Revenge is a dish best served hot

So opening night was fun, huh? Sorry, a record breaking opening night, I should say. The Miami Heat lifted the curtain on its 34th season in the NBA with a resounding 42 point victory over the reigning champion, Milwaukee Bucks. The 137-95 victory was the first game of competitive basketball Miami had played since getting swept in the first round of last season’s playoffs by the Bucks. It was also the biggest opening night win in Miami’s history, and their second largest winning margin ever.

Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro were all standouts as expected, and we got our first glimpse of ‘flat-out-scorer Bam’ that Pat Riley eluded to in preseason. It’s been well documented in the past that Bam maybe lacked confidence in driving and using his mid-range game, but based on opening night, those issues are well and truly behind him. He hit a couple of mid-range face-up jumpers over Giannis, and showed off his supreme ball handling ability with a beautiful Dwyane Wade-esque eurostep. Tyler Herro led the Heat in scoring with 27 off the bench, starting his case for a run at Sixth Man of the Year. And Jimmy? Well, Jimmy was just Jimmy.

It seems wrong to nit-pick after a game like that, but it was a quiet night for Kyle Lowry. The top billed Heat recruit of the summer didn’t have the best of games, shooting just 1-for-8 from the field, but the Heat won’t be worried. Lowry’s influence on the Heat’s pace is noticeable, even while the ball isn’t in his hands. On a couple of occasions, Tyler Herro sprinted for the ball on an out-of-bounds call to get the game going again. So too Duncan Robinson and Max Strus. It’s little things like this that weren’t frequently happening in the pre-Lowry days, and even when he doesn’t shine himself, his influence on this team is already evident. The Heat maintained their energy levels all night and scored 21 points off turnovers, compared to Milwaukee’s 5.

Thanks to the energy levels and high intensity throughout, Coach Spo had the luxury of being able to rest his main guys down the stretch. Only Jimmy Butler (29:01) played more than 24 and a half minutes, so the squad will be rested and raring to go in Indiana on Saturday against the Pacers, who will be on night two of a back-to-back.

A reduction of minutes for the main rotational pieces meant valuable playing time for the Heat’s reserves. Dewayne Dedmon (13 pts, 9 rebs in 15 mins) and Omer Yurtseven (8 pts, 3 rebs in 8 mins) chipped in with the more notable cameos. You often find when a team is up big and decides to rest their starters, the lead shrinks as the rotational pieces feel their way in. To their credit, the Heat’s reserves didn’t let up and kept their collective foot on the gas to really lay down a marker that the Heat will mean business this season.

Coach Spo and the Heat will be delighted with what was, pretty much, the perfect opening night against an admittedly depleted Milwaukee squad. Miami can however take solace in the fact that they were able to take advantage of that. Something that hasn’t always been the case in recent years.

Maybe it was the hype around opening night, the first capacity crowd at the FTX Arena in over 18 months, or a sense of revenge on the Bucks for last season’s playoff humiliation, but there’s a different aura around Miami this season. A gauntlet was thrown down on opening night, and the rest of the NBA must take note… The Heat is on.