40 games into the NBA season and at the time of writing, the Miami Heat are currently sitting at 3rd in the eastern conference, despite losing Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo for a combined 39 games.

The focal point of these “Quarterly Takeaways” articles is ultimately to find trends that are valuable for the Heat in the regular season and somewhat predictive of the Heat’s potential success or shortcomings when the playoffs come around. Unfortunately, due to injuries and COVID, some of the trends found might not have any bearing on playoff success but will absolutely impact the Heat in this regular season and continue into the 2022-23’ season.

Here are some takeaways from the Heat’s second quarter of the season…

(A 21 game sample size was used ranging from 11/26/21 until 1/12/22)

1. Kyle F****** Lowry

When Butler and Adebayo went down, it was a foregone conclusion that the Heat would freefall down the Eastern Conference standings. A top-heavy team losing it’s two best players for a prolonged period of time is a potential death sentence for a team like Miami. But then we got to see Kyle Lowry, in his purest form, he doesn’t need to score 30 points every night, he doesn’t need to shoot hyper-efficiently (although it does help), all Lowry needs is the ball in his hands and the trust from his coaches and teammates that he will make the right play and put the team in a position to succeed. The offense, now built around Kyle Lowry, has changed into a solar system where Kyle Lowry is the sun and the other 4 players are planets in perpetual motion. The emphasis on motion around Lowry and Lowry finding the open man has led the Heat to the 5th most assists over the last 21 games

In the absence of other stars, many have stepped up in terms of production, but Lowry has been the one to take a step forward in nearly every individual advanced metric for the point guard position.

As shown in the chart above, Lowry has improved across the board in Usage %, Assist % and TS%. When called upon to be “the guy” Lowry has had the ball in his hands more, increased his assist production by about 20% and gone from “league average” to “Standard Kyle Lowry” as a scorer, from an efficiency perspective.

Lowry is a player who’s impact goes far beyond the box score, however, seeing notable statistical improvements from a shaky start is a breath of fresh air for Heat fans who might’ve been worried about the 85 million dollar commitment the Heat made to the soon-to-be 36 year old. A Lowry-centric offense means a ton of movement, both on and off the ball, which brings me to the next takeaway.

2. Analytic Ball?

An offense where the players are constantly moving and the ball mirrors player movement, pass then screen away, set hammer screens for corner 3’s, run Spain Pick-and-Roll (Occasionally), make good entry passes, drive and kick, put emphasis on moving the ball inside and out on nearly every possession, all of the things that you want to see an offense do, the Heat are doing.In spite of all of those great things, The Heat’s success is being chalked up to “analytic ball” by Eddie Johnson, former NBA standout and current color analyst for the Phoenix Suns.

Some salty announcer may foolishly attribute the Heat’s improved style of play to analytics, I will attribute it to coach Spo and general common sense. Butler, Adebayo, and Morris are all players who operate in the Mid-Post and do a lot of their scoring in the mid-range area or at the rim. Does it make sense for an offense led by Lowry, Herro, Tucker, Robinson, Vincent, Martin and Strus to play a physical “grind you down” offense? Absolutely not. Coach Spo understands this as well and has used movement to mitigate the lack of self-creating talent, while maximizing the level of complementary shooting talent with the playmakers that are Lowry, Herro and Tucker.

Since November 26th, the Heat have averaged 26.8 assists per game (5th most) and have completely changed their shot diet.