Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat make easy work of the touring Wizards

Nothing like playing a team in the cellar to boost the numbers.

It was the first meeting since Bam Adebayo’s 83-point outburst on March 10, and the Heat’s bench crew got the extra time in the tune-up win. They scored 142.1 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 99th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.

Still, the Wizards pressured Adebayo early, not wanting to allow a repeat or close to it of his career high. He said, “They did their jobs. I got six shot attempts.”

Tyler Herro was absent for personal reasons, so Simone Fontecchio started in his place, scoring eight points in 19 minutes. 

Jaime Jaquez Jr. set a season high of 32 points, slicing and pivoting through the lane. His best stretch was in the second quarter, helping the team separate themselves from the Wizards, making five of his 12 baskets. 

On top of that, the Heat missed all four 3-point attempts in the period and still scored 41 points on 68.2% shooting.

Kel’el Ware also made 10 shots in the restricted are and behind the 3-point line, with 19 rebounds and seven blocks. Coach Erik Spoelstra said, “I would say, we’ve had three practices in the last few days, I would venture to say these are the three best practices he’s had this year and those are coming out of some tough games with tough competition.”

They started the fourth quarter ahead by 31 points, and none of the starters had to come in. The team had shut off the paint for most of the game up to that point, while getting what they wanted.

Rookie Kasparas Jakučionis, who hadn’t played the last two games because of a coach’s decision, was one of four players to log all of the fourth-quarter minutes. Nikola Jović likely would have been the fifth, but he was fouled, catching a lob in mid-air with 36 seconds and came down hard on his left ankle. Jamir Watkins was given a flagrant foul penalty two, and Spoelstra later said that Jović’s ankle was sprained. Keep in mind that Jović had missed the last six games.

The Heat won 152-136, setting a new season high in points and it was one point shy of their all-time single game scoring record. The previous high (150) this season also came against Washington on March 10. 

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The Heat are the 10th seed, with four games are left in the regular season: the next two are in Toronto against the Raptors, then Washington on April 10 and the finale on April 12, hosting the Atlanta Hawks.