Five thoughts on the Heat's Game 2 win over the Hawks, including what powered Jimmy Butler's career night
Jimmy Butler scored a playoff career-high 45 points and the Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks, 115-105, to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series. Here are five takeaways from the game.
1. Heat go small and pull away
When Bam Adebayo picked up his third personal foul with Miami down one with 2:39 to go in the second quarter, the Heat didn’t think it would be at that point the game would flip in their favor.
Still, Erik Spoelstra decided to go small, giving Caleb Martin his first meaningful playoff minutes instead of subbing in backup center Dewayne Dedmon. The resulting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Butler, Martin and P.J. Tucker along with a shooter (Tyler Herro and then Max Strus) outscored the Hawks 7-4 to take a two-point lead into the half.
Spoelstra went to the same lineup again — with Martin checking in instead of Dedmon — when Adebayo picked up his fourth foul 1:22 into the third. Soon after, the Heat ripped off an 11-0 run. The Heat’s small-ball unit was plus-11 overall, and could have been more if Tucker hadn’t subbed out after he picked up two straight offensive fouls with 2:37 left in the quarter. Still, after the Tucker-at-the-5 unit took the lead, the Heat did not trail again.
“That’s just a big spark for our team that you don’t really anticipate happening,” Spoelstra said.
The lineup worked because it created space for Butler. As good as Adebayo is, he’s not a floor-spacer. Tucker, meanwhile, is happy to spot up in the corner. With four shooters around the perimeter, Butler had a ton of space to get downhill and attack Atlanta’s smaller defenders. There were a lot of halfcourt sets that looked like this:
With so much space, Butler was free to pinpoint mismatches, get the switch he wanted and attack.
“He was really good playing, creating and scoring with the space that he had,” said Hawks coach Nate McMillan.
Butler scored 13 of his 45 points in the third quarter as the Heat pushed their lead to double-digits and took control of the series.
“I thought he was really assertive,” Spoelstra said. “We really needed that in the second half.”
2. Jimmy Butler, shooting the 3-ball
Butler, who shot 18.5% on just 1.9 3-point attempts for most of the season, averaged 3.0 attempts at a 41.7% clip from distance over his final eight games heading into the playoffs. This series, he’s 5 for 8 from distance, including Tuesday’s 4 for 7 performance. That qualifies, for Butler, as scorching.
So, what changed?
“He’s finally shooting it,” Gabe Vincent said.
To a man, every Heat coach and player will say Butler can shoot the 3-ball. His career averages don’t indicate it, but Butler shoots it willingly in practice and has worked diligently with skills trainer Chris Brickley, who also encourages him to shoot more 3s.
Over the last few weeks, Butler has ramped up his sessions with Brickley. It’s possible that has something to do with his increased 3-point attempt rate. Maybe this is just what Butler does. His career average of 3.4 3-point attempts in the playoffs is more than his career average of 2.5 3-point attempts in the regular season. Asked after the game why he’s taking more 3s, Butler responded, “It’s time.”
Whatever the reason, it’s clear the 3-point shooting helps turn Butler into a much more impactful scorer. The Heat are going to need that to make the Finals, and they know it.
3. Gabe Vincent’s defense
For the past three seasons, the Heat have been molding Vincent envisioning the kind of defense he played on Young Tuesday night.
Young could hardly get across halfcourt without Vincent getting in his face. Virtually every time Young turned a corner or around a screen, Vincent was there. It got to the point that Young started calling for screens to get Vincent switched off of him. It’s the same way ball-handlers respond to celebrated on-ball defenders such as Marcus Smart and Lu Dort.
“He’s just pesky as hell,” Butler said.
In Game 1, the Heat disrupted Young with their collective physicality. In Game 2, it was Vincent, whose 25 minutes logged were the fourth-most on the team. Young scored just three points and shot four times when he was guarded by Vincent. Obviously, preventing Young from getting in rhythm is a great way to end this series. Keeping Young below is season average of shot attempts is even better.
“Try not to let him get the ball,” Vincent said of his strategy for defending Young. “Best way to guard him.”
4. Stat of the game
The Heat were the NBA’s best 3-point shooting team by percentage during the regular season and shot 38.9% (13 of 36) from 3-point range Tuesday night. In addition to Butler’s big night, Strus was 3 of 8 and Vincent was 3 of 5 from deep.
This will be a key indicator for the Heat going forward. Elite 3-point shooting and a prolonged scoring surge by Butler are two important pillars in Miami’s path to the Finals.
5. Hawks adjustments
McMillan decided to switch up his starting lineup, going with John Collins in place of Onyeka Okongwu at center. The reason: To improve spacing, which had been the chief complaint of the Hawks after the 24-point blowout in Game 1.
It worked, but only slightly. The Hawks took 30 3-point attempts (compared to 26 in Game 1) and shot 30% from deep (up from 27.8%). Young also had a better game.
But Danilo Gallinari did not have as good a performance in Game 2, missing all six of his shots as the starting power forward. Collins also did not look 100% after missing the last 16 games of the regular season with a foot injury. It’ll be interesting to see if McMillan sticks with Collins and Gallinari in Game 3, or if he goes with a third starting frontcourt with Okongwu and Collins.
Maybe something else to watch: Does Kevin Huerter keep his starting job after two sub-par games in the series? Delon Wright was Atlanta’s only player to post a positive plus-minus, and his perimeter defense could be something McMillan turns to earlier.