Miami Heat: Bam-less defense torched in Pacers romp | Five on the Floor

Welcome to 5 On The Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sylvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the 5 Reasons Sports Network. Welcome back to the latest episode of 5 On The Floor, post-game edition of 5 On The Floor. I'm your host, Greg Sylvander. Tonight's floor plan with me, we have Eternal. You can find him on our playback channel, download the app, watch playback. It is so much fun. We watched the entire game together just now, even though it was frustrating. Also with me on tonight's 5 On The Floor is Ben Tovia. You can follow him on Twitter at BenToviaNBA. He is also on playback. He is one of the bright, young, upcoming stars in the network, so definitely check him out. Follow him on all social channels and listen to his perspective. This is his second time on 5 On The Floor. We're going to get into this damn Pacers game that was disgusting. It was bad. It was really bad. You want to know how bad it was? I'll tell you how bad it was. Second most points scored ever against the Miami Heat, ever. Highest field goal percentage ever since the 1988 game against the Lakers. Shout out to Eric Reid for these stats. I did not pull them up. It was bad. We're going to get into why. One of the guys that was particularly tough was TJ McConnell, and he's the Gamer of the Night. And now on 5 On The Floor, it's time for the Gamer of the Night, sponsored by ROK Esports Center, the place to eat, drink, and play all day. Host your next birthday party with them. Located at 15305 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay, they've got a 5,500 square foot state-of-the-art center equipped with all the high-end power. Play all-day passes available for just $25, but if you mention 5 Reasons, it's just $20. So mention 5 Reasons or 5 RSN, you get to play all day for $20. And now, the Gamer of the Night. So TJ McConnell, eternal, 20 points, 10 of 11 from the field, 11 assists. This guy was crazy. In a 144-129 victory over the Heat in Miami, in a game Tyrese Halliburton sat out, TJ McConnell comes in, and as maybe I think some set on playback auditioned, he's Jimmy Butler's good friend, and a lot of people think he could be a starting point guard on a playoff team. What do you think of TJ McConnell's game tonight? What do you think of what the hell the Heat did not being able to guard him? And just the overall takeaways from tonight's just, the game was kind of flabbergasting, frankly, because they just let, you don't see the Heat get completely abused defensively like they did tonight. Yeah, I think one of the things, you know, you just had a really, really strong game not only being a facilitator, but he was just, he finished the game 10 of 11. He finished the game 10 of 11, and I think, to me, that was the biggest story of the game besides what you got out of everybody else for the Pacers, which is that Miami could not stop a leak at all. You know, they weren't able to get the type of pressure that you normally see from guys, you know, whether it was Josh, whether it was Caleb, Jaime, whoever, like, they just could not keep guys in front of them, and guys were getting to, you know, they were getting to the rim. Another thing, too, I just looked at it. You got 22 assists between Andrew Nimbard and TJ McConnell. What the? At 22 assists. How many turnovers? So, in between them, you're not going to believe this. 22 assists, one turnover between the two of them. That is what any coach would ask for. And meanwhile, on the other side, you know, you didn't get any turnovers from Kyle, but he only had two assists. He had eight rebounds. Kyle led the team in rebounds. Kyle Lowry led the team in rebounds. That should have told you a story there. But I think, Greg, one of the main things is they didn't really have trouble scoring tonight. Miami didn't. Like, they still got 18 points from Caleb, 11 from Jaquez, 14 from Kevin Love, 16 from Josh Richardson. So, your bench did what they were supposed to do. They lost Haywood Highsmith early in the game, but you didn't get anything from Kyle. You got 17 from Duncan Robertson, 16 from Orlando, and then 33 from Jimmy. They went into the first half, I mean, when it went into halftime, tied 65-65 in spite of shooting 50-50-90. So, there's really no excuse for why they lost this game, man. You're right, because the pace against this team was in Miami's favor, and then it flipped, Ben. And we're going to get into what Miami did offensively, because there were some fun things here and there, but you got me effed up if you think that we're going to start this show congratulating them for what they did. So, I'm sticking with Indy here. The Miami Hurricane, Bruce Brown, who has had an up-and-down year in Indy. Player I really like. He killed the Heat tonight. 11-16, 30 points. Interested to hear what you thought about what he did, the fact that the bench came so strong for Indiana, and then just also your general takeaways of what we saw tonight in a game that straight up was embarrassing for Miami at home. Yeah. Bruce Brown, you know, there's a word I like to use for players like him. It's bulldog. Just very tough, very, like, put his head down, get where he needs to go. Very easily getting to the rim tonight was the thing that popped for me. I think Indiana shot something ridiculous, like 89% at the rim tonight, which is just can't happen in an NBA game. Like you said, 30 points, 4 of 6 from 3 as well. Pacers were 16 of 32 from 3. Just ridiculous shot-making all around. Their pace is something that the Heat do not like to do. This is an older team. They don't want to get out and run. Indiana is the opposite. They love that stuff. It was just rough all around. I can't believe that an offense like this is, like, happening right now in the NBA. You don't see this stuff. This is special. It really is, especially on the night where Tyrese Halliburton is out. They said it was a bone bruise in the knee, but a lot of people think it's South Beach flu. And he also could just be getting a night off because they thought they could steal one. And also, they got an in-season tournament game coming up in Indiana as a team that I think would value maybe winning a tournament like that more than some of the teams like Miami who are less concerned. But it was ultimately a really rough game. Let's pivot a little bit to some of the guys on the Heat side, even though we could continue to go down the list of pacers that just killed Miami. And just keep an eye on TJ McConnell, y'all. Like, I just think that's a name that we need to keep an eye on with Indiana because when they have all their guys healthy and Halliburton is doing the things that Halliburton does at the minutes that he does them at, they don't have much use for him. So who knows if TJ becomes a player that you can end up being able to trade for. He was 8 of 9, plus 2 of 2 in the mid-range. And that is absolutely huge. Shout out to Cooper Moorhead for that statistic. But let's go to the Heat for a little bit. Jimmy Butler, 33 points. Duncan Robinson, 17. That's become customary. Orlando Robinson, as much as I banged my head against the wall during the game, he had 16 and 5 rebounds. Kyle Lowry, as Eternal mentioned, led the team in rebounds. We're going to hold on Haywood Highsmith for the moment here. But Eternal, what was up with Jimmy? Didn't it feel like Jimmy all of a sudden turned it on in the second half? And you said it multiple times, like, why didn't you just do this earlier? And I know that you can't do it all the time. And that's what I said back to you. But frankly, do it enough to beat this team on your home floor, right? It felt like all of the Jedi mastery that Jimmy possesses in his long years of being in the NBA and the things that we've seen him do on the basketball court, coming from an era where you would see that on a night-to-night basis with guys, you're a superstar. Jimmy just has this moment where he could just turn it on and can't nobody stop him, right? Whether he's using different angles, whether he's using screens to get by guys or using his body to create files. But it's like, man, you could do this all game, right? I felt like he just kept playing into the hands of the Pacers and Obie Toppin, respectively, because there would be times where he would have them beat, but he would go for this weird angle, which would give Obie a chance to block the ball. Jimmy went into the half, I think he scored 25 points in the second half. 25 in the second half. And if anybody told you, right, if somebody told you Jimmy Butler is going to score 25 points in the second half, somebody would be like, oh yeah, they're going to win that game. And they did, and they lost by 17. This, you know, just not getting stopped, man. They were getting killed from the corner three. They were getting killed in the paint. And I think there were some lazy closeouts, Jimmy included, so you just can't have that. Also, too, man, I didn't mention it earlier, but Kevin Love only gave you one rebound, which is very uncommon of Kevin. They needed more tonight. You're right. A couple things to clean up, and Ben, I'm interested in your perspective. Points in the paint. Indiana was up 76-68. Fast break points, 20-0 is unbelievable. Points off turnovers were equal, but the fast break points is crazy. Final thoughts as we kind of, we're going to get into the play of the night. We're going to get into the injury report. But final thoughts from you as it relates to the way that they guarded this Indiana team. Do you think this is a situation where it's just the pacers or this locomotive of an offensive team at the moment, and probably when we see the heat next, everything will look normal again? Or do you feel this is leak year and we should be more concerned, I guess? So that's an interesting question. I think that there are parts of this, it's complicated, right? I think parts of this are Indiana's speed and their scheme. Shout out to Rick Carlisle. It's so strong right now, and it's kind of different to what a lot of other teams are doing. So I would say it's like 50-50. Part of it is them. Part of it is what Miami's doing defensively. I thought it looked like at times that Josh Richardson was getting hunted, which is strange considering his pedigree. But he had a rough couple games defensively against Indiana in this set. If I could really quick give you where I thought Miami kind of went south in this game. I'm looking at the ESPN play-by-play right now. 1.39 left in the first half. Kevin Love makes a three-pointer to put Miami up 63-56. They then proceed to give up a 9-2 run over the final 1.39, capped off by a T.J. McConnell short jumper at the buzzer to tie the game. And they never really recovered from there. I don't think they had the lead a single time in the second half. That's the moment. They, like I said earlier, shot ridiculously well in the paint. And then whenever Miami would try to cut that off, spraying out the shooters, they shot ridiculously well from the corners. Obi Toppin four or five from three sticks out to me, since he's a guy typically not known for that stuff. So to answer the question, part of it is Indiana playing really well tonight. And part of it is Miami kind of needs to look over some things defensively, I think. And now they have four days to look over those things. Let's get into the Insurance by Lynette play of the night. And now it's time for the Insurance by Lynette play of the night, sponsored by insurancebylynette.com and A Aggressive Insurance Agency. You can reach out to our friend Lynette at 954-581-8800. That's 954-581-8800 or insurancebylynette.com. That's insurancebylynette.com with two N's and two T's. Your best play for auto insurance, homeowners insurance, condo insurance, life insurance, or a retirement program. Reach out to Lynette at insurancebylynette.com. Eternal, give them the play of the night. I know it's not fun. Just let's get through it. I was going to go with the mouse turn a lob dunk over Orlando Robinson in the third quarter. But I think it has to be the T.J. McConnell, Steve Nash baseline jumper leaning out of bounds. And like over Jimmy. I think game over. Jimmy's going to hear about that one. Because he just was unstoppable, man. Let's move on. This game is over. Let's move on to another game. This is true. Unfortunately, not only was this a bad game, but there was actually some things that we need to clean up in the injury report. So now we're going to do that. And now it's time for the official five on the floor injury report sponsored by our friend Eric Rubenstein, the personal injury attorney. Born and raised in Lauderdale, Florida. Lives in Miami. Went to St. Thomas. He's a South Florida guy and a huge Miami Heat fan. But the important thing is he can help you get your money that you deserve when something happens to you. So reach out to our guy Eric Rubenstein. Again, Eric Rubenstein dot com or ask about me. I got you on Instagram. And now the injury report. Well, the Heat training staff are going to be asked about if they got them. And when I say got them, I mean, it's the players, because there was a lot to clean up here. Y'all keep me honest if I miss anything. I'm out of biomass tonight. They are trying to. He has basically hurt the same part of his body three times in a row, which is like, I guess, his thigh area. And I'm being vague purposely because nor do I want to get that deep into people's injuries. He's going to be fine. But it's just unfortunate that that's the way that is. They're being careful there. So he did not play. Tyler Hill continues to be out. I think you may see him back early to mid-December is my guess. That's my gut feeling. Guts check feeling. Also tonight, Josh Richardson looked like he had an injury. Can either of you confirm or deny that I saw Josh Richardson had some sort of. Yes. Oh, what happened is Caleb went down for a layup. He missed. It was a transition play when I got back on defense. I believe it was Naismith. They got the ball on a wing, left wing. Caleb comes back into the picture, bumps into Naismith. Naismith, while he's driving, bumps knees with Josh. And so, yeah, so Josh left, I think, early in the fourth quarter with a left knee contusion, and he did not return because of it. And he's not the only guy. Haywood Naismith only played two minutes. He left very early. Ben, do you remember what precisely took place there? I don't mean to put you on the spot. If not, I can try to look it up quickly because I know it was early in the game. But the back spasms. Thank you. So it didn't seem like there was any contact that initiated the reactivation. Because he hurt himself in Brooklyn a few nights ago. But it just seemed like he re-aggravated it, went to the locker room, was holding his lower back. Hopefully, he's all right. So now we're going to see. You have all these injuries, and guys need to step up. And Eternal has talked about that in the front court, they could all of a sudden become very, very thin. And we could all of a sudden see more of that. Because if Haywood Naismith is out, there's not that many other guys that can guard up. So now you're going to have to rely more on bigs. We're going to see how they work through that. Hopefully, Bam can play soon. Ultimately, this was a really rough game. And we are closing the show. It was a 144-129 loss for the Miami Heat at home. I got one more thing before we close up. Bad game. I want to thank Ben and Eternal for jumping on the show. Because we also did the entire game on playback. So we have been running now for like hours straight. So shout out to us for having the guts and the culture to get through that. Eternal, hit us with the final stat. In the first half, the Pacers missed 16 shots. In the last 35 minutes of the game, they missed 13. Good night. Video game numbers. Thank you for listening to the Five on the Floor on the Five Reasons Sports Network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad.