ATLANTA _ As long as Bam Adebayo has been with the Miami Heat, he has always seen his team have more success following the NBA All-Star Game than it did before.
Last season, the Heat went .500 in the second half after a sub-.500 first half. The year before, Miami went 14-10 after the All-Star break and 30-28 before. Even in a disappointing rookie season for Adebayo, the Heat was a handful of games better in the second half of the season than in the first.
It has been true for just about every season since Erik Spoelstra took over as coach in 2008. In eight of Spoelstra's first 11 seasons at the helm, Miami has had a better second half than first half and the only exceptions are three seasons with the Big 3, when the Heat was typically spending the final months more concerned with gearing up for a run to the NBA Finals.
"They keep stats for everything," power forward Udonis Haslem quipped Wednesday after a practice at AmericanAirlines Arena, then he tried to search for an actual reason behind the trend.
"We continue to drive the boat," he continued. "When you get to the second half of the season, you start to see who's getting ready for vacation and you start to see who's really, really trying to make the playoffs and you start to see a couple teams unravel."
It's just part of the reason for the trend, though. While Spoelstra dismissed the notion of there being any thread line, the Heat (35-19) had a .605 winning percentage after All-Star Weekend in Spoelstra's first 11 seasons compared to a .572 win rate before the break.
"Each year is different," Spoelstra said.
In his three years in Miami, Adebayo has come to consider it a product of one of the organization's great strengths.
The Heat will play a much different style when its opens the second half against the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena than it did the first time it faced the Hawks (15-41) in the first week of the season. Point forward Justise Winslow was playing a more traditional point guard role for Miami. Sharpshooting swingman Duncan Robinson played fewer than two minutes. Adebayo was rarely getting opportunities to bring the ball up the floor.
Now Winslow is with the Memphis Grizzlies, Robinson is averaging more than nine shots per game and Adebayo is at the center of the Heat's positionless approach to offense, bringing the ball up about a half a dozen times per game. Miami has a knack for honing in on players' strengths throughout the season and playing to those strengths as the year goes on.
"I think it's more so development and trust," the All-Star post player said. "After you've spent 54 games with somebody, you kind of understand what they're capable of. At the end of the day, you know who you can lean on and who's reliable."
The Heat finished the first half of the season with a .648 winning percentage, its best since the final season of the Big 3 era, and this included a 1-4 stretch heading into the All-Star break when a trade and a rash of injuries left Miami shorthanded.
Spoelstra typically tightens up the rotation after the break, which might not happen right away this year because of the moving pieces, but the Heat's Feb. 6 trade for forwards Andre Iguodala, Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder, and its still-calcifying identity bodes well for another strong finish.
"I feel like every year we have a great coaching staff who kind of fast-forward everything and try to get those new guys involved quicker. Maybe because of that we feel more as a team, more connected, players are here to help and maybe because of that we have a really good record after the All-Star break," guard Goran Dragic said. "The urgency is higher after the All-Star break. You're looking at standings and everything is coming to the end and you want to make sure that you're in a good spot for the playoffs."
