The late 1970’s saw the birth of a musical genre called Speed Metal. An offshoot of Heavy Metal, the basic idea was to forget melodic lyricism and traditional skill in favor of technique pointed in a single direction: playing fast.

No analogy could be more apt for the Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat, the Kings of Speed in the 2025-26 version of the NBA. Dueling much of the season for the lead in pace, Portland and Miami faced each other on Saturday evening. The result was a frantic shot-fest in which the teams combined for 204 attempts while shooting only 28.2% from the arc. The final result was a 136-131 victory for Miami, more as a result of outlasting the opponent than outplaying them.

Here are observations from this fast, mostly-fun game.

Transition and Turnovers

It’d be inac

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