Mateo’s Hoop Diary: “Everybody’s getting their piece of the pie”: Heat hold off the Knicks

The Heat escaped the Knicks in the home opener, with help from coach Mike Brown resting Jalen Brunson too long, improving to 2-1 on the season. Andrew Wiggins had been getting worked by Brunson all game, even giving up a drive-by that cut the lead to five with 92 seconds left. He then redeemed himself, burying a left-wing triple in Josh Hart’s eye.

 There were 14 ties and 13 lead changes, but the hosts had 10 extra free-throw attempts, which made New York confront a set defense more often. Norman Powell whipped the Knicks with 12-for-12 free throws and outside jumpers, and later said, “We knew that we were going to have to move them around, get some stops, play them in transition, and move the ball and have them playing in closeouts. I thought we did a good job of that.”

The Heat started big with Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware for the second-straight game for matchup purposes, but the best combinations had them going smaller. The contributions from others were plentiful and allowed Adebayo an easier night at the office, but he substantially chipped in, recording eight of his 19 digits from the line.

Adebayo said at the postgame presser that they didn’t run one set play. “We got a great group, man, and we all bought into the system, and you see it. Everybody’s involved. You don’t know who is going to shoot the ball or who is going to catch and go, and that’s how we like it.” The system he speaks of involves less pick and rolls and dribble handoffs. He also said that he wants the team to maintain the current pace the entire season.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. blasted coverages for 17 points on 66.7% shooting off the bench, and Simone Fontecchio added 14 points in 19 minutes. The rest of the bench had 13 points.

Still, the Heat struggled in the half-court, logging 88.5 points per 100 plays, good enough for the 35th percentile. New York’s athletic wing defenders, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, are strong and long with good backpedaling speed and help instincts that bother entry into the lane.

The Heat, as has been the case in the previous two outings, experienced success on the go and ran in 31 fastbreak points, spending 19.4% of their offensive possessions in transition, putting them in the 78th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.

Brunson took 12 more shots than Karl-Anthony Towns, who was second on the Knicks in attempts (14). Still, the former’s mastery of pull-up shooting had the Heat sweating bullets deep into crunch time. Davion Mitchell has the quickest foot speed on defense of Miami’s perimeter players, and buckets rained over him.

New York then stalled out, picking up two offensive fouls 27.4 seconds apart. The Heat won 115-107 and had an advantage in three key areas: paint points (48-42), fastbreak points (31-10) and points off turnovers (20-11).

“That’s a fun Miami Heat win,” Adebayo said.