Miami Heat: Kyle Lowry Has Better Dictate When’s Time To Pass & Time To Score
Prior to Thursday’s matchup, Lowry was shooting just 38 percent from the field and 31 percent from beyond the arc. He also currently has his lowest True Shooting output of the last five seasons (54.3 percent).
However, if there was ever a night where the Heat needed their starting point guard to shoot efficiently, that night came during their encore appearance at Staples Center. Despite the loss, Kyle had an inspiring performance during the final game of a back to back.
He proved that he’s still consistently reliable in closing moments and that this particular intangible will never ever leave him.
- In the 2020-21 season, Lowry shot 47 percent in fourth quarters (66 total minutes) with under five minutes remaining. This was a higher percentage than other star guards, such as Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Jayson Tatum, and Trae Young.
With Lowry available, he’s been the bridge for all of the Heat’s top scorers. It goes much further than his playmaking ability, as very few point guards can control an offense late in games like he can.
In the wake of a long season, Spoelstra will need to defer to some of his younger players to finish games but in games where it calls for veterans (like Lowry) to come through, he won’t run away from that option either.
Back on November 2nd against Dallas, Lowry led all Heat players in fourth quarter scoring and sank a pair of step-back three pointers in the final six minutes. He currently leads Miami in fourth quarter minutes (10.7) and is second in scoring during in the final frames.
As mentioned before, Lowry doesn’t always need to score to be effective. As he’s done his due diligence to consolidate and enhance his teammates’ scoring abilities, games like Thursday show that it might still be a challenge for him to determine when to facilitate or score.
Whether Miami is missing one or several key players, his on-court presence in the fourth, alone, makes him extremely valuable in any setting. The Heat will need much more of that in the future.