusses how they made it happen, highlights performances from Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Davion Mitchell and others, and talks about what makes the Heat’s new offensive system so potent.

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