The Miami Heat are set to play Game Two of their first-round series on Thursday. What will be one of Coach Spo’s biggest adjustments?
The Miami Heat are back at it on Thursday, as they take on the Indiana Pacers in Game Two of their first-round series. While the Miami Heat won the first game on Tuesday, they didn’t do it flawlessly or even in true Miami Heat fashion.
While they did hit 37.1 percent of their three-ball attempts, 13-35, they were outshot efficiency-wise and it didn’t seem like the huge advantage that it always is. There is probably a good reason for that, which we will get to in just a bit.
The old adage goes that the losing team is the one who starts to make the first adjustment, but that might not be the case here. With Coach Erik Spoelstra never being one to sleep on his laurels, he will more than likely make a huge adjustment of his own heading into Thursday’s game.
To tie it all together, while also going back to why the Miami Heat were outshot from deep from an efficiency standpoint by the Pacers, Duncan Robinson was 2/8 from deep for only six points across his 23.9 minutes of action on Tuesday.
The Miami Heat got the win on Tuesday, but they weren’t themselves. Here’s the key adjustment I expect from Spo to rectify that issue.
That is a far cry from 3.7 makes of 8.3 attempts he had in the regular season. He shot nearly 50 percent in the regular year as well, while only going 25 percent from distance on Tuesday.
That’s the adjustment.
Look for coach Spo to get Duncan Robinson involved, engaged, and going early on Thursday. Whether that be off drawn up sets to get him open off of pin downs, brush screens, or other mechanisms or a double dose of dribble handoffs from Bam Adebayo, you better believe that the mission early will be to get Duncan Robinson some quality looks.
He’s one man spacing and a huge tilt, one way or the other, to the Miami Heat’s overall three-point shooting escapades, and thus their fortunes of winning or losing. That’s the key adjustment I expect from Spo early on in Game Two.