Miami Heat’s transition O sparks big road win over undefeated Blazers, 119-98
The Miami Heat came into their first road game of the season on the back of their third defeat of the year. Getting out to a Rocky start, it took them three games to secure their first win, after losing to Chicago and Boston to start the year, only to drop the second of consecutive matchups to the Raptors on Monday.
Things were looking rough for this Miami Heat squad. And they wouldn’t necessarily get any less rough, as they were, not only, set to hit the road for the first time but with their first stop being in Portland to take on the, then, undefeated Portland Trail Blazers.
And the Blazers came out gunning, living up to their record thus far. After falling down in the game by what could have been a lead big enough to keep them down all night, especially to this highly potent offensive team, the Miami Heat would pull back close and then past the Blazers.
But it’s not what they did, as much as how they did it. On the back of a part of their game that has been missing for most of the year so far, they got it done with their transition offense in this one.
The Miami Heat got a huge road win on Wednesday over the undefeated Portland Trail Blazers. Blowing them out, they’ll look to build on it Thursday.
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Scoring 29 fastbreak points in this game alone, that’s almost as many as they had in their first four contests combined. Well, sort of, as they would have eight against Chicago, just six against Boston, 11 in the first matchup with Toronto, and 13 in the second for a grand total of 38.
Again, though it was nearly 10 points off their total on Wednesday, that combined total across four games relative to what they scored in one game against Portland says it all. The Miami Heat also hit their shots, going 15-38 from range, while their defense was connected and forcing turnovers.
There was also something else of note, rookie big guard, Nikola Jovic, got his first taste of real action on Wednesday. And though he had a bit of a foul issue, five of them in just 14 minutes of action, his presence really presented some interesting notions.
For lack of going too deep at this moment, it really helped create some of the transition opportunities, as he is a guy who can get out, run, handle, create, and finish, along with a ton of other stuff that just serves to confuse a defense and help his teammates.
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Most importantly of all, though, the Miami Heat got a win and a huge one over a high-quality opponent, nonetheless. Now, they’ll see how real the improvement is as they face the Warriors on Thursday in the second half of a back-to-back set of games.