The Miami Heat faced off against the Indiana Pacers on Monday evening in what was supposed to be a clash between their two best players. It was uneventful.
The Miami Heat had to have come into Monday’s game with a certain level of focus on their minds. For more reasons surely, but only the following few would be enough.
They would be taking on a Pacers team that has not only managed to go 3-1 in the bubble up until this point, but who also feature a guy in T.J. Warren who was on a crazy tear. A “crazy tear” to the tune of 34.8 points per game, on 60.5 percent shooting from the field and 55.5 percent from deep, for a grand total of 20/36 on his attempts from out there. Yea, again, a “crazy tear”.
You also take into account that this is the same T.J. Warren that got into the now infamous little kerfuffle with the Miami Heat’s star player in Jimmy Butler. You know, this one.
Raise your hand if you're ready for the sequel 🙋♂️pic.twitter.com/ATBqsoltjf
— FanSided (@FanSided) August 11, 2020
So, again, it was surely a game that they had “circled” on their calendars, even in the bubble scenario. Needless to say, the Miami Heat got the better of this one and we mean like way better.
The final score was an anti-climatic one, 114-92 in favor of the Heat. There were a few keys things of note though. Here they are, the good, the bad, and the ugly from Monday’s game.
The Miami Heat had the Pacers number on Monday evening and they seemed to have T.J. Warren’s too.
The Good- A Healthy Jimmy Butler & Goran Dragic
A whole Miami Heat unit was on the floor, Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic included. They looked in sync and as if they hadn’t missed a beat.
Jimmy came out aggressive and attacking the basket for free throws and easy conversions. Goran came out frisky, creating shots out of thin air for himself and his teammates.
It was a very refreshing thing to see after seeing them both miss games over the last few and especially considering that the Heat likely win all of those games with those two guys in the lineup. Again, it was very good to see them in the lineup, healthy, and playing good ball.
The Bad- Miami Heat team 3pt shooting
You take this one with a grain of salt, as the Miami Heat still did enough in the area to win the game, but they weren’t themselves when it came to shooting the ball from the outside. One of the best teams in the league, if not the very best from an efficiency standpoint, the Miami Heat went 13-40 from three to shoot only 32.5 percent.
That is quite a few percentage points off of their league-leading 38.2 shooting percentage out there. A lot of people say that they are a team that “relies” on the three when that is only a function of the fact that they shoot it so well, meaning they can win in other ways.
When you can shoot it like that though, why make it hard on youself? If they want to win at the highest level possible, possibly the whole thing with as wide open as it looks right now, then they need to hit their threes. Again, it wasn’t a huge deal on Monday though, as they got it done big time.
The Ugly- T.J. Warren
Not that this matters for the Miami Heat, as the uglier things got or were for him, the better they were for the Miami Heat. He played so bad though, relative to what he has done throughout the rest of the bubble and what you expected, that it had to be mentioned though.
Again, the guy was averaging nearly 35 a game and quite a bit over 50 percent from three. On Monday evening, he had a normal 12 points and five rebounds on 5-14 from the floor overall and 2-6 from three. Just ugly.
The Miami Heat face off against the Pacers and Warren again over their last two games of the regular season portion of the bubble season. The Heat face the Thunder on Wednesday, before facing the Pacers again on Friday.
Perhaps we’ll get more from Warren then, I’m expecting it. Monday was all Jimmy though and this was the good, the bad, and the T.J. Warren… we mean, ugly, from the game.