Coup’s Takeaways: HEAT Go Cold Without Herro As Portland’s Youth Holds Late Lead
- wgclients01
- Jan 22
- 5 min read
1. We said it ten days ago and we’ll say it again, the Portland Trail Blazers may not have the record to show for it but there is plenty of talent on their roster, talent that can put it all together on any given night.
As Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware started together for the first time this season – Tyler Herro missing his first game of the season – Miami opened the game 7-of-9 from three, Duncan Robinson hitting three early triples. Portland matched the shot for shot, Anfernee Simons hitting three early from the arc and eventually going 5-of-7 in the first half.
The other day against San Antonio the HEAT had a crazy shooting turnaround, opening 0-of-8 and finished 18-of-33 for their best percentage of the season. Tonight was the inverse, at least at the half, Miami missing 12 straight as the Blazers scored inside and out, holding a 129.8 Offensive Rating at the break where they led, 61-55. It wasn’t any one area where Portland was scoring, either, committing zero turnovers as their guards pulled off the dribble from the arc and from mid-range while Deandre Ayton (17 on 12 shots in the first half) cleaned up in the middle.
Portland was full steam ahead early in the third, consecutive fast-break scores (they were up 13-0 in transition points at that point, Portland still taking care of the ball) eventually stretching their lead to double digits. They weren’t done there, more transition takes and a handful of threes from Jerami Grant and Scoot Henderson pushing the advantage up to 19 as Miami had missed 17 consecutive threes.
A minute later, the lead was 23, Portland capitalizing on two straight pick-six steals. Ware was the one to break Miami’s streak of misses from three at 19, Portland’s lead having reached as high as 27. A Robinson three soon after got Portland, still up 21, to call timeout, Miami fully in uphill mode without Herro, the player who so often has dragged them back into games with his shooting. Down to 20 after three. Time to see how a younger team can close a game on the road.
Good Ware minutes to open the fourth as Miami’s offense found some footing, but the defense hadn’t coalesced, the Portland lead holding strong behind a varied attacking approach. Another pair of Robinson (22 points on 15 shots) threes, one of them for Miami’s first fast-break points of the night, brought things back down to 16, his looks Miami’s best source of offense by a good margin, and gave cause for Portland to continue cycling through their usual rotation while Erik Spoelstra stuck with a mixed unit of bench and starters.
A Portland cold streak, scoreless for four minutes, left the door open, Miami was struggling to get through it. But as Portland continued to struggle offensively the opportunity was still there, two Pelle Larsson threes getting it down to 12 followed by a Larsson and-one off a baseline cut making it a single digit game. Down all the way to seven off a 17-2 run, Miami’s youth playing downhill and free as the Blazers missed from the corners and slow to inbound against pressure, but Grant earned himself a couple physical trips to the line to put things just out of reach. Not the cleanest finish in the world but Portland holds the lead all the same, taking this one, 116-107.
2. It wasn’t any one thing tonight, moreso a confluence of a variety of on-court conditions which led to Miami’s tough loss.
Didn’t help that Portland didn’t commit their first turnover until a few minutes into the third quarter. Miami’s offense has been less reliant on creating easy scores off live ball turnovers than they may have been in the past largely because they've optimized their shot profile, but they're still a team, a defensive scheme, designed from the ground up to emphasize being aggressive in the passing lanes and being disruptive. When your opponent, particularly a younger one that has the second-highest turnover rate in the league, is going multiple quarters without a mistake that’s a sign of the defense not working as intended. It’s also partially the reason why Portland had 21 fast-break points to Miami’s five.
Then there were the threes. For every game like against San Antonio where you enjoys the fruits of incredibly hot shooting, there are also games like tonight where you go incredibly cold. Portland had something to do with that, a handful of Miami’s misses short as the looks were contested, if not tipped outright, and against the clock, but misses are misses. In the fourth quarter it was Portland’s turn to go cold – they finished 3-of-15 on corner threes and just 34.9 percent overall – as the HEAT tried to capitalize before coming up short. The Offensive Rating for Miami was still a reasonable 112.6 considering they didn’t have Herro and relied mostly on bench players for their late run, but it wasn’t enough when Portland was able to play so loose until they tightened up a bit with the lead toward the end.
3. While the game didn’t go as intended it remained noteworthy that both Adebayo and Ware started after their run against the Spurs, Spoelstra opting to go with what had been working recently. We don’t have numbers on that lineup as of this writing, but it wasn’t the plus-23 of the previous effort.
Ware did finish with 20 points on 17 shots to go with 15 rebounds and a couple of blocks, his physical gifts and soft touch offering too much for some players to handle on the interior. What makes the highlights are the threes and the dunk, but where Ware’s athleticism can pop at times is in the in-between plays, where he has to make a play with the dribble – he split a double team at one point, a rare feat for a center – and gets closer to the rim with surprising nimbleness and grace. Once at the rim there are some awkward finishes, quite normal for a rookie center learning to finish against players his own size as Adebayo once dealt with years ago, but those finishes come with time and repetition.
What matters for now is that Ware is finding ways to be productive, and he’s becoming noticeable more comfortable within the offense, his hesitation less as he quickly turns and finds the next options. He’s also playing through the finish line even in recent games where Miami has been playing out of a hole, the eagerness to earn more opportunities coming through in abundance. There weren’t many bright spots on what was a rough night, but Ware had his moments and Spoelstra clearly is willing to see what he has in his young center.