Bada bing bada boom the Miami Heat have one glaring issue to work on

The Miami Heat hot shots make scoring seem when easy when they don’t turn the ball over. Look at this sequence where Kelly Olynyk gets the steal, Tyler Herro races up the court flanked by teammates Kendrick Nunn and Duncan Robinson who were getting to their spots perfectly.

Herro masterfully drew not two, but three New Orleans Pelicans out of the picture, and artfully lobbed a pass to Nunn, who made the assist of the week in my mind. He caught the ball, and in one motion whipped the ball to Robinson right on the letters for Robinson to do what he does best. A page straight out of the 7-second or less game book.

Now that set doesn’t always go as planned when the offense gets caught trying to do too much with the ball, as evidenced by this turnover.

A case of forcing a pass in too tight of a situation, and rushing the action. Let’s see how LeBron James handles traps to his advantage in this sequence by reading defense with his otherworldly basketball IQ.

Notice how James spaces himself away from his defenders so they can’t strip the ball away from him. He actually invites traps to his advantage for his eventual target to have the space needed to get an efficient look at the basket. To be sure James has his share of ill-advised turnovers, but he usually performs under control.

In “Every NBA Team’s Biggest Question Mark” Mandela Namaste writes, “But if Miami wants to advance far in the playoffs, it’ll have to go up against teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors, four squads that boast fearsome defenses and will feast upon errant passes.”

Talking about the playoffs while still in November may be premature, but learning how to deal with traps by not dribbling into a crowd may be a start to taking better care of the ball down the road. The 5 turnovers each by Nunn and Herro in their last game hopefully will be a distant memory by season’s end as they gain valuable NBA experience over time.