The Miami Heat have dominated the offensive glass over their last six games. (Mandatory Credit: Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)
After the Miami Heat’s two-point win over the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier this month, Norman Powell pointed to an anonymous stat that the team was attempting to emulate as a mean for success.
“We have a goal in mind,” Powell said. “[Head coach Erik Spoelstra] gave us a stat from last year, and we want to reach that. … [What that stat is) is between us. That’s internal, something that we want to reach for.”
While we may never know what the exact stat is that Powell’s hinting toward, ever since that specific game, the Miami Heat have absolutely dominated in one key phase: The offensive glass.
Norman Powell on the win over OKC being a right step for this team and how Spo “gave us a stat from last year, and we want to reach that.”
Other vid is when he was asked what the stat was, says it will be kept internal. #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/dsRT7c7LYW
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) January 18, 2026
How Heat have flipped script in this key phase:
In their win over the reigning champions, the Miami Heat hauled down 21 offensive rebounds, a season-high at the time. They didn’t shoot the bal well, knocking down just 36.9 percent of their attempts. But Miami generated 34 more attempts than OKC.
That marked the biggest FGA discrepancy by any team in any single game this year, with a plus-16 advantage on the offensive glass and a plus-five advantage on the glass entirely.
Miami’s emphasis on obtaining extra bites maintained itself after, albeit over just six games. The Heat have corralled at least 14 offensive rebounds in four of their last five games, with at least 18 in three of them. For perspective, over Miami’s first 41 games, it had just 18 offensive rebounds once.
Its 36.2 offensive rebound rate since Jan. 17 is the second-best mark in the NBA, trailing only the Charlotte Hornets’ 37.6 percent mark. They also lead the NBA in second-chance points per 100 possessions and (21.4).
Generally under Spoelstra, Miami has prioritized transition defense over offensive rebounding. You can effectively do both, in theory, but the Heat haven’t oftentimes had three jerseys around the rim in the off-chance another team does leak out.
In four of its previous five seasons, the Heat were No. 19 or worse leaguewide in offensive rebound rate. They’ve long been an excellent defensive rebound team, placing as a top-7 unit in five of the last six and six of the last eight seasons.
Regardless of the team’s pace, it appears Miami is attempting to win the possession battle by any means necessary. Especially against formidable defenses (such as OKC), Miami’s offense has oftentimes struggled to generate offense in the halfcourt.
Well, trying to acquire as many opportunities as you can can effectively neutralize those deficiencies.
Once again, we may never know the exact stat that Powell is hinting at. But there’s keen reason to believe it has something to do with offensive rebounding.
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