Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat go into the All-Star break on a positive note after beating the Pelicans

The Heat powered their way to victory in New Orleans against the struggling Pelicans. Their half-court attack was ineffective, but they made up for it in transition.

Jaime Jaquez said it was a high priority to get a win before the All-Star break, and that, “It’s for momentum. Coming after the break, we know it’s going to be a big push for us, and it started with this game…”

Their biggest issue was containing Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III’s rim pressure as NOLA went cold from deep. It didn’t help the other side that they were misfiring from the perimeter in the first half, but they got a stimulus from Kel’el Ware’s offensive rebounding, plus Jaquez and Bam Adebayo added eight field goals in the lane. 

They went to intermission ahead by three, and subsequently emerged, pulverizing them with offensive rebounds and second-chance scoring, while adding six trifectas. Ware was the high Heatle with seven points and eight rebounds in the third quarter, and he denied Williamson’s two-foot layup. 

The fourth quarter began with the Heat ahead by 11, yet Adebayo and Jaquez had cooled off. Nonetheless, they prevented the Pelicans from getting within striking distance until the last two minutes by getting to the line and shutting off the lane. 

The Heat won 123-111. Their next game is on Feb. 20 in Atlanta.

Coach Erik Spoelstra said Adebayo was “so rugged [Wednesday]. I think he could have drawn probably three, four, five more fouls if they called them… a lot of our firepower was on the sidelines, or not even here in the building. So quite naturally, we were going to lean on [Adebayo], even more than we normally do.”

Takeaways:

• The Heat (29-27) were defeated two nights earlier by the Utah Jazz, who were trying to lose on purpose, and it will take more than beating New Orleans for them to reestablish their credibility. No one should doubt Jaquez, who said in the locker room that they would be hungry after the All-Star break. The issue is that this team gets too comfortable with its work early, and they have trouble sustaining the necessary level of intensity after a short win streak. 

• Ware is hopeful the team can get everybody back after the All-Star break, and said they “should.”

• Adebayo is correct in his assessment that he is one of the quicker big men in the league. He needs to build on this tune-up performance and exploit his rivals more often with his speed. He can be a dangerous player when attacking the lane with a head of steam, and he was on Wednesday, attempting 17 free throws, making 13. To be clear, nobody should expect that many, but there’s no reason why he can’t average at least nine for the season.

• Jaquez scored 20 of his 23 points in the lane, and of all their young players, he arguably has the highest ceiling. It was his third time this year logging at least 20 in the square, and he is shooting a career high in percentage of attempts at the rim and in field goal percentage at that spot. He said at media day in September that he wanted to get back to being a big threat at going to the body and has delivered. He’s the top bench scorer in the paint (10.3), and he is a consistent 3-point shot away from being an All-Star.