Giannis's Fast and Furious Heat Out-Pace the Pelicans

Giannis hitting mid-range jumpers is scary for the league. He had several mid-range jumpers in the first half that helped jumpstart his scoring night. He is starting to hit the one-legged fadeaway from the dotted circle with regularity. Then the points in transition came and never ceased. He only played for 17:52 minutes but finished with 18 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. He shot an unreal 61.5% from the field.

Heat’s defense fueled a furious pace

The Heat’s defense was swarming. They forced the Pelican’s into turnovers fueling their electric fast break. They forced 21 turnovers leading to 30 fast break points. The pace is going to trouble for teams all year because with Giannis in transition you must pick your poison because Miami has shooters all over the floor.

Andrew Wiggins was their second leading scorer flying around all night and shot a crazy 80% from the field and hit his only three ball of the night. Bam Adebayo chipped in with 9pts and hit his only three on the night also. Miami as a team shot 39% from deep and that includes garbage time.

Good and bad for Ryan Conwell

Ryan Conwell was billed as a shooter coming out of Louisville. I do believe in time he will get comfortable in a role and he will be. Tonight was not that night. He didn’t make a shot from the field and was 0-3 from deep.

He did have some nice passing within the offense dishing out 4 assists on the night. This is a nice surprise considering he was not on ball much in college. He still is unsure of his handle and moves to beat his defenders off the bounce. The best is yet to come for Ryan but that could take some time.

In the first game Head Coach Erik Spoelstra was subbing out players in full shifts. They were five-man hockey line changes. That didn’t happen tonight. We got out first glimpse of what resembled testing out substitution patterns.

The first guys off the bench were Tim Hardaway Jr. and Nikola Jovic. They came in for Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins. This makes a lot of sense because their skill sets are comparable. Niko in my opinion is best fit with Giannis off the bench when Spo staggers minutes because it means he will have to handle the ball less.

This showed up in this game where he was able to fit in the flow of the offense instead of being asked to handle more of the load. Niko shot 40% from deep snagged 4 rebounds, pitched in 2 assists and 2 steals in 20 minutes of work. The second half was more of a struggle when he became the focal point of the team.

Things to clean up

Most of the Heat fouls happened in the first half tonight. They handed out 17 fouls 12 of them in the first half alone. The pace may be frenetic, but the defense must be solid and less handsy.  

Miami also lost the rebounding battle early. Yves Missi was a monster in the first quarter on the glass. The rebounding margin was much larger before garbage time. The Heat in turn lost the 2nd chance points battle 21 to 13. This will be the focus of the coaching staff I’m sure as they look for every chance to improve before the regular season.

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