Basketball

Heat dominant behind Jimmy Butler’s dominance despite Kyle Lowry’s injury. How?


MIAMI — The Heat are tearing through the 2022 NBA playoffs while getting virtually no contributions from a group of veterans earning a combined $48 million this season.

You can nitpick about a game here or there in the earlier moments of this postseason, but Miami’s run through the Eastern Conference has largely come with Kyle Lowry injured ($27 million), Duncan Robinson benched ($15.6 million), Markieff Morris lost ($2.6 million), and Udonis Haslem emeritus ($2.6 million).

Meanwhile, two former G Leaguers — Gabe Vincent and Max Strus — are mainstays in the starting lineup and don’t earn $4 million this season between them. 

A former All-Star with rotten luck, who’s being paid like he’s had bad luck, Victor Oladipo, has emerged as a top bench contributor, and Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro is still playing on his rookie deal.

Last week, before the Heat closed out the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6, coach Erik Spoelstra said team president Pat Riley, the chief architect of every great Miami team, deserves to be on the “Mt. Rushmore” of great NBA executives.

While the focus is, of course, on the here and now in Miami, as the Heat try to get back to the Finals for the second time in three seasons, the way in which the team is getting there will pose some intriguing decisions for Riley, for Spoelstra and for their players in the future. 

Riley’s biggest swing last summer, the signing of Jimmy Butler to a four-year, $184 million contract extension that kicks in next season, is paying off in massive ways. 

Butler, who dropped 41 points and nine rebounds in a dominant performance during the Heat’s 118-107 win over Boston in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday, is arguably playing better than anyone in the playoffs. His footprint on these games extends way beyond the 29.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.4 assists he’s averaging. 

On Wednesday, Spoelstra admitted that Butler’s night-in, night-out play this postseason has been caused by Lowry’s extended absence. “It’s part of it, I’m sure,” Spoelstra said. “The two of them are really similar in this regard that they are such great competitors that they have an innate sense of what is required for the team. If they feel like you need more scoring or more offensive punch, and we’ve needed it in some of these games. 

“We’re playing against an elite defense (against Boston), and Jimmy was able to make some plays that were in between,” Spoelstra continued. “Kind of just random plays that great players make, and he knows that we needed them.”

Riley brought Lowry, a former All-Star and 2019 champion with Toronto, to Miami on a three-year, $85 million deal precisely so Butler wouldn’t have to carry so much of the Heat’s burden on offense. But Lowry strained his left hamstring in Game 3 of the first round, and has played in just two games since. Spoelstra said Lowry did some light shooting work at practice Wednesday, but made it sound like the veteran point guard would not play in Game 2 against Boston on Thursday.

Robinson landed a five-year, $90 million deal with the Heat last summer, based on two seasons of supreme 3-point marksmanship for Miami. It’s the kind of contract that goes to a core member of a team, and for much of the season, it appeared that Robinson was indeed a part of the Heat’s nucleus, now and for years to come.

But Robinson has played just 84 minutes in the Heat’s 12 playoff games. He hasn’t played at all in four — including Game 1 against the Celtics.

Much has been said about Strus (who replaced Robinson) and Vincent (who’s starting for Lowry), two virtual unknowns who are thriving under the intense scrutiny and pressure of the playoffs. The latest, on Wednesday, was from Adebayo, who said “I had no idea that Max played for the Celtics.”

It’s true, sort of. Out of college in the summer of 2019, Strus played for Boston’s Summer League team. He went to training camp in Boston and was cut just before the start of the regular season. Now he is starting against the Celtics in the Eastern finals, having scored 11 points with three 3s and an emphatic dunk in Game 1.

“I remember Max not really being able to shoot on the run,” Adebayo said. “He was just catching and shooting and letting it fly. And that’s how Vincent started, when we was in L.A. and were playing the Clippers, and coach threw him in and he started shooting it from like the 30-foot line.”

Spoelstra always shrugs off any surprise over how Strus and Vincent have acquitted themselves in the playoffs, routinely mentioning that both have been with the Heat, in some capacity, for years, had been tested in regular-season games previously, and at ages 26 and 25, respectively, are mature enough to fit in Miami.

Both are under contract for another season, but the Heat could offer either or both new, lucrative contract extensions. Based on how much has been asked of them in the playoffs, and how they’ve performed (if you count Game 1 of the conference finals as the biggest game of his life, then Vincent thrived through his biggest test with a playoff-career-high 17 points), they each have earned a place in the Heat’s future.

But Lowry has two years left on his lucrative deal, and Robinson has four years remaining.

Then there is Oladipo, the former All-Star whom the Heat traded for last season, when he was playing out the last year of a four-year, $85 million deal and looking for another huge payday. But disaster struck for Oladipo when he needed a second surgery to properly repair a torn quad muscle above his knee, basically zeroing out his market value. 

The Heat brought Oladipo back on a one-year, $2.4 million deal, knowing he would miss most of the regular season. But since Lowry went down in Round 1, Spoelstra turned to Oladipo to run the second unit behind Vincent, and he’s been superb. He shot poorly in Game 1 against Boston (2-of-9), but recorded three steals and is averaging 10.7 points in 24.5 minutes this postseason.

Asked before Game 1 if coming off the bench was an adjustment for him, Oladipo said, “yeah, it was a big adjustment. I’m not used to that at all, but it’s what this team needs from me. So it’s about sacrifice.”

Oladipo will be ready to start for someone next season, and may even command that big contract he was looking for last summer. But the Heat, as constructed, don’t seem to be where Oladipo would get those starter minutes. If and when Oladipo moves on, Robinson would have a chance to reclaim a spot in Miami’s rotation.

The Heat’s second-highest-paid player is Adebayo, the All-Star-caliber center who inked a five-year $163 million extension immediately following Miami’s 2020 Finals run. P.J. Tucker won a title with the Bucks last summer and then joined the Heat for two years and $15 million. He’s been an integral part of Miami’s success this season.

Lowry could still come up big this postseason, if that hamstring heals and the Heat advance. There is time for Robinson to re-emerge and hit a key 3-pointer or two. And both players could outperform their sizable contracts in later seasons, if not now.

Most importantly, Jimmy is worth every last dollar Miami pays him.

(Photo of Max Strus and Gabe Vincent: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)





READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.