Heat Xs & Os that stood out with the starters against the Spurs

In the Miami Heat's win over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night, we got to see a lot more of the starters. They finished the game playing roughly 23 minutes together, giving us a lot more to go through.

We'll be looking at what stood out on the offensive end, where they scored 58 points on 14 of 19 from 2pt, 6 of 23 from 3pt, and 12 of 16 from the line.

After two games, there's already been plenty of talk about the starters' offense and how it fits together. There have been many changes in how they set up their offense, what actions they look to run, and their shot profile.

The Heat's five-out offense has been a major change from last season, but it's still a work in progress.

Let's start with that shot profile, where they took 23 3s in 23 minutes. They had a 54% 3pt rate, which would've easily ranked first last season. The emphasis to put up more 3s is clear, but not all 3s are created equally. See my breakdown with video below:

This was a similar trend against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Heat are in their five-out alignment, whether that's using Bam Adebayo as the hub up top or having him spaced in the corner. On the surface, that's great. You want to have that kind of spacing, but ideally, you'd want that spacing to create more 3s with an inside-out approach.

In those four examples, how many times did a player break the 3-point line? I'm not even talking about getting a paint touch. How many times did the ball itself cross the 3-point line? None. Almost a fifth of their 3s in that tweet alone came as a result of the ball moving left to right with the defense not needing to work.

At times, all of that "movement" wasted time for no reason and that's where you get Nikola Jovic having to put up a 3 in isolation. Or it results in an "open" 3pt but there is some pressure coming that would bother the shot.

Contrast that with this shot:

The end result is still Rozier getting a corner 3, as he did in the previous example, but how they got to that look matters. It starts with dribble penetration (actually, it starts with Jovic in the post, but we'll get to those examples later).

Herro is able to take Victor Wembanyama off the dribble with a good pump fake to get him off the ground, which forces Harrison Barnes to help off Jimmy Butler one pass away. It's an easy kick and swing to Jovic, where he can attack the moving defense. He draws a hard closeout from Chris Paul, the defense collapses in the paint, and you end up with a wide-open 3 for Rozier in rhythm.

Another good example here:

It's still a Rozier triple, but they are all created differently and better. It starts off with a ball movement going from side to side, but as Adebayo realizes that the Spurs are kind of in a zone there, he makes a great decision to flash middle (that's how you usually beat the zone). Herro makes the pass, all of the defensive attention is on Adebayo in the paint, and there is no one near Rozier to contest.

Having said that, there are situations in which the ball swing can be effective. It just depends on how, when, and at what volume. Take this example:

What matters here is how it starts. It's a Butler-Rozier pick-and-roll that doesn't do much in itself, but notice Spurs No. 0 in the corner guarding Herro. As the low man, that would be his job to help on a potential slip from Rozier or an attack from Butler. He's paying attention to that.

With the weakside defense occupied, it's smart then to move the ball. It gets swung and you have Jovic with a smart decision to set a pin-in screen (that's been an emphasis in the pre-season) for Herro to get an open look.

So, it is great that they made the adjustment to get more 3s up, particularly from the corner, but it still matters how they do so. Many 3s that come without breaking the 3pt line will tend to be lower quality. This isn't taking advantage of the five-out alignment.

That leads me to the point about their spacing. It's a good start that they are in that alignment in the first place, but they haven't had many actions that take advantage of that because, most of the time, the ball is just swung from side to side:

Both of those possessions ended in a tough, late isolation for Adebayo. Why? Because who here is looking to get any kind of dribble penetration? It starts with Herro setting a ghost screen for Rozier that doesn't do much. Rozier picks up the dribble for no reason after the shot fake. The ball is moved, but because it's far to get there, even with a Jovic pin-in screen, Adebayo doesn't have an open look. The ball gets moved again and it flows into Herro-Adebayo PNR leading to nothing again. Now, you have under 5 seconds to get a shot off.

If you have that kind of spacing, use it. If you're not getting the dribble penetration off a PNR or isolation, there are other ways to do it. Set those screens with purpose to force the defense to do something. Set more off-ball screens or cut more, also with purpose looking to score.

The Heat are using Nikola Jovic's size to their advantage.

Moving onto to more of an encouraging point and it's how they've been using Jovic. They've been making an emphasis on using him in the post, attack mismatches, and as a screener.

Jovic has been guarded by smaller players, both guards or wings throughout the season. It will be important for him to make punish that. It can't be an option for the defense to put a guard on him.

In the first clip, they quickly feed him in the post against Chris Paul. He goes to work to back him down. That does need a lot of work, though. He was still able to draw the foul. They also looked to get him involved in similar situations during cross matches.

That second clip was almost perfect. In transition while rim running, he recognizes that he can have Paul on him. He makes sure to be matched with him and gets good position behind him. He has to make it. His rim finishing has been subpar this preseason, so that will have to improve significantly.

But I liked the third clip the most. It starts with a Rozier-Jovic PNR to get the switch. That can be another good option to have to mismatch hunt. At this point, the Spurs don't want to defend that 1v1. You can see Barnes looking to kick Paul out as he goes to double. As that happens, Herro smartly cuts and relocates for the pass and now he can attack the closeout, which gets the paint touch and gets the ball moving to end in a solid 3pt.

Then you have Jovic as a screener, too:

I want to see more of that, especially against defenses that want to switch. Jovic is not only a smart, willing passer, his processing speed on the move is arguably the best on the team. As soon as he slips and rolls to the rim, the defense rotates to take him, and he already knows to make that kick to Adebayo. That puts the defense in rotation, the ball continues to move, and you get an open Herro 3pt.

That's two 3s that Jovic created either in the post drawing defense or through a slip. That gives the Heat more options to go to.

Other plays worth noting

Finally, some other plays that stood out.

Adebayo is already getting those hard closeouts! The overall possession didn't end well, but the fact that Adebayo is seeing a shift in how the defense is treating him, that can make a big difference if he continues to make the shots and make the defense respect him.

This can lead to possessions like this:

Keep a note of his action. It's an inverted PNR with Adebayo-Herro. Those ghost screens from either Herro and Rozier have been more common so far. That initial attack from Herro forces Wembanyama to help and opens up the kick to Adebayo. And again, he's using that threat of a 3pt to attack and draw a foul.