Sky Was Falling? Not Anymore: How Giannis, Bam and Klay Flipped the Miami Heat Script | Run It Back: Heat Edition

RIB-Heat-Nov12026 === Eric: [00:00:00] Week two of the 2026-27 NBA season is over, which means it's time to run it back. This is Run It Back, NBA Week in Review: Heat Edition. I'm Eric Labrador, contributor at thePeachBasket.net, covering the Heat. This is the show where we recap the week that was in the NBA and then highlight the marquee matchup for the week to come for the Heat. We start with the only objective overall NBA power rankings anywhere. You can read more about how we get to these rankings and see the entire list at thePeachBasket.net. As for the Heat, they move up four spots to 11 after their two and one w- week. The top five teams, they're probably gonna be there the whole season, Detroit, Philly, Boston, Cleveland, and Toronto. The Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, took over the stat sheet, [00:01:00] leading the team in field goals attempted, scoring, all areas of rebounding, assists, and pace. Davion Mitchell was no slouch, even though he averaged three turnovers a game, but he had an eight-to-one turnover ratio, putting up 11 and 10 assists in the last two games. Bobby Portis had one-- averaged 1.3 blocks per game, Bam 2.7 steals, and Klay Thompson led the team in threes made. In the review of the week, it was amazing. Last week, the sky was falling. This was a total mistake. And now, the Heat went two and one and figured stuff out. The game against Dallas, Cooper Flagg saved the team, made some fantastic plays late, and put Dallas ahead for good to beat Miami. But then the Heat went to Atlanta and rediscovered the pick and rolls. They ran [00:02:00] 53 or 54 pick and rolls during the game, the most that they had done since the beginning of last season. They had Bam as the screener and the roller with Giannis in the dunker spot, and that opened up everything. The Heat ran Atlanta out of the building. They dominated Atlanta. Then Friday against the Pacers, the Heat mixed in some of the free-form, non-screening offense from last season with the pick and roll, and the spacing was clear, and all the players cooked, specifically Klay Thompson. He had his best game of the season, where he scored 25 points in 26 minutes, went nine of 14 from the field and five of seven from three in the third quarter Unbelievable. What a difference a week makes everybody? This totally eliminates the takes that any pundits had in the first week of [00:03:00] the season because the Heat showed that they could accommodate Giannis and Bam. While at the end of the week, everybody was saying, "This is not gonna happen. This is not gonna work. These guys run into each other. They're gonna clog the paint," so on and so forth. "Klay looks old. Klay has no legs. What's Andrew Wiggins doing? Tim Hardaway, he's not doing anything either." I expect more adjustments and wrinkles to come from the Heat in the weeks to come. Now, moving to the marquee matchup. The marquee matchup of the Heat heading into this week are games against the Lakers on Monday, and the annual Jimmy Butler game against Golden State on Thursday. The Thursday game is on the second night of a back to back, so we can see if both Bam and Giannis play, or it's gonna be one or the other. The Heat are gonna be able to level up in terms of competition playing Luka [00:04:00] and Walker Kessler, and the new look Lakers. So we'll see how they do there. And Golden State with Yaxel Lendeborg being a, an early spark for the team. Yaxel Lendeborg was potentially a Heat on mock drafts as a Heat pick in this past NBA draft. He's a good player, very mature. He got into it with Luka last week. So let's see how that plays out. And then in between, they play the terrible failing LA Clippers. I'm so sorry, LA, for those fans. Maybe they should go back to San Diego. So this leads me into the full court press. In a Google search on the Heat or Heat offense, I found the following three interesting articles. On SI wrote an article that Klay Thompson is the Heat's X factor after his performance against Indiana.[00:05:00] Now, Indiana, be honest be an honest Heat fan. Indiana is ranked in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference. Tyrese Haliber- Haliburton is out with an injury, but some, the same players, Nembhard, Nesmith, they're all still there. Pascal Siakam still there. And Klay Thompson looked good. Let's see. He promised that earlier this season, he sa- at the beginning of the season, he said he still had more left in the tank. Let's see what happens on the West Coast trip Second is that The Last Word on Sports wrote about the Heat's blueprint for growth with the new offense. Miami is a half-court team. They can dominate so good in the half court. They have players that can dominate in the half court. They have the knowledge. Miami, I would say, and I would want anybody to correct me on this, Miami [00:06:00] probably has their starting five has the best basketball IQ of any other starting five in the NBA. So those guys, even though they're veterans, they're older, they're gonna be able to make adjustments on the fly, improve their games, and progress together as a team. The last one is on a, the same Heat Reddit page that I mentioned earlier, NBA writer Cooper Moorhead posted that Miami is ranked 20th in the NBA in shot quality on defense against opposing teams. He used the first three games as a barometer, saying that the standard is holding teams to 50% shot quality, and Miami was at 53.78, basically in con- bottom-lining it, saying that the defense wasn't as bad as it looked. I think all the Heat [00:07:00] need is time because they have the best coaching staff in the NBA or in the top five and they're in a laboratory. Think of them as mad scientists taking all the skills and abilities of Giannis and Bam and Davion Mitchell and Wiggins and Tim Hardaway and Klay Thompson and just working with it and tinkering and seeing what they can do to make it the most effective. So the defense definitely will come around and I'm excited to see what we got next. So for the coverage of this week, that's it. Week two is over. Let's see what's going on the road trip, and join me next week when I run it back. Have a good night, everybody.