Can the Miami Heat score 167 tonight?

It seems a ludicrous notion.

Could the Miami Heat put up 167 points in New York against the Knicks tonight, as they start a home-and-home series with their Eastern Conference rival, one that will be missing Jalen Brunson as the Heat are missing Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo?

But the Heat have been doing some ludicrous things offensively, at least until they slammed on the scoring brakes in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's home loss to undermanned Cleveland. The Heat, even without last season's leading scorer Herro, are atop the NBA entering Friday's play, averaging 124.8 points per game, by far the most in franchise history. In several games, they've tallied more than 65 points in a half.

So why would it be nice to get 167 tonight?

Well, if the Heat did so, they would have the most points through 13 games of any -- yes, any -- team in the NBA since the year 2000.

Since 2000, the most team points in the first 12 games of the season:

1,508 — Indiana Pacers (‘23)
1,497 — Miami Heat (‘25) 🔥🔥
1,481 — Dallas (‘23)

HISTORIC offense 😳 pic.twitter.com/LmF3kxl2LW
— HeatMuse (@Heat_Muse) November 13, 2025

The 2022-23 Indiana Pacers, coached by Rick Carlisle, scored 1,508 in the first 12 games, and then 155 in their 13th. That puts the Heat 166 behind their 13-game total entering their own 13th game. The odds are the Heat doing so are slim, of course; it would be a team single-season game record. The most Miami has ever scored was 144, way back in 1992.

They've had the Hall of Fame likes of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Jimmy Butler and Chris Bosh since, and never come close to the sort of scoring they are doing this season. It's a tribute to Erik Spoelstra's willingness to flip his philosophy, and also to the player buy-in. Norm Powell has scored the most points of any Heat player in his first nine games with the team, and the Heat are getting contributions from several others, even as they wait on Adebayo and Herro.

Both of those players are expected back soon, Adebayo likely first. And when Herro returns, Miami will have another elite shooter, who will need to play off the ball a bit more than he has, but has shown the capability to do so.

But, tonight, without them, the Heat will again push the pace -- against a Knicks team under new coach Mike Brown that has been doing the same -- and maybe even push those 2023 Pacers.

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