Miami Heat, LA Clippers shine in day 3 of the NBA’s restart
Let’s dive into some of Saturday’s NBA games from the bubble, day No. 3.
Heat-Nuggets recap
This one had more of an exhibition feel to it, as both teams were noticeably a step slow in trying to ramp up for the approaching stretch run. Denver was also extremely short-handed, missing three starters in Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, and Will Barton.
The Denver Nuggets actually took a 57-56 lead going into halftime. They actually gave the smaller Heat some problems by playing inside-out through Nikola Jokic and flooding the paint. All-Star Bam Adebayo struggled in this match-up, highlighting why he’s a notch or two below some of the best defensive centers in the NBA.
Miami had great success offensively when they ran any sort of side-to-side motion; it was when guys tried to force the issue one-on-one that they ran into problems on that end.
The script flipped in the second half. Miami clearly had an emphasis on involving Duncan Robinson coming out of the breakthrough either dribble-handoffs or as an off-ball screener – and they got tons of open looks as a result. He’s a legit weapon (though it helps to have Michael Porter Jr. guarding you) Jimmy Butler began to impose his will on the game as well, burrowing into the lane as a driver or as a cutter.
On the Nuggets’ side, they just didn’t have the horses to create a reliable offense. They coughed the ball up like crazy (19 turnovers) with players such as Monte Morris, Torrey Craig, and Jerami Grant overtaxed in larger roles. Jokic was much less assertive in the second half, and in a bit of a fascinating development, he was unable to bully Miami’s wings on switches.
I’m not going to overreact to the body transformation just yet. The Heat had the game sealed by the early portion of the fourth quarter, which meant we got plenty of Bol Bol.
As Denver’s attitude suggested, this loss doesn’t really hurt them too much. They are still in pole position for the third seed, so long as their full roster gets back in the near future. The biggest takeaway for me was that Michael Porter Jr. still has a long way to go defensively before he earns the trust of the coaching staff.
This was a good win for the Miami Heat in terms of their playoff positioning. And with the Sixers falling to T.J. Warren and the Indiana Pacers, they are virtually a lock to finish in the 4-5 matchup, thus avoiding Boston in the first round. It was interesting to see them commit to going small by excising Meyers Leonard from the rotation.
The pressure is now fully on Adebayo to anchor a defense that was sneakily mediocre after the first month of the season. The Heat have a lot of moving parts in their rotation, let’s see how Erik Spoelstra manages this stylistic flexibility.
Jazz-Thunder recap
The Utah Jazz actually defended pretty well early on, but Oklahoma City was just hitting difficult shots. After that, however, it was quite a listless effort by Utah on both ends. The Thunder got contributions from everyone. The Dort/Diallo/Bazley combo shot 5-10 from 3 combined (they’ll be a tough out whenever that happens). Nerlens Noel looked like the elite rim protector that we’ve been waiting for him to turn into.
The Thunder broke this game open towards the middle of the second quarter, when they played a lineup with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the lone play-maker (no Paul, Schroder, or Gallinari). He really showed me something here – taking it to Rudy Gobert at the rim in the pick-and-roll, as well as hitting contested step-backs. For people like myself who don’t view him as a future primary go-to option, these minutes were quite striking.
The Jazz, on the other hand, had very few moments where they were even remotely competent offensively. They just seem completely off-kilter, we aren’t seeing the multiple pick-and-rolls/ball reversals that we’ve accustomed to seeing from them possession to possession. Perhaps Bojan Bogdanovic was the glue that held everything together. Donovan Mitchell has disappointed as an offensive engine in these first two games, we shall see if he has the juice to step it up.
Pelicans-Clippers recap
Another blowout. The only thing that was ever in doubt during this one was whether the L.A. would break the record for 3-point makes in half. A focused Clippers team truly is a scary sight. Their starting lineup went on two separate scoring barrages – one in each of the first two quarters. These runs were exhibit-A of why their offense shouldn’t really drop-off come playoff time: Kawhi Leonard and Paul George’s ability to rise up for jumpers transcends great defense.
Defensively, they dominated the Pelicans too. Ivica Zubac walled off the paint with his drop coverage (and mostly ignored Derrick Favors), while their giant wings shrunk the rest of the floor. New Orleans was overwhelmed from the get-go. It was like a varsity vs. junior-varsity matchup.
The Pelicans still have a shot to make a run, but this has the potential to go off-the-rails fast. They don’t really have any margin for error from here on out, so running the table is close to imperative. The most concerning thing to me was how bad Zion Williamson looked on the offensive end, and how much it was messing with New Orleans’ flow when they gave him touches.
Sixers-Pacers recap
This will be remembered as the T.J. Warren game, and rightfully so – he was magnificent. Coming into the game, Philadelphia was highly favored due to the absences of Malcolm Brogdon and Domantas Sabonis for the Pacers. And at the very beginning, things went about as expected. The Sixers revamped starting lineup was humming with Ben Simmons repeatedly taking it to Justin Holiday from the elbow. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Indiana responded with a 17-0 run to take a 24-14 lead.
Philadelphia’s promising new-look was fool’s gold. The offense running through Simmons in the mid-post was too predictable, too station-to-station, and Indiana became in-tune with it – forcing heaps of turnovers. On the other end, Indiana wasn’t exactly getting great looks, but the incredible shot-making of T.J. Warren (who also took the Simmons assignment with Holiday overwhelmed) carried them.
The Sixers then took control of the game in the second half, leading 98-88 with under nine minutes left. Indiana’s unsustainable mid-range shooting from earlier fell off, while Joel Embiid got going with Myles Turner out due to foul trouble. Side note: the back-up center is going to be a recurring issue for this Pacers team – Jakarr Sampson is undersized and T.J. Leaf isn’t an NBA player. They even tried going to a zone defense for a bit, but Philly carved that up.
Indiana was seemingly left for dead, but then two things happened at the 8:38 mark in the fourth quarter: Joel Embiid exited, and T.J. Warren entered. As you probably know by now, Indiana dominated the rest of the game and eventually won 127-121. Philadelphia’s offense wasn’t even that terrible (at least by their standards), Indiana just scored a mind-boggling 39 points on their final 18 possessions to end the game. That’s right, 2.17 points per possession.
Yes, T.J. Warren was on unconscious, but it wasn’t just his scoring that impacted the game. Indiana used his off-ball gravity to get two open runways to the rim for Aaron Holiday, as well as an open three for the other Holiday, Justin. The Sixers didn’t have any answers for Warren. Simmons, usually a steller defender, had a rough time keeping up with him around screens. Matisse Thybulle had a bit more success, but he still couldn’t contain Warren. A lot of it was good defense, better offense, too.
It truly is remarkable how competitive Indiana stays no matter who is on the floor, a testament to the culture, and the coaching staff. I still view them as the weakest of the top-six in the Eastern Conference, with the injuries and the diminished state of Victor Oladipo. It really is amazing that we’ve gone this far without mentioning him. He got to the rim a few times in this one, but overall I am very concerned that he’s a shell of his former-self explosiveness-wise.
The vibes around the Sixers weren’t great today. Joel Embiid was noticeably frustrated throughout the game, and he even got into it with Shake Milton on the bench. Speaking of Milton, he looked very overmatched as the starting point guard trying to organize the team into its offense – Brett Brown closed with Raul Neto over him. Basically, the only source of consistent offense that the Sixers could tap into was Embiid mashing down low (the Pacers being the perfect matchup for him with their current big rotation).
The lack of a perimeter shot-creator stuck out like a sore thumb in this game, and Indiana exposed that. I’d like to see Josh Richardson get a few more looks. They still have the time to figure this out, though I wouldn’t bet on Brett Brown doing that. The urgency also isn’t really there for them seeding-wise.