The Miami Heat reached the 20-game mark in impressive fashion, but its middling 10-10 record this season leaves plenty of room for improvement.

The Heat’s 20th game of the season included its most dominant performance of the season, blowing out the Los Angeles Lakers 134-93 on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center. The 41-point win is the third-most lopsided victory in franchise history. “We deal with ups and downs a lot throughout the season,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said after the rout. “It’s basketball. For us, man, it’s going out there and playing with the right energy.

I feel like that’s why we lose most of the games, the energy is off. We came out here today and had great energy, and you see what happens.” It was a historic night for the Heat, which set a new franchise record for the most assists in a game with 42 and tied the franchise record for the most made three-pointers in a game with 24 on Wednesday. Heat guard Tyler Herro also made some history, totaling 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting from three-point range in the third quarter.

He tied his career high for the most points he has scored in a quarter and also matched Duncan Robinson’s Heat record for the most made threes by a player in a quarter. But Wednesday was part of an up-and-down start to the season that has the Heat at .500 through the first 20 games. Miami entered Thursday with the NBA’s 12th-ranked offensive rating, 11th-ranked defensive rating and 12th-ranked net rating while sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. “We just got to stick with it,” Herro said, with the Heat in the middle of a two-day break before continuing its homestand on Saturday against the Phoenix Suns. “Being consistent is our main thing right now, trying to put a full 48-minute game together is key for us. It’s early on, but the teams that have separated themselves in the standings have done that from the very beginning.

So we have to continue to find our identity while we get wins.” What is the Heat’s identity? The first 20 games of the season have revealed a few KPIs (key performance indicators) for the Heat: Lean on the defense: The Heat has finished with a bottom-10 offensive rating in each of the last two seasons, but has made some improvements on that end of the court this season. Still, this Heat roster wins games behind its defense. The Heat is a perfect 9-0 this season when producing a defensive rating of fewer than 112 points allowed per 100 possessions.

When the Heat allows more than 112 points per 100 possessions, it is 1-10. In terms of more traditional stats, the Heat is 6-0 this season when holding its opponent under 100 points. Meanwhile, the Heat has proven it can win when scoring fewer than 100 points, posting a 2-3 record this season in those situations. Force turnovers: This has been at the center of the Heat’s defensive formula for most of the Jimmy Butler era, finishing with a top-10 opponent turnover rate (percentage of opponent possessions that end in a turnover) in each of the previous four seasons. Being disruptive on the defensive end is again an important part of the Heat’s plan this season.

Through the first 20 games, the Heat entered Thursday with the NBA’s fifth-highest turnover rate this season at 15.9 percent. Not only does forcing turnovers turn into more empty possessions for the opponent, but it also usually leads to a few more easy baskets on the offensive end. When finishing with an opponent turnover rate above 18 percent this season, the Heat is 4-0. When that number is below 18 percent, the Heat is 6-10. “We’re at our best when the other team feels us and that takes an energy commitment, it takes an alertness commitment, it takes a commitment right from the get-go,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s just who we are and there’s a pathway to, I feel, greater success than what we’ve had right now.

But we have to commit to that. We’re not just going to play you straight up in the center of the ring and expect it to totally go our way.” Get Butler involved: This is an obvious one, as Butler is still considered by many to be the Heat’s best player. But there have already been a few games this season that Butler has been marginalized on offense, scoring just three points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field in 26 minutes during the season-opener against the Orlando Magic on Oct. 23 and also recording only six points on two field-goal attempts in 25 minutes during a matchup against the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 27. On the other end of the spectrum, Butler, 35, has also scored more than 25 points in five of the 15 games he has played in so far this season.

The numbers say the Heat is better when Butler is a big part of the offense. Miami is 6-2 when Butler records a usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) over 20 percent and holds a 2-5 record when his usage rate doesn’t cross 20 percent in games that he has played in this season.

That’s a trend that has held true since Butler joined the Heat during the 2019 offseason. In Butler’s first five regular seasons with the team, the Heat went 155-84 when he posted a usage rate of at least 20 percent and 22-29 when Butler’s usage rate didn’t reach 20 percent in games that he played in during that time. “Whenever I’m aggressive like the guys want to be, like Spo is always telling me to be, it opens up a lot more for everybody else,” Butler said recently. “So if I can spearhead that part of the offense, we’re good.” Fill the boxscore, Bam: It’s no surprise that the Heat is better when Adebayo and Butler are producing at a high level. Just like the Heat is better when Butler is a big part of the offense, it also usually has a higher chance of winning when Adebayo is putting together a quality stat line. The Heat is 8-3 this season when Adebayo records a double-double and 2-7 when he doesn’t.

Create second-chance opportunities: The Heat is not a team that aggressively crashes the offensive glass, instead emphasizing the need to get back and set up its half-court defense. The Heat entered Thursday with the league’s 18th-ranked offensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available offensive rebounds a team grabs) at 28 percent, which is below average. But when the Heat does find a way to generate a high volume of second-chance opportunities, the results are usually positive. The Heat is 6-2 this season when posting an offensive rebounding percentage above 28 percent. When the Heat’s offensive rebounding percentage is below that threshold, it is just 4-8.