The Miami Heat have had their fair share of struggles on offense, but Wednesday night's blowout win against the Los Angeles Lakers was similar to an open gym shootaround.
There were multiple possessions where there were no yellow jerseys around any Heat player, whether there was an outlet pass on a fastbreak or in the half-court where Miami generated wide-open looks where players such as Tyler Herro and Haywood Highsmith had time to make a phone call before any Laker came close to contesting their shot.
With spectacular ball movement that lead to a franchise record 42 assists in a game coupled with an outstanding shooting effort lead by Tyler Herro who buried nine threes, the Heat demolished the Lakers with a 134-93 win at the Kaseya Center.
Los Angeles has been in a slump recently, dropping three of their last four. While it's common to hit a few bumps in the road, losing by a 41 point margin has to be embarrassing for the coaching staff and players, and the postgame comments from the Lakers made it known that they were ashamed of their effort.
"It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed, we're all embarrassed," Lakers head coach JJ Redick said. "There's not a sense from me that we're together right now, and that's what we say in the huddle, it doesn't feel that way.
When questioned about Redick's comments, LeBron James quickly agreed before the full question was even asked.
"Whatever he said, I agree, a hundred percent, a thousand percent."
James also echoed that the blowout loss was beyond schemes and was more centered around team effort.
"There's no schemes or X's and O's or whatever that's gonna get you through that," he said. "If you don't want to come to compete, then that's other issues."
The fact that the Lakers questioned effort and togetherness shows how bad the Miami Heat beat them down. With the Heat shooting over 50% from the field and from three, it would be wrong to think that a lack of effort had nothing to do with Wednesday night's outcome, especially with plays like below.
But the Heat also deserve a lot of credit for their relentless activity on the defensive end, leading to 11 steals. Miami also played great individual defense on Anthony Davis and had some beautifully timed traps whenever Davis had a mismatch. Overall, Davis finished with a season-low eight points on 3-for-14 shooting.
Bam Adebayo also deserves his flowers for being aggressive from opening tip and setting the tone with a nasty poster that was set up on a vicious attack to the rim.
Wednesday night was by far the Heat's best offensive outing of the year. And while this would be hard for Miami to top, hopefully this is a step in the right direction for the Heat's offense.