Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 118-98 win over the Washington Wizards (2-3) on Saturday night at Arena CDMX in the league\u2019s annual Mexico City game.<\/p>\n
The Heat (3-2) now returns to Miami to take on the Sacramento Kings on Monday before again hitting the road: After a quiet start to the season, three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo turned in a dominant performance to lead the Heat to Saturday\u2019s blowout win over a young Wizards team.<\/p>\n
With Adebayo averaging just 11 points on 9.5 field-goal attempts per game through the Heat\u2019s first four games of the season, the talk leading up to Saturday\u2019s contest centered around getting Adebayo more involved in the offense. Mission accomplished, as Adebayo was aggressive and engaged from the start on the offensive end. The tone was set on the Heat\u2019s first possession, as Adebayo received the ball and went to work in the post to score the first points of the game on an eight-foot hook shot. After missing his first eight three-point attempts of the season, Adebayo then made his first three of the season a few possessions later for his second basket of the night.<\/p>\n
Adebayo went on to total 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting from three-point range and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line and six rebounds in Saturday\u2019s first half. It went down as Adebayo\u2019s highest-scoring first half since scoring 20 points in the first half of a Feb. 8, 2023 win over the Indiana Pacers. Adebayo closed the Heat\u2019s win over the Wizards with a dominant stat line of 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting from the field, 3-of-5 shooting on threes and 5-of-6 from the foul line, 14 rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block in 31 minutes. The 32 points, 14 rebounds, 24 field-goal attempts, five three-point attempts, 12 field-goal makes and three three-point makes are new season highs. It marked just the fourth game in Adebayo\u2019s NBA career that he has finished with 24 or more field-goal attempts.<\/p>\n
The three three-point makes and five three-point attempts are also new career highs for Adebayo. \u201cMy teammates got me going early and then it was just a snowball effect from there,\u201d Adebayo said. With Adebayo leading the way, the Heat never trailed on Saturday. Miami pulled ahead by as many as 24 points on its way to the 20-point win. Along with Adebayo\u2019s big night, the Heat outscored the Wizards 45-21 from three-point range. Miami also finished with a 21-7 edge in second-chance points with the help of a 21-7 advantage on the offensive glass, as the Heat finished with more than 20 offensive rebounds in a game for the first time since Feb. 10, 2019.<\/p>\n
The Wizards, which entered playing at the NBA\u2019s second-fastest pace this season, did outscore the Heat 35-12 in fast-break points. But that wasn\u2019t enough to overcome the Heat\u2019s dominant effort in other areas of the game, as the Wizards finished just 7 of 35 (20 percent) from behind the arc. Adebayo\u2019s Heat co-star Jimmy Butler finished Saturday\u2019s win with 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds and four assists. Heat guard Tyler Herro recorded 15 points and six rebounds in 20 minutes before fouling out with 6:20 left in the game.<\/p>\n
Bilal Coulibaly led the Wizards with 22 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Heat second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was a fan favorite this weekend in Mexico City. That\u2019s because Jaquez, albeit early in his career, is on a track that could make him the best player among the six with Mexican citizenship to ever play in the NBA. Jaquez, who is the first player with Mexican citizenship to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, was born in the Los Angeles area to a mother of Norwegian descent and a father with Mexican roots. His father\u2019s family is from Guadalajara, which is about a seven-hour drive from Mexico City. Every time Jaquez was subbed in and scored on Saturday, he received loud cheers from the crowd. He closed the win with eight points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds and one assist in 25 minutes off the bench. \u201cEveryone blew my expectations away,\u201d Jaquez said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine this much love being shown to myself and my family. It was truly incredible, and I was happy to see all the fans and get to interact and be able to sign autographs and take pictures with people. I can feel the love and it\u2019s very much reciprocated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even NBA Commissioner Adam Silver noticed the Jaquez effect in Mexico City. \u201cI do feel that different vibe in the arena here today with Jaime,\u201d Silver said during a press conference ahead of Saturday\u2019s game. \u201cI think it also helps he\u2019s in, of all markets, Miami, that has a huge Spanish-speaking population there. In some cases more Spanish being spoken there than English. You feel it just in terms of walking around the community here and in the arena the number of jerseys you see represented of Jaime\u2019s and from the Miami Heat.\u201d Heat guard Josh Richardson made his season debut. In fact, Richardson logged his first game minutes since February.<\/p>\n
Richardson missed the entire preseason as he worked his way back from surgery on a right shoulder injury that he suffered during a Feb. 11 loss to the Boston Celtics. He then was held out of the first two games of the regular season with left heel enthesopathy and missed Wednesday\u2019s loss to the New York Knicks with a strained left calf. Before making his season debut on Saturday, the only time Richardson had been available and in uniform this season came in Monday\u2019s win over the Detroit Pistons. But he did not play in that game. Richardson finished his first appearance in nearly nine months with one rebound and one assist in 16 minutes off the Heat\u2019s bench on Saturday. He didn\u2019t score, missing each of his four field-goal attempts. \u201cGreat to be back out there. Lot of rust to knock off, but I\u2019m grateful!\u201d Richardson tweeted following his season debut.<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see whether Richardson remains in the Heat\u2019s rotation when Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love return. Robinson and Love, who are both expected to be fixtures in the Heat\u2019s rotation when they are back, missed Saturday\u2019s game because of personal reasons. Love has missed the first five games of the season because of personal reasons.<\/p>\n
Robinson missed his first game of the season. The only other Heat players unavailable for Saturday\u2019s contest were Josh Christopher and Keshad Johnson, who are in the G League as part of their two-way contracts. The Heat\u2019s rotation on Saturday also included rookie Pelle Larsson. The Heat used Alec Burks, Thomas Bryant, Jaquez, Richardson and Larsson to complete its 10-man rotation against the Wizards. The Heat has gone with a nine-man rotation in most games early this season, but went 10-deep on Saturday to combat the effects of the high altitude in Mexico City. \u201cWe played a little bit of a deeper rotation tonight,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. \u201cGuys were working on getting their second and third wind.\u201d<\/p>\n
That led Larsson to play his first meaningful NBA minutes, as his only appearance this season prior to Saturday came late in the Heat\u2019s blowout loss to the Orlando Magic in the opener. Larsson, who was selected by the Heat with the 44th overall pick in the second round of this year\u2019s draft, closed the Heat\u2019s victory with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 shooting on threes, one rebound, two assists and one steal in 14 minutes.<\/p>\n
Burks closed the win 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range in 29 minutes off the Heat\u2019s bench. Every available Heat player ended up being used in Saturday\u2019s game, as Haywood Highsmith, Kel\u2019el Ware and Dru Smith entered to play the final minutes of the lopsided win. Saturday marked the third time that the Heat has played in the league\u2019s annual Mexico City game. The Heat is 3-0 in those games, as it also won its first two games played in Mexico City \u2014 a 101-89 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 9, 2017 and a 111-101 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 18, 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a great time, and that was the players, the staff, everybody alike,\u201d Spoelstra said following Saturday\u2019s win when asked about his latest Mexico City experience. \u201cWe love coming down here, we love the fans, the environment out there was amazing. We had a couple nights, we got here a night before. The last time we were here, we only had one night. So we were able to get out and walk around and enjoy the sights. And the most important thing, we were able to get a win. So we\u2019re pleased about the last three days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s matchup marked the NBA\u2019s 33rd game in Mexico since 1992 \u2014 more than any country outside of the United States and Canada \u2014 and coincided with the country\u2019s traditional \u201cD\u00eda de los Muertos\u201d (Day of the Dead) celebrations, which began Friday and ended Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 118-98 win over the Washington Wizards (2-3) on Saturday night at Arena CDMX in the league\u2019s annual Mexico City game. The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n