MIAMI — The Miami Heat celebrated Victor Oladipo Day with its 12th win in the last 14 games.
The victory didn’t come as easy as most would think against a young Houston Rockets team that had won just one game in the last month, but the Heat (44-22) managed to overcome a 13-point second quarter deficit to earn a 123-106 win over the Rockets (16-49) on Monday night at FTX Arena.
The first-place Heat remains three games ahead of the second-place Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference standings. The 76ers defeated the Chicago Bulls on Monday.
Oladipo, who was on a strict minutes restriction of 15 minutes, finished his season debut with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 1-of-2 shooting from the foul line, one rebound, four assists, two drawn charges and one turnover in 15 minutes off the bench as “Ola-Dipo” chants rang out throughout the arena with every one of his positive moments. It marked his first game since undergoing surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee last May.
The Heat started slow, as the Rockets pulled ahead by 13 points with 4:54 left in the second quarter.
But behind a 21-point second quarter from sixth man Tyler Herro, the Heat closed the first half on a 23-6 run to storm back and enter halftime with a four-point lead. Herro scored 15 of his 21 second-quarter points during that run.
From there, the Heat never trailed again and led by as many as 22 points in the second half.
The Rockets cooled off after shooting 9 of 22 from three-point range in the first half. Houston shot just 4 of 21 (19 percent) from deep in the second half.
Herro ended the night with 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field 6-of-9 shooting on threes in 31 minutes off the bench.
Jimmy Butler recorded 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds and four assists.
In his return from a four-game absence because of personal reasons, Heat starting point guard Kyle Lowry finished scoreless, but did grab three rebounds and dish out five assists.
The Heat continues its season-long seven game homestand on Wednesday against the Western Conference-leading Phoenix Suns. Miami has begun the homestand with two wins.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Rockets:
Oladipo’s season debut was a success.
It marked Oladipo’s first NBA game action in 11 months since April 8.
Oladipo entered with 1:55 remaining in the first quarter as the fourth player off the Heat’s bench to a standing ovation from the home crowd. His first contribution came when he took a charge just 16 seconds into his first stint.
Oladipo played the final 1:55 of the first quarter and the first 4:30 of the second quarter for his only action of the first half. He finished that stretch with three points on 1-of-3 shooting, one rebound, one assist and one turnover in 6:25.
Oladipo’s first points of the came on a corner three off an assist from Lowry with 7:31 left in the second quarter.
Oladipo’s second, final and best stint of the night began when he entered with 2:06 left in the third quarter. He took his second charge of the night 50 seconds later.
This second-half stretch for Oladipo that lasted 8:13 included an assist for a Dewayne Dedmon dunk, a charge, a layup, a pump fake on a jumper that resulted in a drawn foul, an assist for a Herro three-pointer, a driving dunk, an assist for a Herro layup and another three-pointer.
Oladipo, 29, was acquired by the Heat in a trade with the Rockets last March. But he played in just four games with the Heat last season before feeling discomfort in his right knee and eventually undergoing surgery.
Monday was also just the 53rd regular-season game that Oladipo has appeared in since the start of the 2019-20 season. Before undergoing surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee last May, he ruptured that same tendon in January 2019 before returning a year later in January 2020.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Monday’s game that Oladipo is “in a much better place physically than he was last year when he first arrived.”
“It really is remarkable what he was able to do last year basically on one leg. So this is probably the best he’s felt since before three years ago, before the injury. This has been a very taxing and tough three years for him. He’s played 52 games in three seasons, less than 2,000 minutes and he’s had just incredible fortitude to be able to battle and fight and to continue to improve and get healthy.”
As Oladipo’s workload increases in the coming weeks, it will be interesting to see where he fits into an already crowded rotation. He certainly has the potential to lift the Heat’s ceiling entering the playoffs, as he was voted to the All-Star Game, NBA All-Defensive First Team and All-NBA Third Team and earned the NBA’s Most Improved Player award just a few seasons ago in 2017-18 as a member of the Indiana Pacers.
Oladipo signed a one-year minimum deal worth about $2.4 million to return to the Heat as a free agent this past offseason. If Oladipo impresses when he returns, Miami holds his Bird rights and can exceed the salary cap to re-sign him up to his maximum salary when he becomes a free agent this upcoming offseason.
Herro led the first-half comeback with one of the best quarters of his young NBA career.
After going scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting in the first quarter, Herro was nearly perfect in the second quarter with 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting from three-point range in the period. He capped off his big second quarter with a 36-foot pull-up three at the halftime buzzer.
The 21 points represent Herro’s new career-high for points in a single quarter. His previous career-high was 19 points in the second quarter an Oct. 29, 2019 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
Lowry is the only other Heat player to score at least 21 points in a quarter this season. He totaled 22 points in the fourth quarter of a Nov. 11 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Monday is just the continuation of a special season for Herro, who is the clear front-runner for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. He entered as the league’s leading bench scorer with 20.6 points per game this season, and Charlotte’s Kelly Oubre Jr. is a distant second with 16.3 points per game.
The good news was that Lowry was back, but he showed a bit of rust.
Lowry was back in his usual starting spot on Monday after missing the previous four games with the same personal reasons that kept him out for nine straight games over two weeks from Jan. 17 through Feb. 1. In his return, Lowry missed each of his three shots to finish scoreless but did grab three rebounds and dish out five assists in 32 minutes.
The Heat’s starting lineup of Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo was uncharacteristically shaky early on Monday, as the group was outscored 21-15 to start the game. The lineup entered outscoring teams by 10.9 points per 100 possessions.
The Heat’s starting lineup was better in the second half, opening the third quarter on an 11-5 run.
The Heat’s bench rotation looked a bit different with Oladipo and Lowry back.
With the Heat using Tyler Herro, Dewayne Dedmon, Caleb Martin and Oladipo off the bench to complete its nine-man rotation on Monday, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent were left out of the mix for most of the night.
Strus and Vincent did not enter Monday’s game until there was 3:28 left in the fourth quarter and the Heat was already ahead by 18 points.
This comes after Strus and Vincent had already established themselves as rotation regulars this season.
Vincent started in Lowry’s place while he was out and Strus has been a constant off the bench. In Saturday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers, Vincent totaled 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and Strus finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
Vincent is averaging career-highs in points (9.6), rebounds (2), assists (3.4) and minutes (24.7) while shooting a career-best 38 percent from three-point range this season.
Strus is averaging career-highs in points (10.7), rebounds (3.1), assists (1.3) and minutes (23.7) while shooting a career-best 40.4 percent from three-point range this season.
This was just one game, but one of the items on the Heat’s to-do list over the final month of the season is to find its bench rotation for the playoffs now that the roster is close to full health.
The Heat entered as a heavy favorite, and for good reason.
The Rockets own the NBA’s fourth-worst offensive rating, worst defensive rating and second-worst net rating. Houston is the only team in the league with both a bottom five offensive and defensive rating.
Houston also entered with the NBA’s second-worst record and just one win in its previous 13 games. The Rockets were playing in Miami on the second night of a back-to-back after earning its first win in over a month on Sunday.
To make the matchup even more lopsided, the Rockets were also without Christian Wood (illness), Eric Gordon (right hamstring soreness) and Dennis Schroder (right ankle sprain) against the Heat.
So it wasn’t too surprising to see the Heat enter the matchup as a 16-point home favorite. But it’s still worth noting because it’s the most points that Miami has been favored to win a game by this season.
The Heat ended up covering the spread despite trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half.
