The Miami Heat should make T.J. Warren beat them in the playoffs

The Miami Heat will start their 2020 postseason against the Pacers on Tuesday. Here’s why they should try to make T.J. Warren beat them.

The Miami Heat will get their 2020 postseason tipped off on Tuesday as they face the Indiana Pacers in Game One of their series.

Having beat Indiana in the three matchups that actually meant something, with their fourth meeting being recently in the final game of the year for both where neither team played their most important guys, the Miami Heat should feel pretty good about their chances heading into this series.

While that should definitely be the case regardless, here is a piece of advice that the Miami Heat should look to take advantage of in this series. Hear me out.

Although T.J. Warren hasn’t really been a dynamo against the Miami Heat this season, scoring 12 on 35 percent shooting, three points on 20 percent shooting, and 16 points on 41 percent shooting from the field in there three matchups, that is a far cry from the numbers he put up in the five bubble contests prior to facing the Miami Heat for the first time across the last three games of the season.

The Miami Heat are probably the better overall team going into their first-round series against Indy. They could always just go the route of making T.J. Warren beat them though.

Over his 5 games prior to that one, he averaged 34.8 points on 60.5 percent shooting from the field and 55.5 percent from deep. Yea, that’s some heavy-duty work on the offensive end, for anyone. It was such a performance, that it garnered him a spot on the NBA’s All Bubble First Team. 

All of those high output numbers are fine and dandy though, but here’s the thing, they haven’t gone up that way for Warren when he has faced the Miami Heat this year. That’s why they should focus on making him beat them.

This doesn’t mean that they should totally ignore Warren on the offensive end, as he could get going and torch you, but what it does mean is that they should pay him regular attention while going that much harder to ensure that no one else on the team gets off.

That means that the Miami Heat should be focusing extra attention on guys like Victor Oladipo and Myles Turner to ensure that they aren’t the reason for a potential defeat, while simply not allowing T.J. Warren to go absolutely nuclear. 

Let’s just be honest, with a guy that is as prolific as Warren is when it comes to scoring the basketball, you can only expect him to be held in check for so long. As long as you don’t allow him to go for 30, 40, or 50 on every night of the series, while somewhat holding the rest of his team in check, that is a formula for winning.

It seems counterintuitive, but really, think about it? That’s why the Miami Heat should make T.J. Warren beat them in their first-round series as they look to begin the playoffs.