Heat vs Hornets film session: Butler's bounce back game

We got our first Miami Heat win against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night at Spectrum Center, 114-106. They also cracked triple digits this time, which was a win in itself. And of course, in a Heat fashion, this was a clutch game.

Quick thoughts

This probably shouldn't have been this close against a Hornets team that wasn't even at full strength. The offense also should've been better right from the start, instead of scoring seven points in almost seven minutes.

There were still a lot of similar issues against the Orlando Magic, where the offense was lagging early on with the starters, the defensive intensity wasn't where it should be, and they were still playing with their food.

One stat that popped out was their opponent's offensive rebounding percentage. It was 39.6%. The seven players that played double digit minutes for the Hornets, only Nick Richards is listed as taller than 6-7. This wasn't a size issue. It was an effort to box out.

The main issue that was still concerning to me was through the first three quarters, this was a game, won by the defense. Before the fourth, the Heat had a 115.3 offensive rating and a 98.6 defensive rating. That ORTG dropped to 103.9 in the 25 minutes with both Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. The offense only looked good in the Alec Burks minutes (we'll get to the reason why).

Even with the defense, there were concerns, but that was also offset by plenty of turnovers. The Hornets had a 20.4% turnover percentage, which rewarded the Heat with 24 points off turnovers.

The ending to the game was not something I wanted to experience first thing on a Sunday morning. Sunday mornings should not have that level of stress. The tough shot-making, where it felt like each team was going to make any kind of shot they put up, saved them.

But, a win is a win in the end. Now, let's go through a few things that stood out the most to me.

Butler played like the best player and it showed

In my film session against the Magic, the title alone had "Butler uninvolved". That wasn't the case at all in this game. He led the team with 75 touches, with Terry Rozier being second with 60. His time of possession was 6.0, compared to 1.8 against the Magic. Butler didn't waste any time getting himself a touch in the post.

The very first possession of the game it was a Butler-Herro pick and roll to hunt a switch and get him to the post that has the defense all paying attention to him. This was one of those games where you can see a clear difference in how Butler is approaching the game.

In the Magic game when he was looking to run a post-up or a PNR, he wasn't aggressive. It was being patient and methodical, but that approach a lot of the time simply kills time. In this game, a lot of his moves were with strong, aggressive intentions to score. Whether it was him coming off a handoff, a PNR, an off-ball screen, or slipping himself, there was a different level of aggressiveness.

Take the clip at 50s mark. It's him coming off a screen from Duncan Robinson and look how easily gets to the rim. At the 1:05 mark, that's the move that gets him the best look. It's a quick rip through and go. If he does that, there aren't many defenders that can either react to that instantly or are strong enough to stop him if they do.

But it was how he got his offense in the second half that stood out the most. That's where the offense was booming. I mentioned at the start that the offense was great with Alec Burks. That's because the best lineup that you can give Butler is one that's surrounded by shooters.

Butler with shooters and an opponent that has defenders he can hunt equals what the Magic did to the Heat. In those minutes with the shooters, they were spamming Butler-Robinson PNRs to get the switch or a show. Whatever it was, it was Butler being aggressive and immediately attacking. That's where you got his high free throw attempts.

This is the Heat's best offense. It's the best player going mismatching hunting that will force the defense to do something. If they don't and it's an engaged Butler, he's more than capable of generating efficient offense for himself either at the rim or getting to the line. If they do help, he generated so many 3s. He had eight assists but also finished with 18 potential assists!

Can this backcourt survive on defense

Whenever the backcourt is discussed, their offense is brought. That has also been my focus so far, too. There might be a bigger issue, though. It's only been two games, but the level of concern when it comes to how viable they are defensively grows by the game.

That's because of how many ways you can go attack them. One thing that stood out against the Magic was Rozier's defense:

His point-of-attack defense has been bad. Whether it's keeping a guy in front 1v1 or screen navigation, a lot of the defensive breakdowns start with him.

That's one thing that will hurt you any time any player runs a PNR or can attack off the dribble. But then you combine that with either Herro or Rozier being hunted:

We already saw Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero taking turns hunting either one that caused trouble. Now, we also had Miles Bridges and LaMelo Ball being successful in doing so. What will happen against better teams that have better wings at attacking?

Things that caught my eye

Adebayo finished with a poor shooting game and there are clear reasons why.

He wasn't getting involved in the offense a lot and when that happened, it resulted in him going for shot, even if it was a poor on in isolation as the only action of the possession.

Related to that is his work in the PNR, where his habit of going for the pull up at the elbow needs to change:

This is obviously new for Adebayo and it's likely going to take time, but a lot of his PNRs would be a lot better if he popped more instead. On some of these possessions, the big defender is dropping so much that it makes sense to pop.

I've been liking Herro a lot when it comes to his rim pressure:

So far, he has backed up his words. It's only been two games, but he is tied first with six shots made at the rim and tied first with 10 shots attempted. He has been the most impressive player so far through two games.