The nylons HEATed up on Wednesday.
The Miami Heat poured on their best offensive game of the season Wednesday evening against the Memphis Grizzlies, scoring a season-high 138 points in its 138-119 victory over Memphis inside Miami-Dade Arena.
The Heat had seven double figure scorers, including three 20-point scorers, shooting 59.8 percent from the floor and 44.8 percent from 3-point range (13-28). Bam Adebayo led all scorers with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting, hauling in eight rebounds while rejecting three shots. Tyler Herro had 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting with four rebounds, six assists and one steal.
Jimmy Butler tallied 23 points on 6-of-11 shooting, knocking down 11 of his 12 free-throw attempts. Max Strus added 11 points with a pair of triples; Caleb Martin tallied 11 points — including this poster finish; Gabe Vincent had 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Jaren Jackson Jr. scored a team-high 25 points, coming one point shy of a double-double. Regardless, he hauled in nine boards with two steals and one block, canning 10-of-15 from the floor and 4-of-7 from distance. Nobody else had more than 14 points; Luke Kennard had four triples; Ziaire Williams had 12 points in 12 minutes; Desmond Bane, who was ejected after a Flagrant 2 in the third quarter after 22 minutes and Tyus Jones had 11 points apiece in 28 minutes.
Kyle Lowry’s reverse finish followed by Max Strus’ triple put Miami ahead 53-44 with 4:16 left in the opening half, which was Miami’s biggest advantage within the first 20 minutes. The Wolf Pack entered halftime with a 12-point lead, and it would only get worse as the game ensued.
Back-to-back triples from Love and Herro put Miami up 16 with under nine minutes left in the third quarter. Desmond Bane was ejected for a Flagrant 2 midway through the period; Kevin Love made split a pair a free throws, but Herro’s jumper widened the advantage to 17.
Miami led by 28 — 105-77 — at the conclusion of the third. The lead did not fall below 19 the rest of the game. The Heat shot 69.0 percent in the second half with seven 3s in the second half, pouring on 75 points (compared to Memphis’ 68) en-route to its 19-point victory.
This was an offensive rupture the Heat have lauded for this season. This is their fourth game this season where they’ve scored 125-plus points and the third with at least 130 points, both NBA-lows.
If the Heat, who move two games back of the Brooklyn Nets, can piece together multiple victories over the season’s final 11 games, they might be able to make it out of the play-in. But the margin for error is razor thin, but Miami will have two chances against the New York Knicks and one against the Nets coming up.
Miami’s next game won’t be until Saturday, March 18, when they hit the road for a two-game road-stretch against the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons before they return home for the Knicks and Nets.