The Miami Heat played their second NBA restart scrimmage on Saturday. Even in a defeat to the Utah Jazz, they still won, and here’s how.
The Miami Heat are playing real, live, and actual basketball! It had been so long before Wednesday evening’s contest against Sacramento, so again, we had to sort of pinch ourselves here again.
In any situation, Saturday saw them play their second scrimmage contest of the NBA restart, this one against the Utah Jazz. Although we had heard that Kendrick Nunn and Bam Adebayo could both suit up, it wasn’t a surprise to see Bam sitting and/or Kendrick playing, but we were kind of shocked to see Jimmy Butler sitting.
Either way though and as the Spoism goes, we had enough. Indeed they did and even in a loss, but that’s just it. That’s how even in a Saturday defeat to Utah, the Miami Heat won.
Without the service or help of their two best players, the Miami Heat took all that the Utah Jazz could give them on Saturday. They went down big on at least two occasions, if not more, but still managed to pull back to within a winnable margin and especially when you consider the final tally of 101-99.
The Miami Heat may have lost the scrimmage contest on Saturday, but they gained winning information and validation. Here is how.
Although we shied away from giving stats after the first game, a scrimmage as well, some of Saturday’s performances definitely deserve a mention. Kelly Olynyk led the Miami Heat and all scorers in the game with 27 points. He added in eight rebounds, two assists, and a steal to go along with it, going 3-7 from distance and 10-16 overall.
Tyler Herro finished with 20 points, four assists, and seven rebounds of his own. Although only 1-5 from three he shot 8-16 from the floor overall across his 30 minutes. He also took off and attempted to put Rudy Gobert on a poster, before converting on a springy play of the same nature later in the game.
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While those two did the shining individually, you really like what you saw from the rest of the team as a whole as well. Again, without their two feature guys, they were not only able to hang with the Jazz but nearly defeat them.
You like it because it shows you that the Miami Heat have stuff behind Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo of course, but also that they can be a really good team, tough out, and sneaky contender if you add those two back into a mix like we saw on Saturday. That is why, even though in a loss to the Utah Jazz and guy in Rudy Gobert we just hate seeing get off against the Miami Heat, Saturday was still a net win for the Heat.