Using NBA 2K20 to predict the Miami Heat vs San Antonio Spurs

The Miami Heat play host to the visiting San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. What does NBA 2K20 have to say about the matchup?

The Miami Heat return home after a dreadful stop in the state of New York. Losses to the slumping Brooklyn Nets and the downright awful New York Knicks leave the Heat in need of a win, and there’s no place like home for those this season. The Heat will host the suddenly surging San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday as they hope to get back on track.

In our ongoing NBA 2K20 game-day preview series, we turn to Wednesday night’s game between the Heat and Spurs. The Heat bring their 27-12 record on the road to face the 17-21 Spurs.

We’ve been predicting game outcomes for the Heat using NBA 2K20 for almost a month, and for better or worse to this point, we’ve only got three games incorrect. Once again we’ll look to the advanced predictive powers of NBA 2K to get an idea of what to expect in this game between the Heat and Spurs.

First, the ground rules. We modified the Spurs’ lineup to reflect their rotation and minutes from their last game, a 105-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. As for the Heat, we’ll follow their minutes and rotation as closely as possible relative to their past few games.

To reflect the Heat’s defensive tendencies, we moved up head coach Erik Spoelstra’s run zone tendency from five percent to 50 percent. We also changed Bam Adebayo’s secondary position to power forward since Meyers Leonard’s positions look that way. Lastly, we edited Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, and Adebayo’s vitals to allow them to initiate the offense.

Starting lineups

Miami Heat

Point guard, Kendrick Nunn

Shooting guard, Duncan Robinson

Small forward, Jimmy Butler

Power forward, Bam Adebayo,

Center, Meyers Leonard

San Antonio Spurs

Point guard, Dejounte Murray

Shooting guard, Bryn Forbes

Small forward, DeMar DeRozan

Power forward, Trey Lyles

Center, LaMarcus Aldridge

Outcome

Miami Heat 128, San Antonio Spurs 126

Once again the Miami Heat turned out to be the kings of the clutch, staging a furious rally to beat the Spurs. The Heat defense was porous as it has been lately in the first half, going to the break down 69-53, but a torrid third quarter got them back into it as they outscored the Spurs 44-38.

The Heat finished things off with a 31-19 fourth quarter to steal this comeback victory from the jaws of defeat and what would have been their third straight loss.

Both teams shot well from 2-point range with the Spurs going 39-of-69 and the Heat shooting 35-of-62, but the 3-point line was where this game was won. The Spurs shot 9-of-25 from long range, but the Heat went 14-of-29 and needed all of those precious extra points for this win.

Player stats

Miami Heat

Jimmy Butler – 27 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals

Bam Adebayo – 21 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks

Duncan Robinson – 18 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal

Derrick Jones Jr. – 15 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 2 blocks

Tyler Herro – 14 points, 4 rebounds

San Antonio Spurs

DeMar DeRozan – 28 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal

LaMarcus Aldridge – 19 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

Dejounte Murray – 14 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals

Trey Lyles – 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal

Derrick White – 13 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists

Make sure to check back Friday morning for our next projections between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder.