Cutting to the rim, it’s a wonderful open track.
He walks down the court, laughing all the time.
Want to win a ring, the Miami spirit is brilliant,
How fun it is to win and sing a victory song tonight.
Ring bells, ring bells, ring all the way!
The Miami Heat, they beat the Pelicans today.
Jimmy Butler recorded only 16 minutes at the opening of Christmas Day, but Miami enjoyed it. New Orleans wrapped up many open looks for sniper Duncan Robinson, who finished 23 points out of 8 out of 14 in the 111-98 victory. Butler did not play in the second half because of the stiffness of his right ankle.
Robinson scored 18 of his points in the first half, all from a distance, helping Heat to build a 23 point lead. The Pelicans achieved that advantage in the second half, but their attack in the middle of the court was below average.
New Orleans stars Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson did a heavy job. Williamson finished with 32 points from 11 to 20 and 14 rebounds in his first game on Christmas Day and hit 10 to 15 on the free throw line. Ingram had 28 points on shots out of 7 out of 17, including 4 out of 8 in the background, and made 10 of his 11 free-throw attempts. If it weren’t for all the line trips and the Pelicans’ strong offensive rebounds, this would have been even more ugly.
Goran Dragic left the bench to score 18 points and give nine assists in 27 minutes for Miami, making 6 to 11 and adding four steals. Reserve team mate Avery Bradley provided 12 points, four assists and perimeter blocking in his Heat debut. The second unit in New Orleans was no match for the Heat.
Here are three lessons from Miami’s victory:
1. Dragon spit fire
Dragic is 34 years old and suffered a rupture of the plantar fascia in his left foot in Game 1 of the Finals a few months ago. He was not even remotely healthy when he returned to play in Game 6. When he re-signed with Heat in the off-season, it was fair to ask whether or not he had the same kind of strength that was in the bubble before the injuries.
The first returns were extremely positive. He had 20 points out of 8 out of 13 shots and seven assists in 26 minutes at the season opener against the Orlando Magic, and then he destroyed the Pelicans.
Miami was five times below when Dragic checked in, with five and a half minutes to go before the end of the first quarter. When he checked out, they were 14 points clear and in just nine minutes he had eight points and six assists.
Just like they did in the playoffs, Dragic and Bam Adebayo’s pick-and-roll game was immense. In that dominant stint, Heat played the same play three times in a row and scored in three different ways:
Miami’s attack lost a bit of pace without Butler in the second half, but overall it was a phenomenal performance. It doesn’t look like Dragic or the team are about to take a step back.
2. Degree of difficulty of Ingram
Here’s Ingram saving the Pelicans by doing a contested pull-up 3 over Adebayo near the end of the first half and hitting the bell with a similar shot over Moe Harkless at the end of the third:
Here are Ingram’s three extravagant finishes at a four-minute break before the bell:
This is a star thing. The Pelicans never had much of a pace when the Miami defense was set, and Ingram still had an efficient afternoon. Sometimes, you have to do hard kicks and get to the free throw line. (In the last season, he only managed 11 free throws in a game eight times. The best way for the Most Improved Player to go one step further is to increase his free-throw rate, especially now that he is making money from the line. )
The flip side, however, is that this is difficult! It is also a reflection of why New Orleans failed to score consistently in this game and has some problems to resolve in the future. Defenses will continue to collapse on Ingram’s drives because they don’t respect Lonzo Ball, Eric Bledsoe or Williamson on the perimeter, and Steven Adams will always be on the line. As talented as Ingram is, Pelicans need to find a way to make things easier for him.
Related: I wonder if new coach Stan Van Gundy will eventually put JJ Redick on the starting lineup.
3. Monitoring Miami’s machinations
Speaking of starting lineups, Miami went with an interesting one on Friday: Butler, Tyler Herro, Robinson, Meyers Leonard and Adebayo. Two days earlier, Harkless started in the place of Leonard, who did not play a minute.
Harkless had nine minutes this time, but it could have been a DNP-CD had it not been for Butler’s injury. Leonard played 20 minutes, exactly the amount Kelly Olynyk played against Magic. Olynyk did not see the ground against New Orleans, nor did Kendrick Nunn, who played eight minutes against Orlando. (This is where it’s worth mentioning that Bradley is recovering from a hamstring injury and missed out on Wednesday.)
The point here is that coach Erik Spoelstra has many options. Some of these guys also went in and out of rotation last season, but this is new for Harkless. Based on what we’ve seen so far, Harkless shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for Jae Crowder, but just another rotating gauge player whose role will fluctuate as Spoelstra tries on different looks.