Remember in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Michael Williams and Mark Price seemed to have battles every year for who could hit the most consecutive free throws? Williams’ mark of 97 in the 1993 season still stands to this day. Steph Curry only managed to get to 80.
Tuesday night in Miami saw the heat break a team record that stood long before Williams’ individual mark.
The Heat were a perfect 40-for-40 from the charity stripe in a 112-111 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Coaches always stress to make their free throws in practice, as players certainly will need the muscle memory down the stretch in most games during the season. Shaquille O’Neal got into the Basketball Hall of Fame only shooting 52.7% for his 19-year career, only shooting a career-best 62.2% for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002-03.
Jimmy Butler’s and-1 make with under 15 seconds in regulation was the record-breaking marker, which turned out to be the game winning toss to boot. Miami broke the Utah Jazz’s record of 39 perfect makes set back on December 7, 1982 in a 137-121 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. To their credit, the Jazz were 75.6-percent that night as well.
Shooting only 39.2% from the floor, Miami obviously needed every point they could get their hands on. The Heat were missing four starters and two other players in their lineup due to injury, with Butler scoring a game-high 35 points. Miami upped its record to 22-20, still the only team above .500 in the anticlimactic Southeast Division.
The Atlanta Hawks are 19-21, but just two games out of the divisional lead. Remember that starting in 2016, the NBA eliminated the guaranteed top-four slotting in the playoffs for division winners. The Heat would begin the playoffs in the play-in tournament as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
Atlanta would be ninth.
Butler has missed 14 games due to injury himself, which is why Miami’s standing is not better in the conference race. His 22.1 points-per-game average does lead the club, but the 28 games played does not qualify him amongst the league leaders. That distinction goes to Bam Adebayo’s 21.4 ppg in 29 games. Remember that the Heat were in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, and were in the NBA Finals during the Covid bubble playoffs of 2020.
The Thunder and Heat certainly did not make this game as exciting as the final score indicated, committing a combined 39 turnovers and 46 personal fouls.
Butler and Adebayo are costing the Heat more than $60 million in salary this year. Next season, Tyler Herro jumps from $5.72 million to $27 million during the first year of his four-year extension.
Making things worse for the franchise was Wednesday’s decision by a federal court to terminate the agreement between Miami-Dade County and failed-cryptocurrency exchange FTX for naming rights to the Heat’s arena. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November in a stunning freefall of the world’s third-largest crypto exchange at the time.
The idea that adult-entertainment production company BangBros submitted a bid for naming rights might be enough to spice up the in-game entertainment, at least until the Heat get healthy and climb back to relevance this season. I vote for Lisa Ann to get the in-arena host job, since she has a pretty good sports podcast, on top of all of her other business ventures.
Why the Heat never bothered to share an arena with the NHL’s Florida Panthers, who are just 25 miles away in Sunrise, always perplexed me as a casual observer. Nevermind that the Panthers play at FLA Live Arena, the largest arena in the state, who are also looking for naming rights to their building.
-JC24