Warriors Vs. Heat 2/17/2021

The Heat were coming off of a 2 game losing streak going into the game and the Warriors went into the game after winning 3 of their last 4 games. The Warriors were still missing all 3 of their centers in this game which meant that Bam Adebayo had an opportunity to have a field day. Draymond Green was injured too which looked like it would affect the Warriors assist wise, defensively, and they would likely also miss a major leader on the court. The Heat were missing Goran Dragić though so that possibly gave Stephen Curry a bit of an opportunity to score well. Andre Igoudala who is a former 3 time champion with the Warriors and the 2015 finals MVP was back in the Bay Area for the first time since being traded. The fact that Andre Iguodala played under Steve Kerr for so long meant that he knew the Warriors play book so the Heat had a major inside man. This was in no way a full reunion of former Warriors due to Draymond Green and Klay Thompson being out. For the Heat to win they needed to force a bunch of turnovers, rebound well, and smother Stephen Curry on defense. For the Warriors to win they needed to find assist well as a team to replace Draymond, defend well without Draymond, and find a great game out of Stephen Curry. Would Stephen Curry and the Warriors be able to get the win without Draymond Green or would Andre Iguodala help the Heat beat his former team? To the game!

To start the game the Heat won the tip which led to a Duncan Robinson layup. At 11:02 Andrew Wiggins made a 3 to give the Warriors their first points of the game. At 7:53 Bam Adebayo made a layup to give the Heat their first 5 point lead of the game. At 5:15 Kelly Oubre Jr made a layup to tie the game at 14. Then at 4:49 Bam Adebayo made a layup with a foul to retake the lead for the Heat. At 4:07 Precious Achiuwa slammed in a fastbreak dunk to give the Heat a 5 point lead. At 2:38 Achiuwa made a baseline jumper to give the Heat a 10 point lead. At the end of the quarter the Heat were leading 36-24. The Heat played extremely well in the first quarter with 2 more assists and 2 more rebounds than the Warriors. The Heat had an equal amount of steals as the Warriors and a block more than the Warriors. The Warriors turned the ball over a bit more than what would’ve been ideal with 2 more turnovers and 3 more fouls than the Heat. The Heat were shooting very well with 59.1% from the field and 55.6% from 3. The Warriors on the other hand didn’t fare so well on the shooting side of things with 39.1% from the field and 26.7% from 3. The leading scorers were Andrew Wiggins with 7 points for the Warriors and Kendrick Nunn with 8 points for the Heat. Draymond Green being injured was definitely negatively impacting the Warriors offensively and defensively. The Warriors went into the second quarter hoping to tie the game by halftime and the Heat hoped to take their lead to new heights.

To start the 2nd quarter Kent Bazemore made a layup to make it a 10 point game. At 10:56 Bam Adebayo made a putback dunk to give the Heat their first points of the quarter. At 7:34 Kent Bazemore made a layup to lower it to an 8 point game. At 6:37 Duncan Robinson made a 3 to give the Heat an 11 point lead. At 4:14 Jimmy Butler made a fadeaway jumper to give the Heat a 16 point lead. At halftime the Heat were leading 61-46. The Heat kept playing well in the 2nd quarter with 4 more assists, 10 more rebounds, 1 more steal, 3 more rebounds, and 2 fewer turnovers than the Warriors at halftime. The only thing that the Heat didn’t do well was fouling with 1 more foul than the Warriors at halftime. The Heat also kept shooting well with 55.8% from the field and 47.1% from deep. The Warriors didn’t shoot as well with 41% from the field and a mere 25% from downtown. Stephen Curry wasn’t playing well for the Warriors with 7 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 27.3% from the field, and 11.1% from 3. The leading scorers for each team were Kendrick Nunn with 14 points for the Heat and Kelly Oubre Jr. with 11 points for the Warriors. Kent Bazemore played well too though with 10 points and 3 rebounds off the bench for the Warriors. Draymond Green being out was proving to be an issue for the Warriors. The Warriors hoped to tighten the game in the 3rd quarter and the Heat hoped to take a larger lead and make a Warrior win very unlikely in the 3rd quarter. To the third!

To start the 3rd quarter Stephen Curry made a layup after multiple defensive stops from both teams. At 9:17 Andrew Wiggins made a corner 3 to make it an 8 point game. At the 9 minute mark Duncan Robinson made a 3 to retake an 11 point lead for the Heat. A couple of Oubre Jr. and Curry threes at 8:26 and 8:06 helped cut the Heat lead to 5 points. At the 4 minute mark Kendrick Nunn made a 3 to give the Heat a 10 point lead. At 2:23 Bazemore made a 3 to make it an 8 point game. At the end of the third quarter the Heat were leading 86-76. A 13-3 run to start the quarter helped the Warriors lower it to a 5 point deficit but by the end of the quarter the Heat had brought it back up to a 10 point deficit. The leading scorers after the 3rd quarter were still Kelly Oubre Jr. and Kendrick Nunn with 19 points each. The Warriors played pretty well in the 3rd quarter lowering the stats to 1 more assist, 12 fewer rebounds, 4 fewer blocks, 1 more turnover, and 1 fewer fouls than the Heat after the first 3 quarters. The Warriors also had an equal amount of steals as the Heat. The Warriors weren’t shooting very well though with 41.9% from the field and 31.6% from downtown. The Heat were shooting pretty well with 50% from the field and 37.5% from 3. The Warriors went into the 4th quarter hoping to go on a nice run and either force overtime or get the win. The Heat hoped to close out the game and make sure that the Warriors didn’t gain any momentum.

To start the 4th quarter Iguodala made a 3 to give the Heat a 13 point lead. Wiggins followed that up with a layup to cut it back to an 11 point game. At 9:23 Adebayo made a dunk to give the Heat a 15 point lead going into a Steve Kerr timeout. At 8:13 Adebayo got his 5th foul which got him taken out of the game by Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra. At 5:51 Oubre Jr. made a layup to lower the Heat lead to 9 points. At 4:02 Eric Paschall made a layup to make it a 5 point game. With 52 seconds left in regulation time Kent Bazemore made a layup tie the game at 105 points a piece. To end the 4th quarter Kendrick Nunn missed a layup at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. At the end of regulation the game was tied at 105. In the middle of the 4th quarter the Warriors went on a huge 20-6 run. The Warriors played amazingly in the 4th quarter. Both teams hoped to play well and get the win in overtime. To overtime!

To start overtime Wiggins won the jump ball which led to a Jimmy Butler layup after multiple defensive stops from each team. At 2:07 Bazemore made a putback layup to tie the game. The next Warrior possession Bazemore made an almost identical shot to give the Warriors their first lead of the game. Then at 1:26 Adebayo made a layup to tie the game. At 1:15 Curry made a 3 to give the Warriors a 112-109 lead. With 40.1 seconds left in overtime Wiggins made a 3 to give the Warriors a 6 point lead. With 33.5 seconds left in overtime Robinson made a 3 to lower the deficit to 3 points for the Heat. With 17 seconds left in overtime Curry made a 3 to give the Warriors a 6 point lead. Then with 15.9 seconds left in overtime Kelly Olynyk got called for a 5 second violation while trying to inbound the ball. Iguodala then fouled Curry twice to put the Heat in the bonus and get Curry to the free throw line. Curry proceeded to make both free throws and then get a steal to end the game. The Warriors won 120-112.

Leo’s Courtside Commentary: The Warriors did not play well in the first half but were able to start picking up the slack in the 3rd quarter and then took over in the 4th quarter and overtime. Kent Bazemore had an astonishing game with 26 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Bazemore also made 2 clutch layups at the end of regulation to tie the game. Stephen Curry also ended playing decently with 25 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists, and 2 steals. The decently comes from the fact that Curry only shot 32% from the field and 25% from 3. Curry did have multiple important 3’s in overtime to help the Warriors to their win. Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andrew Wiggins each had 23 points which meant that the Warriors had 4 players with 20 points or more. Bam Adebayo played well for the Heat with 24 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks. Precious Achiuwa also played well with 13 points, 6 rebounds, and a positive +/- of 17. The Warriors ended up with 4 more assists, 3 fewer rebounds, 2 more steals, 4 fewer blocks, 1 more turnover, and 3 fewer fouls than the Heat. The Warriors rebounded very well in overtime because they had 11 fewer rebounds than the Heat at the end of regulation so they outrebounded the Heat by 8 rebounds in Overtime. The Warriors ended up with shooting splits similar the Heat with 45.3% from the field, 34.6% from deep, and 76.2% from the free throw line. The Heat ended up shooting 45.4% from the field, 36.1% from downtown, and 91.7% from the free throw line. Needless to say this was not a 3 point barrage by any means. The Warriors were down by 19 points at one point and took their first lead with 1:38 left in overtime. The Warriors ended up winning by 8 points which was very unlikely considering both of those 2 facts. Overall, this was an extremely exciting game to watch and a great win for the Warriors.