Three observations from the Miami Heat’s 119-116 road loss to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night.
Tyler Herro with the ball fake
Most on the conversation around Tyler Herro has to do with his 3-point shooting – and rightly so. But don’t overlook the strides he’s made with his shot chart overall.
The meandering mid-range game has been wiped away. No more using multiple dribbles to settle into long 2s. Herro makes his decision – to shoot, drive, or pass – in a half-second (coaches call this point-fiving).
But that doesn’t mean the craftiness has been taken away from his game. Herro combines efficiency and skill on his drives. Watch here as he recognizes the aggressive closeout, blows by his defender, and uses a ball fake to freeze Raptors center Jakob Poeltl and use the mini-Euro step to get to the rim.
Two dribbles from the catch to the finish. That’s efficient. Herro is attempting a career-high 17% of his shots within 3 feet of the basket.
Haywood Highsmith’s first step
Highsmith is shooting nearly 39% from 3-point range for the second straight season, enough to demand a respectful closeout when he catches the ball on the perimeter. As we’ve seen in Duncan Robinson’s development, the obvious next step is attacking those closeouts for easy layups.
In the first quarter in Toronto, Highsmith surprised me with this blow-by past Ochai Agbaji, who did not look prepared for Highsmith’s quick burst.
(Side note: I love the use of Robinson as a screener on this play. His presence in the middle of the floor makes multiple Toronto defenders hesitate just enough to open this up for Highsmith.)
The defense without Bam was awful
The Heat gave up 68 points in the paint to the Raptors. Most of that damage was done when Bam Adebayo was on the bench. With Adebayo in the game, the Heat had a defensive rating of 98.8 – elite. When Kevin Love came in as his backup (Kel’el Ware was sidelined with an injury), the Raptors scored at a rate of 181.8 points per 100 possessions – bananas.
Watch as RJ Barrett waltzes through Jimmy Butler and Love on this cut. Butler does the bare minimum and Love doesn’t even attempt to contest the layup.
It’s not all on Love. The point-of-attack defense didn’t prevent the Raptors from getting into the paint.
Playing Herro, Robinson and Love together against a team willing to attack them doesn’t seem like something coach Erik Spoelstra can do long-term.