MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Before Saturday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra reminisced about how it meant so much to Jimmy Butler to defer upon his 2019 arrival, to make sure his new teammates appreciated the completeness of his game.
That was then.
Saturday, with Bam Adebayo sidelined by a knee bruise, Butler decided it was better to be offensive.
With Butler scoring 27 and carrying the load early, and with teammates coming around with their 3-point shooting, the Heat extended their winning streak to four with a 129-103 victory at FedExForum.
Unable to play bully ball with their physicality in Adebayo’s absence, the Heat did enough damage from deep to sweep the back-to-back set that opened with Friday night’s victory over the Charlotte Hornets at FTX Arena.
With Dewayne Dedmon and Markieff Morris an effective tag team in place of Adebayo, the Heat followed the lead of Butler, with Tyler Herro adding 22 points, Kyle Lowry 15 points and eight assists, and Duncan Robinson 15 points. Butler rounded out his performance with seven assists and five rebounds.
It reached the point where even Udonis Haslem saw action at the close, in yet another Heat blowout win, officially making it season 19 for the Heat captain.
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday night’s game:
1. Eyes on rim: Butler not only was up to 23 points at halftime, when the Heat led 67-54, but did it at the peak of efficiency, at 6 of 7 from the field and 10 of 10 from the foul line.
Butler was the recipient of several of several kick-ahead passes from Lowry, often positioning himself to reach over smaller defenders as if he was a tight end.
Eventually when Butler tired, Herro and Robinson were there to take over.
2. Plan B, then Plan C and D: With Adebayo sidelined by the bruised left knee that had him questionable Friday and Saturday, Spoelstra opened with Dedmon at center.
Dedmon’s first start since March 11, 2020 while with the Atlanta Hawks lasted 2:27 before he was forced to the bench with his second foul.
Then, rather than go with rookie Omer Yurtseven or captain Udonis Haslem, Spoelstra played Morris as his backup center. Morris responded with eight points the balance of the opening period.
Once Dedmon and Morris were up to three fouls by the midpoint of the second period, Spoelstra moved 6-5 P.J. Tucker to center.
Dedmon closed with nine points and nine rebounds, as the Heat outrebounded the Grizzlies 60-41.
3. Further adjustment: In need of a ninth man to round out the rotation, Spoelstra turned to two-way player Caleb Martin late in the first period.
It was the first substantive action with the Heat for Martin, who previously had appeared for nine minutes over two games when the outcomes already had been decided.
He had not appeared in two of the three previous games. Among his baskets was an alley-oop finish off a third-quarter Herro midcourt pass.
That moved Max Strus up a notch in the rotation, and he responded with a pair of early 3-pointers, before Robinson got going.
Strus then left in the fourth quarter, favoring his left knee.
4. The long view: At 3 of 21 on 3-pointers entering the night, Lowry opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and added another before the end of the first quarter. He kept going from there.
Lowry’s first 3-pointer moved him past Chauncey Billups and into 17th on the NBA’s all-time list.
His first game scoring in double figures for the Heat was the 700th game in double figures of his career
5. Robinson, too: Then there was Robinson, who entered 12 of 43 from beyond the arc before coming around to close 5 of 10 behind the arc late in the third period, a season high in conversions.
