Official NBA defines "clutch" as a five-point or less game with five minutes or fewer left to play. Miami ranks 19th out of 30 teams in clutch games. Last night with 5:10 remaining the "Heat" led by 3. Four mins later, at 1:03, they trailed by 11. From 4:47 to FT the lineup of Kyle, Tyler, Jimmy, Bam and Caleb was outscored 15-7. All season the offense has been more at fault than the defense: Miami is 26th in clutch offense and 12th in defense. But last night it was the defense. Barry Jackson in the Miami Herald:
The 76ers’ offense kept it simple and repeatedly ran handoffs and passes around the three-point line to get the switch and matchup it wanted. That matchup usually included Herro as the defender, as Tyrese Maxey, Shake Milton and Tobias Harris each took turns driving at Herro.
“They ran the same play for the last four minutes,” Adebayo said. “That’s on us as players to make an adjustment. During the timeout, I feel like we were just so locked in on our offense that we weren’t really trying to fix our defense at the time.”
The Heat was often late to send held [sic "help"] to wall off the paint and Maxey scored 13 points in the fourth quarter.
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The more concerning trend has to do with Miami’s late-game offense, which has ranked near the bottom of the league in clutch moments for months...
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The Heat shot 3 of 10 from the field and 1 of 5 on threes in that crucial [final 4:47 last night]. Herro shot 0 of 3 from the field, Lowry shot 1 of 3, Butler shot 1 of 2, Martin shot 1 of 2 and Adebayo did not take a shot.
