Miami Heat: Shorthanded Heat pull away in season opening victory

The Miami Heat opened their season on Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies. Although it wasn’t easy, the final score turned out exactly how it should have.

The Miami Heat opened their 2019-20 season on Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies in Miami at the American Airlines Arena. Looking at this game on the schedule, there were probably a few immediate thoughts.

The first is that it should have probably been a win for the Miami Heat. The second is that you would definitely get to see the development of key players from last year to this one.

The third is that you would finally get the chance to see some of the new rookies in real regular-season NBA action. Lastly, you were also probably counting this as the day where you would see Jimmy Butler make his regular-season Miami Heat debut.

Well, all of those things happened, except for one. It was around an hour or so before tip-off when this happened.

While there was no immediate and specific explanation for Butler’s absence, Coach Erik Spoelstra did offer some reassurance on the situation. According to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald, Coach Spo said that “everything is fine” and that “it’s all good”.

Nevertheless, there was still a game to be played. Sans Jimmy, the Heat went with a Justise Winslow, Kendrick Nunn, Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Meyers Leonard starting lineup. Curiously enough on the starting lineup, there were reports and rumors flying around that pretty much stated that the plan was for Nunn to start all along, even if Jimmy Butler had played.

The Miami Heat came out firing on both ends, getting out to a 10-4 lead, while also forcing four Grizzly turnovers in the first 3 minutes or so. It didn’t last long though as things got sloppy after that, while remaining that way for much of the game. The Grizzlies had their opportunities to try and run away with this game, going up by eight points in the second quarter and having the Heat on the ropes with multiple possession leads at certain points in the third quarter.

The team wouldn’t quit though, showing a true Miami Heat type of demeanor and will throughout each Memphis run. Each time the Grizzlies got out to a lead of any sort, the Heat fought back, making it a pretty back and forth affair outside of those several outbursts from the Grizzlies.

The Miami Heat wound up being too much for the Grizz though. At around 9:06 in the fourth quarter, the Heat went on a 19-4 run that didn’t end until the game was already decided at around 3:20. The game would finish 120-101 in favor of Miami.

The Miami Heat got real contributions from all across the board. Justise Winslow led all scorers with 27 points, throwing in seven rebounds and assists each. Bam Adebayo finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists.

Goran Dragic played 25 minutes off the bench, scoring 19 points, with three rebounds and assists each. While he only shot 2-4 from three, he hit them at the biggest times. The rookies got busy as well, and I do mean all of the rookies.

Kendrick Nunn finished with 24 points, three assists, and two rebounds. Tyler Herro finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, and one assist.

The surprise of the game came from Chris Silva, a two-way player for the Miami Heat that appears to have a little Udonis Haslem about him. When he entered the game, there was a real energy boost given to the team for some reason. Across only 11 minutes and all in the fourth quarter, Silva finished with eight points, six rebounds, and three blocks.

The Miami Heat don’t play again until Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks. While this was a winnable game all along and even without Jimmy Butler, they will need him as they take on the Greek Freak and company. The Miami Heat got off to a decent start on Wednesday, but they will need to be much more disciplined, cleaner, and simply better moving forward.