RESILIENT: Miami Heat OVERCOME Bam Adebayo Injury, Offense DELIVERS BIG Wins vs Hornets & Blazers

RESILIENT: Miami Heat OVERCOME Bam Adebayo Injury, Offense DELIVERS BIG Wins vs Hornets & Blazers

Two back-to-back wins this weekend. Has Heat fans feeling pretty good. But will the good times keep rolling when they face Cleveland twice this week? [Music] You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked Onet. Your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat, however you might be tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app. Thanks so much for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Join the Cookie Gang. Become an everydayer by hitting that subscribe button. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Lockdown NBA Daily and Real GM radio. I’m here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. Have a ton to get to today. We’re talking about a successful weekend for the Heat who go 2-0, picking up a pair of back-to-back wins against the Hornets and the Trailblazers. Uh the Hornets game not as close as it was during the game. They kind of pull away there at the end on Friday night. And then on Saturday night, a kind of crazy game on the second night of backto-back against Portland. Slow start for Miami. They make a run, get back into it. Trailblazers make a run, they get back into it. Miami makes a run, they get back into it. It’s a back and forth fourth quarter. They end up winning the game. Um, but I want to talk about these two games kind of together, David. Uh, having picked up these two wins with Bam Adabio out and so Kaware gets the start. Some interesting things with the lineups that Eric Spolster does. kind of just throwing everything kind of at the wall and seeing what sticks and fortunately for Miami, some stuff stuck pretty good. Uh but what stood out to you in these games? Uh I just think the the way that everybody uh their scoring was still top-notch. you knew that they were going to suffer some deficiencies on defensive end uh with Bam out, but uh I think we saw that mostly on Saturday because Charlotte as a once again emerged as a pretty not great team and so it wasn’t really as much of a concern. Although they did keep it close for some of the game, it just wasn’t ultimately they just weren’t a strong factor there towards the end. And Miami had such a fantastic first quarter what scoring 53 points in that first quarter. They were really amazing. And then Charlotte did uh you know claw their way back into it when Miami took their foot off the gas as you might imagine. Uh but I I think the way that they just were were trying to keep the pace going. Uh we seen this offense kind of lean into this version of what we’ve seen this season. And I think they were still doing that at a very high level. Uh trying to find a way to you know just make up for the fact that without Bam there you know you’re going to have some sacrifices to make defensively and on the rebounding front. And I think that’s what really stood out. I I think overall there were just some great performances there like some really solid individual performances from guys like in Appella Lararsson Haime Hakez Nicole Yoic who had 29 points a careerhigh on Saturday night. So just a lot of guys finding ways to step up with Bam being out of the lineup. Yeah, I mean that’s what stood out to me. Uh they still got crushed on the boards in these two games. And when BAM went out, David, you and I, we talked, we did a whole podcast about how they could replace BAM and who needed to step up specifically in the rebounding category because it’s not as if this Heat team is an elite rebounding team anyway. Bam is kind of the guy that keeps them afloat. And without BAM, you just take a bowling ball, smash it through the bottom of the boat, and you’re sinking. That’s what this team is defensively when it comes to rebounding. And you look at what they uh did in terms of defensive rebounding in these games. So Bam played eight minutes against Denver and then he misses the game against Charlotte, misses the game against Portland. So, let’s say for the most part he was out for he was out for the most of the these last three games, right? Right. The have allowed their highest offensive rebounding rate in guess what three games this season? The last. Correct. It’s the last three. And it’s not even freaking close. They allowed Denver to uh rebound 39% of their misses. They allowed Portland to rebound 38.6% of their misses. And they let Charlotte rebound 38% of their misses. Their next closest, like the next closest is the Knicks earlier in the season who rebounded 28%. So they’re giving up at minimum 10% more offensive rebounds to these opposing teams in the last three games without baming the game and yet they still win these games. They found a way to win and they did it by leaning into their identity. They really committed to the bit I think is maybe the best way to put it here where okay, we’re just not going to be good at this part. We’re not here it is. You can have the rebounding thing, we’re just not going to be good at it, but we’re going to blow the doors off of you offensively because you also look in these games, two of the four best offensive games they’ve had this season in offensive rating against Charlotte and against Portland over the weekend in these two wins, right? They score 121.7 points per 100 possessions against Charlotte and then 120.4 points per 100 possessions against Portland. That’s gang busters, right? that that’s and the only time they were better than that was when they had an all-time offensive performance against Memphis when they put up 146 points and an all-time offense of Portland the first time they played Charlotte earlier this year when they were more healthy with 144 points in that game. So outside of these like two outlier offensive just eruptions earlier in the year they were also awesome in these games despite the fact that they didn’t have BAM. They were able to lean into some of their more perimeter oriented scores. We’ll get into credit cookies later in the show and we’ll talk about more of those guys here in a second, but they they committed to the bit. They went all in on it and it worked and Charlotte’s not good. Portland’s a good basketball team and that was a quality win on the second night of a backto-back. Yeah, undoubtedly. Uh I I love the way that they just the Portland game was really fun because you knew that you you weren’t going to play much defense. Like they were have a couple opportunities here and there. There were some nice plays particularly from a guy like Drew Smith, Pella Larson. I think they they had some really nice plays. Even Nikico Yoic with a solid block towards the end of the game, but it was just really this break neck affair where it was one team scoring, the other team scoring. Neither of them really committing to the defense, but at least Miami’s offense was able to kind of just triumph there and get just enough defense towards the end of the game to make it an escape with a win. But, you know, one of the things that I wanted to make a quick point about is because I know that everybody’s going to point to Khil Wear’s 12 rebounds and say, you know what, rebounding isn’t the problem. But as you and I talked about, and this was a point that we saw I saw some people kind of comment and give feedback about, Bam is not perhaps an elite rebounder because of his size, but I think as you pointed it out, he is an elite box outer or boxer outer box outer. Yeah, sure. Either way, he is really good at boxing out. And it’s again from this point, it’s not that he’s pulling down a huge number of rebounds. It’s that he’s keeping the other team’s best rebounder from getting those rebounds. And that’s where the difference is because he winds up boxing out at such a high level that he just creates those opportunities for guys like Tyler Hero, Norman Powell, etc. Ah hero obviously not able to do so this season, but we’ve seen him put up huge numbers as a shooting guard, a somewhat undersized shooting guard, too. So, uh I I just it’s going to be a concern. Uh we’ve already got an update on his situation for the Cleveland game on Monday night and it’s not a great prognosis. So, uh you know that you’re going to have your hands full. Yes, he is declared officially out against the Cavaliers on Monday. So, with Jared Allen and Evan Mobley, two elite rebounders on their own, it’s going to be a problem. Can Miami put up enough points there to kind of run rough shot with a team like Cleveland, who is the second best team in the Eastern Conference at 7 and three right now? Yeah, I mean, you look at the rebounding right now. Um, the Heat grabbed 84 rebounds in these last two games and uh that’s, you know, not a lot like combined. Compare that to their opponents what they’re giving up. 114 rebounds. Yeah. 114 257 rebound nights. Uh not a coincidence. Again, uh it’s really tough. But Cleveland is not I mean I’m sorry since uh Charlotte is not a great rebounding team. Uh but they just put up a big night there. But what helped I think at the end of that Portland game is they went small, right? Like we saw them uh the Heat go with Niko Yoic at the five in that lineup and they were just they said, “Okay, like defensively we’re just going to switch everything. We’re not going to think that hard about it. We’re going to get out and run as much as we can. Portland even tried to counter at the end and they went small with Grant at the five, which was something we talked about going into it. Like, yeah, yeah, they’ll probably play a little bit small because they like to play Grant and that smaller ball lineup. They don’t really have a backup center behind Klingan that they use a lot. They use Dop Breath a little bit. They’re not really playing out Hansen at all. Um, but so they go small and try to match Miami and the games will go a little bit back and forth. And then you see Thiago Splitter, who’s their acting head coach right now, say, “All right, I’m going to counter. We’re going to go with Klingan.” And I thought it was really interesting that Klingan made an impact play on three straight possessions as soon as he checked into that game. And Miami didn’t budge. Spo didn’t put Kell back in. He didn’t go to He’s like, “No, we’re staying small. This is working for us.” And that uptempo, fast pace, I think ended up playing into Miami’s hands in those final couple of minutes where it was really back and forth for most of that fourth quarter. And then the Miami ends up pulling away after that initial like little surge from Donovan Klingan. You saw Klingan on Yoic. Yovic would uh space him out offensively and all these things. So, um I thought it was again this was Eric Spoler saying we’re just not going to be good at this part of the basketball game, but we’re going to try to beat you at the other swing parts of this game. Pace, shooting, uh assist to turnover ratio, like we’re going to try to win these other factors. Understand we’re probably going to lose the rebounding factor and we’re going to lose it by quite a bit. But we have a lot of credit cookies to give out. A rare thing here that we’re about to do in this credit cooking segment. It’s something that we don’t like to do, but we kind of have to. We’ll talk about that next here on Locked on Heat. Today’s episode is brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match. With Robin, you play for the win. Not just on game day, every day. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks and ETFs, options, futures, crypto, all in one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood Legends advanced tools. Or you can take advantage of the new Robin Hood strategies with a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts. You expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yyoumoney. Again, that’s robinhood.com/yyoumoney. Your money, your move. Today’s episode is also brought to you by Game Time. Basketball season’s officially here, and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. Between waiting in cues, surprise fees, and prices that jump right before checkout, it’s easy to get frustrated when all you want to do is cheer on your team. But that’s where Game Time comes in. The app that gives fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast, easy, and stressfree. Look, I’m going to be completely honest here. The holiday season’s coming up and you know what? One of the greatest gifts you can give somebody, the opportunity to go to, I don’t know, say a Miami Heat game, maybe a Dolphins game, maybe a concert of their choice. And you can find all those tickets available for you at game time. If you’ve never been to a venue, you can use their special features so you can see exactly where you’re going to be sitting from. And don’t worry about any hidden fees or anything like that because with game time, what you see is what you get and that’s what you have to pay for. And it’s a great way to save money, too, because you can take all the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets or any tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code lockdown NBA. You get $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply, but that’s code L O C D O NA. You get 20 bucks off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. It’s game time. We’ll be right back. [Music] It is another Miami Heat win and another Miami Heat win, which means it’s time for the tastiest segment of Lockdown Heat. It is time for credit cookies. Not one batch, David, but two. A win against Charlotte, a win against Portland. That means we’ve got 20 credit cookies to hand out. That is a lot of cookies that we got here in the cookie jar. David, we don’t have to talk about for necessarily like 10 cookies for this game, 10 cookies for that game. Just let’s hand the cookies out. Let’s start uh or I don’t know, however you divvied them up, I guess, is how we could do it. It It’s tough. It really was cuz I don’t I you look at everybody’s production and I don’t know that you can point to any one player that had a monster twoame stretch there. I just think everybody wound up really contributing. And so I wound up giving five different people an a lotment of cookies here. But I think one of the guys that I was most impressed with is Pella Larson. And he gets five cookies for his production on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, eight of 11 for 19 points. On Saturday, seven of 10 for 16 points. Talk about somebody who’s making the most of his opportunity. Uh you were honestly uh during the off season, you were really optimistic about Larson’s chances. I was a little less so because I just wasn’t sure how he’d crack the lineup. You knew that the default was going to be something that Miami had to take into consideration. They were deeper. Then again, the Haywood Heisman trade takes place and then you go, you know what, maybe Pell might get some more opportunities. And here he is starting and he’s been phenomenal making little plays, finding ways to score, contributing, taking charges. He’s been improved as a shooter. We saw his run over the summer with Euro Basket and he’s been continually building off of that and he’s looked fantastic over the last two games and that’s why he gets the bulk of the cookies. He gets five more than any other player tied for first I should say with what other player. Wow. I mean, sure. I’m I’m totally okay with that. I mean, you look at uh what he’s done this year and I think in specifically the fouls are down. You and I talked about this a lot as a rookie and he’s talked about this recently. There’s still times where it’s not great, but he had three fouls in each in these last two games, which isn’t bad considering that he’s playing basically 27 28 minutes a game. That’s that’s about right for a guy who’s as aggressive as he is. Again, you’d probably there’s still room for improvement there, but it’s not to the point where he is played off the floor, right? Where last year he’s picking up three fouls in 12 minutes, right? And it was just like we can’t keep this guy out there. I mean, our free throw rate is way too high. He’s putting us in the bonus too early. All these things. Now, it’s a little bit more manageable. And then I when we did our bold predictions show, David, I was very close. And as bold as my predictions were, and I got spicy on those predictions, as you remember, I held back one that I thought was just too spicy. And one of them was going to be that Pella is going to end up being one of Miami’s best five players by the end of the season. And I’m probably not there yet still, but man, if I had made that prediction, it would have looked really good at this point. So, uh, just I mean, you just look at how many cookies this guy has. He might now I mean we haven’t we’ve only gotten like a little bit into this, but as of right now, he does have the most credit cookies on the season so far, but he’s the first one to get credit cookies for these backtoback wins over the weekend. So, the he might not have the crown for very long, but with Bam out, I mean, he was right there, too. So, we’ll see what happens. So, five credit cookies for Pal Larson. Um, that’s awesome. Who’s next? I’ve got five for Norm Powell as well. I think uh you know obviously as Miamiy’s most productive scorer over those two game stretches. He deserves the bulk of the cookies as well. So he’s got 25 for Friday. Uh 25 points on Friday, 22 points on Saturday. Really consistent shooting. Maybe again not a phenomenally productive night. Uh we’ve seen better games from him, but he just did everything good. And you know, I think as the season progresses, it’s going to be interesting to see how teams start to defend Norm because he’s going to be viewed as that kind of leading scorer, which again makes the return of Tyler Hero something to look forward to because well, he takes some of the no pun intended heat off of Powell, allowing him to continue to thrive. But as far as the last two games, I think he’s facing these defenses and he’s still so effective making those decisions quickly, leaning into his shot. Uh the three-point has cooled off a little bit. Just two of five on Friday, one of five on Saturday, but still a really phenomenal game from him. Continuing to draw fouls and just be a much more improved playmaker and defender than I think either of us expected. I mean, he doesn’t really take anything off the table defensively. He’s not an awesome defender, but he’s not this guy that you’re targeting every single time down the floor. So for somebody that is scoring at the volume that he’s scoring and has as much offensive responsibility as he has to also just kind of hold serve defensively is incredibly important to this basketball team. And uh and when he’s out there, everything just works. We talked about it when he was out of the lineup with the injury. Just having him back now, the spacing is better, the flow is better, and you just he’s not a go-to guy. I wouldn’t go that far, but he is the first one that you’re looking to, right? You’re just like, “All right, we’re down the floor. He’s there. I’m not really thinking about it. If he’s if I can get the pass to him, I’m going to get the pass to him, and I’m going to trust him to make the right decision, the quick decision making that we’ve talked about him uh over and over again.” And with Bam out, I think that became even more important. And in some of these lineups, he’s had a lot of space to kind of get north south and get to the basket a little bit more. U the shooting just remains ridiculous with him. I know you said it cooled off a little bit, but I mean, for the season, it’s just it’s unbelievable. Yeah. No, he he’s been great. Uh let’s see. Uh after that, I’ve got Well, you know what? I’ve got two players tied with four. Start off with Nikico Yoic. We talked about him having to be an impact player uh before the the twoame stretch here with Bam out and you knew he was going to have to step up. Unfortunately, K’s been able to be the kind of productive player we expected him to be or to make the most of this opportunity. It just seems like he’s still finding footing within Miami’s new offense and he just has not been as aggressive as you might have expected him to be or hoped that he could be. Uh but Nico has seemed to take a leap. Uh maybe a little bit more confident. I don’t know how consistent he’ll be. That’s always going to be a question mark, I think, with Nico, but has scoring a career-high 29 points on Saturday. I debated whether or not to give him five, but ultimately I settled for a four cookie outing here. And I think it’s been great because he on Friday he was a little bit less productive. Saturday more so obviously. uh and he’s just leaned into it. Uh finding ways to contribute. Seems to have got a little of his swagger back, you know, on Saturday. Kind of talking a little bit of smack, feeling his confidence towards the end of the game. Let a a questionable 28 29 footer fly. Plenty of time left, but you know, when Miami was uh you know, trying to hang on to a rim and Nico lets it fly. So maybe was this a heat check? Maybe he was just trying to feel it or something like that. But either way, I think he’s found a little bit of a groove and you hope that he can continue to do that and that maybe Khil will find his way soon. Yeah, it was a careerhigh for him on Saturday night. 29 points. He was he was tremendous. Eight I think it was eight points in the fourth quarter. Uh what really stood out to me about Nico, I’m glad you gave him the four credit cookies here and I think I know who he’s tied with. It’s Hakas. Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah. So, um similarly to Haime, and I guess we’ll talk about him now, but just was the guy in the fourth. you needed somebody to step up in that fourth quarter and on Saturday it was Nico on Friday it was it against Charlotte it was Haime and um what I loved about Nico on Saturday was all the stuff that we were talking about coming out of Euro Basket the transition attack running the red light you know we always talk about that with Nico it’s just be the first guy down there establish don’t follow lead he has the capability to lead this team when it comes to pushing tempo and playing pace and not always with the ball in his hands sometimes certainly with the ball in his hands but I thought on Saturday off the ball, but just sprinting down the floor and just making himself available for those dump off passes, for those hit ahead passes. Uh, and with Bam out and Kell struggling, you need a big man to just be available to receive passes. And that sounds so basic and yet it is so important, especially with Kell out like or like with Bam out and Kell struggling the way that they were. So, they weren’t on the court. You needed some big man to be available for those receiving uh for those receptions and Nico was. So, I thought it was huge. But, Himeme gets the four credit cookies here. I thought it was the same thing for him uh against uh Charlotte on Friday night. Really stepped up as a go-to guy in the fourth quarter. Yeah, I he’s been great. I I think I’m trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that he’s doing differently. And then I don’t know that there’s anything other than you know what, he just looks healthy. Like he’s developed another level physically uh in terms of being able to maximize his speed because he’s not lightning fast, but he is he’s got good timing. I think I don’t know if he’s an elite necessarily in change of speed kind of guy because there are some players that don’t necessarily have to be lightning fast but they have mastered the ability to stop and go and that is a skill in of itself. Goran Dragage for example again not lightning fast but he could stop on a dime and pivot and that was allowed him to draw fouls and get to his shots. Uh hey just really good at maximizing it. But I also think that there’s a level of strength that he did not possess in his first two seasons that as physically ready as he was to enter the NBA, as productive as he was as a rookie, I still I think he’s stronger now. And his ability to absorb contact on his drives to the rim, it feels like he’s getting more free throws. He’s finishing through contact, drawing more and one opportunities because he’s just been flourishing at the rim and he just seems to be tying it all together. He’s looked phenomenal. He’s so good. I think it’s the Pagerian theorem or something like that. It’s like speed plus size equals strength or mass or something. Uh I don’t think that’s it. I don’t think that’s that’s I think I’m close. Uh it’s but that’s Himeme, right? No, I with the drag edge comparison is a good one because physically they’re very different players, but I do think stylistically they have very they’re very similar. It’s kind of like an NFL running back and with running backs you’ll talk about like second level speed. Hey, once you get past the the offensive and defensive line, you kind of get past those linebackers. Do you have that takeaway speed? Do you have that second level speed? And with Haime, like Goran, I thought he was very similar like this. Once he kind of gets past that initial defender, he has that second level speed. He kind of builds, right? He really, you hear the term going downhill, he it kind of looks like he’s going downhill, right? He’s picking up speed. He’s picking up momentum once he gets past that level. He moves like an NFL running back because he has those shoulders and that strength. like he will use that stuff to get past that first uh point of attack defender and then he kind of allows that speed and that momentum that he built up to kind of take over at that point. And then he had a play against I think it was I I the games kind of blend in, but I think it was the Portland game where he was doing that. He got past the first level defender. He was a little bit of like semi-transition transition attack and he kind of stops and lets the one defender kind of fly by him. Yeah. And then and then just and then just puts in the easy layup. That’s awesome stuff from Haime. I think honestly like yes, the physical stuff, the health stuff, that all looks different with him, but I just think the offense serves him in such a meaningful way. He’s just better in this offense than he was in the last one. And sometimes it’s just it’s fit, right? Like we don’t talk about fit enough sometimes with these uh role player type guys. We tend to talk about fit in terms of like do these star players fit together. Fit really matters for everybody on the roster. And for Haime, it was not a good fit with what the team was asking them to do last year. it is a good fit for what this offense is asking him to do this year to the point where he can get better defensively. It doesn’t matter. He’s so good offensively that this guy’s like moving up in six man of the year odds. Uh we talked about his FanDuel odds last week. It was like plus 4,000. We got a subtext message from our Lockdown Heat Insider community. Some somebody picked him up at like plus 6,000. Watch. I didn’t even know it was that low at one point and like now he’s like at plus 1,200, plus 1400. It’s It’s crazy. So, um great for Nico. How many more cookies we have? I’ve got two more. Just two more for Andrew Wiggins. Let’s be quick. Okay. Yeah, he’s just productive, doing his thing. Uh, great two-way activity there on several. He’s hitting shots down the stretch on both games. I think he’s just been a really big find for Miami. Again, raising the floor for this group and helping to contribute as a complimentary player. My favorite play from Wiggins, one of my favorite uh sequences in that Saturday night game. Uh, end of the game, I mentioned how Portland put Klingan back in and then Miami kept switching everything. They said, “Okay, bet. We’ll just we’ll keep doing our thing.” And it was like a minute leftish, maybe a minute and a half left. And um they ran a switch to get Klingan on a wing. That wing happened to be Wiggins. And Wiggins did a really good job contesting Klingan at the basket. Uh good contest, no basket. He picks up the ball, gets it out to DaVon Mitchell. Da’Von takes it down the court. Wiggins flies down to the left wing. Uh settles in there. DaVon drives, kicks back out to Wiggins. Wiggins drains that corner three. And that was pretty much the dagger of that game. And that’s that’s the that’s the the basket that kind of gets the attention is the Wiggins dagger from the corner. What doesn’t get enough attention is that first part, the contest on the switch against a 7 foot guy 7 foot one. I think Lingan is a really big strong guy. Getting that contest, forcing the miss, picking up the loose ball and then uh turning that into a scoring opportunity on the other end. That was huge from Wigs. He deserves the cookies. Um coming up next, Miami has two big games back toback. Well, not really. Monday, Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers at home. We’ll look ahead to that, plus some surprising stats that would surprise even Heat fans who have been following this surprising season so far. It’s coming up next. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. 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And I think even with Tyler coming back at some point, again, that’s another thought stat that you might want to look into as a a possible wager, you know, whether or not uh that might be something that you can look to the future, what what Tyler’s able to produce once he does come back to the health come back healthy into this lineup. So many different things you can look at and point to and say, you know what, that might I feel comfortable with these numbers. And we’re going to go into some stats next that might help you in that process. So, right now, FanDuel is giving you customers $300 in bonus bets when you bet your first $5 bet. and if it wins. So, head to bananol.com, sign up, and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. We’ll be right back. [Music] Welcome back to Lockdown Heat. Thanks again for making us your first listen every day. The best way to support the show, like and subscribe on YouTube, follow us on your podcast app. Before we get into some surprising stats from the season so far, David, looking ahead to Monday night and Wednesday night against the Cavaliers, um at Cassa Center at home, no BAM Adabio, as you already said at the top of the show, but what are you looking for uh in these matchups against a very good Cleveland Cavaliers team that is brought back recently, Darius Garland. And uh that offense looks very, very good. You’re muted. And so I am. And uh I just with this team, I’m just kind of hoping that they’ll make it competitive. Uh we know there’s going to be an edge there because of how badly Cleveland beat them in the playoffs and whether or not this same iteration of the group feels that kind of responsibility, especially with Bamat as the captain, as the emotional leader of this group. Is he going to be there? who’s going to be there to kind of inspire this group and kind of look to exec perhaps a little bit of revenge. As short-handed as you are, this is still the NBA and this team has just as good an as an opportunity to try and beat Cleveland. They’ve got to try and at least be competitive, try and slow down the Cavaliers to a certain degree and and keep this offense going. I I you know something that Eric Spolzer has said and I never really quite I don’t know if I it’s not to say that I didn’t ever understand it but one of the things one of his mantras especially when it comes to playoff basketball it’s about not adjusting to what your other teams do do what the other team does but rather just continuing to lean into your strengths and you were talking about this offense we saw it over the last couple days this is the strength of this team and so you have to do what you can you know what you might not be able to stop Cleveland from scoring I don’t know if it’s possible for this current group to put up, you know, outscore them, but that’s the goal. Obviously, you’ve got to try to find a way to to put up more points and and figure out a way to get that offense going. Cleveland’s a really good defensive team. As good as they are offensively, they’re also pretty good defensively. Miami as good defensively right now. So, you’ve got to be able to lean into that offensive identity and do what you can to maybe put Cleveland back on their heels a little bit and find easy opportunities at the basket. Again, not an easy thing to do, right? because BAM’s out, you’re just not going to be defensively where you want to be. Um, that’s both of these teams are kind of similar in the way that they have multiple bigs that they like to play, that they are very guard oriented offensively. Um, neither of these teams is a great rebounding team despite Cleveland playing with a lot of size. They’re not a great rebounding team. So, I’m not as worried as say, you know, I mean, I’m worried about the rebounding edge, I guess, because even like Charlotte and Portland weren’t amazing rebounding. Charlotte was actually a good rebounding rate team. they just didn’t really buy it. That was a little kind of maybe a smaller sample size kind of juice number, but um it’s something that they’re going to have to take care of. I want them I want to see them go small a little bit and all these things. This game Monday is going to be tough though. I mean, this is the third game in four nights. Like, let’s just be real here. Okay. Now, Cleveland arrives in on Sunday. Weather in Miami is beautiful right now. Maybe they have a little bit of a long day. Maybe you can catch them a little bit. We’ll see. NBA players love Miami. Maybe there’s a little bit of South Beach flu going around uh in that Cleveland Cavaliers locker room. Maybe you get get lucky there. But uh this is one of those this is a this is a game that you would circle on the calendar and be like high chance of schedule loss here, right? The Wednesday game is the one that’s really interesting to me. And not just because we’re getting the Vice Knights jerseys back, baby. That’s coming back on Wednesday night. They’ll be wearing the black Miami Vice jerseys. So that’ll be really cool. Um, I got some surprising stats that I want to uh show you here before we get out of here. Um, a few games into the season. I thought these stats were really interesting and I was doing a little bit of a deep dive today, so I wanted to bring them up. I’m going to I’m going to give you two stats. You’re going to tell me which one is more surprising. First stat, DaVon Mitchell second behind Derek White in assist to turnover ratio. Five assists per turnover. Second behind Derrick White in assist to turnover ratio among qualified players. Is that more surprising or is the fact that Miami is only 13th in offensive rating when you extrapolate and go per 100 possessions? They have some of the highest scoring games in the season. We talked a lot about this offense. They are actually 13th in offensive. They’re fifth in defensive rating. This is still a defensive oriented team. It doesn’t feel like it when you watch this team. So the DaVon Mitchell stat or the fact that Miami is only 13th in offensive rating overall, which one is more surprising? It’s got to be the offensive rating. Like I think Bitchel’s more comfortable. He understands the pace of this group seems to suit his style of play and him kind of pushing the pace trying to make those quick look ahead passes or really whip that ball into somebody when they find those, you know, great cuts along the baseline or something. Uh those are the opportunities where Mitchell is really most effective and we saw that even last season. He was a little turnover prone, you know, just getting his timing. But I think with this group playing at the speed that they do, it kind of again it it’s well suited to his style of play. So I’m not that surprised at the fact that he his turnover to assist to turnover ratio is pretty low. It’s the offensive rating. I I’m having a hard time understanding what that how that statistic measures what we’ve seen over the last 10 games. It’s one of the rare times, right, where because Miami used to be so slow, they almost got rewarded in offensive rating. As funny as enough, they were always in the bottom 10, but because they were always averaging like 90 something possessions per game, like because offensive rating averages out for 100 possessions, they were almost they were getting rewarded extra points. This is the rare circumstance that they had so many possessions that because they’re averaging it out to 100 possessions per game, it just takes the possession to possession efficiency. Miami is not like a possession to possession efficient offense as much as they are just a volume offense. And that’s because they don’t have that they don’t have that one elite offensive player. It’s the reason why this offense makes a lot of sense. I actually don’t care about the offensive rating being 13th because I do think that these games end up turning they Miami has been able to dictate the terms of engagement in these games that I’m not really worried about them being played per 100 possessions. I’m just worried about them being played in the vacuum, the one game that they are. And if you can get the other team to get sped up and play into your strengths, that’s why I think they’re fifth in defensive rating because on a possession to possession basis, even if they’re giving up a lot of points in a game, those opposing teams aren’t as efficient as they’d like to be because they’re completely out of their own offense. So, uh, I think that gets into a whole conversation about whether or not this is sustainable. That’s a different podcast, maybe for a different time. But, um, there’s that. My last one here, and we got to do this quick before we get out of here. two Norm Powell stats. Are you more surprised that uh Norm Powell is Wait, where’d they go? Okay. More surprised that Nor Pal is averaging 23 points per game or the fact that he’s averaging more points than minutes in the first quarter? He’s averaging 8.7 points. He’s averaging eight and a half 8.5 minutes in first quarters this season. I’m not surprised by either of those. I guess the the statistic about the first quarter is more quote unquote surprising just because that’s rare that a player will come in there and score to that kind of level of production in a limited amount of time. But he seems to get off to really hot first quarters. Maybe while everybody else is kind of looking for their timing or their, you know, what to do with themselves. He’s like, “Nah, give me the ball. I’ll score.” And he’s just been putting up a lot of I don’t have this one. He might lead the league in first basket scored for his team. It just seems to always be him. Quarter points. He He probably does, right? It’s not first quarter points. That’s a good He’s seventh. He’s seventh in first quarter points, but only because he comes out midway through. Yeah. So, uh, Luca, who plays He’s averaging 11 minutes per first quarter. if it were up to, you know, he’s mostly playing the full first quarter. Um, he’s averaging 13 points per first quarter, but he plays the whole first quarter. Jaylen Brunson averages 10 points in the f, he plays the whole first quarter. Um, then it’s Harden, who’s averaging 9.4, he’s playing about 10 minutes, so another one or two minutes more than than uh Norm. Uh, Ant in a fewer games because he had the injury there, but he’s averaging a little bit more than nine points. Uh, Joic, who’s just amazing, is averaging 8.8 eight uh in 11 minutes and PAL is averaging 8.7 in 8.5 minutes. So Pal’s seventh, but again, fewer minutes played than anybody else I just talked about. So if you were to just play Pal 12 minutes in a first quarter, he probably would or or be a lot closer to Luca and Jaylen Brunson than he is where he is right now, right behind Nagel Jokic, which is still a pretty good company. Yeah, he’d be averaging 15 points the first quarter, you know, or something like that though. Did you use the Paththerian theorem to figure that out or No. No. Different formula. Pythagorean theorem is has nothing to do with what you just said, but that’s okay. Why not? Let’s use it in the future. Something about triangles, right? Yeah, sure. Let us know what you think in the comments. What does the path the jurian theorem mean? Uh also, what what do you think about credit cookies? What do you think about Nikolovic and Himemehakas and their performances so far over this weekend? And uh how are you looking ahead to these games against Cleveland? Is it a schedule loss Monday night? Can they bounce back on Wednesday? Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Miami Heat surge with back-to-back wins against the Charlotte Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers, igniting optimism among fans—can this lineup keep the momentum against a formidable Cleveland Cavaliers team missing Bam Adebayo? With the team battling major rebounding deficits, Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez shine, while Pella Larson and Norman Powell step up offensively. Is Erik Spoelstra’s willingness to “commit to the bit” and push perimeter scoring making up for defensive gaps, or will Cleveland’s elite rebounders expose Miami’s biggest weakness?

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down standout performances, surprising stats, and Miami’s evolving offensive identity. Key points include the Heat’s soaring offensive rating despite rebounding struggles, Norm Powell’s scorching first-quarter output, and Jaime Jaquez’s leap into Sixth Man of the Year contention. With two crucial games against the Cavaliers looming, can Miami’s small-ball approach outpace Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley? Don’t miss this analysis of the Heat’s resilience and the tactical questions facing Spoelstra’s squad.

00:00 Intro
01:30 Heat Overcome Bam’s Absence
14:44 Credit Cookies!
27:44 Heat vs Cavs Preview
33:06 Surprising Stats

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