Recapping the Heat – Thunder game, it shows how good the Thunder are now. In listening to the post-game press conferences, the Heat are going through “growing pains.” The pains are from the young players focusing more on the next offensive possession (and giving up scores on defense.) Check my article here about the Heat’s injuries this season. But, after awhile “short handed” becomes just an excuse. This is professional basketball–the Heat lost tonight. The Thunder went on a 13-0 run to start the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter. They are a well-coached team and will be a factor in the Western Conference. Let’s look at the Recap.
Recap #3 Tyler Herro was OFF
He signed a 4 year / $130 million dollar contract. He needs to take criticism. It was a second night of a back-to-back as the Inside the Thunder writeup here explains, so that may have had something to do with his production. Herro scored 17 points on 7/21 shooting. He particularly had a troublesome few sequences late in the game.
The Heat were down 6 points and Herro was passed the ball on the left elbow. As he started at point guard, he didn’t really look for any players and put up an off-balance, awkward three point shot that missed. Then, with little time on the clock, Duncan Robinson picked off a wayward Chet Holmgren pass. He passed to Herro who had a breakaway chance and didn’t anticipate Chet Holmgren behind him. Herro gave a half-hearted effort on the layup and laid it up on “Holmgren’s good side.” Holmgren erased the layup easy.
Recap #2 The Thunder are really good
Check out the write-up on SI.com here about how Oklahoma City can win a title this season. The Thunder shot 59.3% from the field for the game against one of the best defenses in the NBA. They had 36 assists and 60 points in the paint. The Thunder took out the second half to pull away from the Heat, going on a 13-0 run at the start of each quarter. Look at the post game highlights, the players were laser focused on sharing the basketball. There was beautiful back cuts and passes that led to scores. The Heat didn’t, as Spolestra has phrased, “make them feel their presence.” The team was patient and passed at the right time and made timely shots.
Recap #1 Young guys will be young guys
Coach Spoelstra said in his press conference something poignant–he said that the team didn’t stay disciplined on system defense enough. He said that the team “isn’t there yet,” when it comes to how much they stay focused on system disciplined. Bam Adebayo admitted in his press conference that the team worries more about getting the next score than defending. Consequently, they get discouraged when they miss shots and the opposition begins to make theirs at a greater clip.
This is what is called “growing pains.” Jimmy Butler is not there to bail the team out in moments like this. Now, Bam and Tyler Herro have to “level up” and not only take on the scoring, but hold other players accountable. It looked to me like Tyler Herro gave up in the fourth quarter and decided to “check out.” Bam stayed with it and is probably learning from any miscommunications during the game with his teammates. Onto Orlando on Friday.
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