Despite the Miami Heat dealing with the fallout of Terry Rozier's arrest, the team was highly motivated as they beat the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night, 146-114. Led by Heat star Bam Adebayo doing his best Stephen Curry impression from three-point range, the team's new fast-paced style of play was on full display with the players reacting to their performance.
Adebayo started the explosive offense, scoring 18 of the team's first 25 points, making four threes in the process, but the entire team got going, playing at a notably faster speed than before. This was an area of focus coming off last season, which marked another year of Miami ranking towards the bottom of NBA teams in regards to pace.
The team would score the third most points in franchise history, including the highest scoring half in Heat history with 86. Adebayo would describe how “fun” the offense is at the current moment, according to The Miami Herald.
“Playing with a pace like this, you love to see everybody collectively having fun, everybody getting to touch the ball,” Adebayo said as he scored 24 points. “You can’t really scout plays for us. There are no plays. In the whole first half [Friday against the Grizzlies], I don’t think Spo ran a play. We’re trying to make it last all season.”
“It's fun when we play like this,” Adebayo continued. “It's fun when we can get up and down, we can run with that pace. Obviously, miss or make shots dictates that, but our thing is just to keep playing this style of basketball where there's no hold. We're swinging, we're cutting.”
Bam said he wants to play fast all season:
“It’s fun when we play like this, it’s fun when you get up and down…our thing is to keep playing this style of basketball where there’s no holes…that’s trying to be our identity.”
Keep this pace going, we look great on offense. pic.twitter.com/KPzMIyzkq9
— 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙩𝘾𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 (@WadexFlash) October 25, 2025
Jaime Jaquez Jr. on the Heat working on this faster style of play
As the Heat led by close to 40 points at halftime to the Grizzlies on Friday night, the offense through two games has been a far cry from what it has been the last five seasons, with the team ranking bottom 10 in offensive rating. This was even on display in Miami's close loss to the Orlando Magic in the opener, where one player of many who have thrived from the new offensive look is Jaime Jaquez Jr., now in his third season.
Coming off the bench, Jaquez has gone back to his strengths, being a physical force that drives downhill and can either make a tough bucket or be a playmaker with an advantage. He recorded 17 points on eight of 12 shooting from the field with 10 rebounds and six assists, speaking about the new look on offense.
“I’ll say it’s a lot of fun,” Jaquez said. “It’s something we’ve been working on for a while. Something we’ve really bought into, I think, as a team. And you’re just seeing all that buy-in come to life on the floor. I think we’ve been due for a win like this.”
While a two-game sample size is not all that big, Miami has run a pace of 112.3 possessions per 48 minutes, which is the fastest in the league and is also third in the NBA with 24 fastbreak points. Though players like to always say before the season that they want the team to play fast, the Heat are backing up that talk thus far with the next game on Sunday against the New York Knicks.
