Monday night the Los Angeles Clippers were in Miami in a must win situation for the 5-15 Clippers. This game featured the HEAT as the fastest paced offense in the league vs the 3rd slowest paced Clippers. 

Miami came out with a sharp start on offense & defense. It was tremendous 3-minute opening from Bam scoring 7 of the first 9 HEAT points. 

The Miami HEAT defense picked it up a notch,  scrambling & making it tough on the Clippers offense. Bam and Wiggins were pacing the HEAT early, & it wasn’t such a bad thing. Miami was rolling but the 5-15 Clippers stink! 

Los Angeles was not exactly offering much resistance to Miami's offense. Their defense was a change of pace from the physicality Detroit brought a couple nights before.

Getting Bam and Wiggins going early is a good approach for the HEAT offense. It Keeps them in rhythm & loosens things up for ball dominant gaurds Tyler Herro and Norman Powell later on.

Miami ended the 1Q with 10 unanswered points. It was the Heat 35- 24 after one. Bam Adebayo was in rhythm with 10 points. The HEAT really spaced the floor well on offense. Miami was hot hitting threes but the Clippers starters kept it close. Miami kept hitting threes & the Clippers' offense went completely dry with the bench unit in.

The Clippers came out forcing turnovers & running on the HEAT, opening the 2Q on an 18-2 run. Turnovers again was a HEAT problem as Kawhi was making plays on both ends of the court & in transition. 

Andrew Wiggins sparked the HEAT with his energy & scoring, igniting momentum back to Miami. It was an explosive 2Q for the HEAT everyone was active & playing disruptive defense one possession at a time. Andrew Wiggins' is playing so well it might have been his best 2-way stretch with the HEAT, so far. Davion Mitchell also needs to be noticed for playing great basketball for Miami. 

Miami went on a 30-2 run to take a 76-56 lead into halftime on Clippers. The HEAT were on fire, shooting 14 of 21 on 3s.

The Miami Heat came out firing 3s on offense with their second half start: Adebayo 3, Mitchell 3, Powell 3. Sense a theme? The HEAT started pulling further away, Clippers coach Ty Lue pulled his entire starting lineup with over 10 minutes to go in the third.

It was good to see the HEAT starters respond in 3Q & then put the Clippers away going into the 4Q.  The Heat led 114 to 82 after three. Miami was lights out, shooting 21 of 36 on 3-pointers. Adebayo had 27 points and 14 rebounds & the Miami had led by 38 points in the 3Q. 

In the 4Q Los Angeles opened on a little run from a 38-point HEAT lead down to 24 points. Kawhi got rolling a little bit on offense but wasn’t enough for LA. The HEAT responded with great energy & hit a franchise record (24) 3s!

Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell cooked

But don’t want Andrew Wiggins to get lost.

We saw elite two way play from Wiggins.

He’s fitting into this style so well this season.

FINAL: HEAT 140, Clippers 123

🔥 Powell: 30pts

🔥 Adebayo: 27pts, 14rebs, 2blks

🔥 Wiggins: 22pts, 9rebs, 3blks

🔥 Herro: 22pts

🔥 Mitchell: 16pts, 12asts

Not many teams would have stood a chance in the face of what the Heat were putting up.

You can nitpick here and there, with rotation pieces still to sort out, but the analysis only goes so deep when one team is playing so many steps ahead.

Coup’s Takeaways:

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