Spo uber alles. Great explanation of the switch flip in 2Q:
The opening period of this one was fairly non-descript, the HEAT clearly adjusting their shooting in and around the paint as they accounted for Wembanyama (who also hit a pair of threes), and with Miami’s three not falling they fell behind by double digits, 30-20, the offense thrown off kilter even moreso by Tyler Herro being faceguarded by rookie defensive stalwart Stephon Castle.
Erik Spoelstra decided to change things up just before the midway point of the second, playing Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware together for their first real minutes – they had previously been on the court for end-of-quarter situations – of the season. The results were immediate, Miami hitting their first, then second, third and fourth threes of the game while the Spurs went cold. By halftime, it was Miami up, 46-41, the Spurs after their hot start dropping all the way down to 5-of-18 from three.
Clearly Spoelstra liked what he saw as he opted to start Adebayo and Ware together to start the third quarter as well. Perhaps a small irony of the proceeding shift was that while the two bigs drew most of the attention, it was Herro and Duncan Robinson making the offense work with their shooting and timely cuts off one another’s gravity. By the time Ware exited the game with about six to play in the third, Miami’s lead had already reached 16, Ware a plus-24 in his 22 minutes.
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2. All anyone is going to remember from this one, and they may remember this one as a milestone for a long time after, is that Adebayo and Ware (25 points on 19 shots) shared their first real minutes together and the results were impossible to argue against.
