One NBA team ditched basketball's most popular play and is now scoring more than ever

After the Miami Heat lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs last season — a four-game sweep by a margin of 122 points, the most lopsided postseason loss in NBA history — head coach Erik Spoelstra realized the team needed a new identity.

After the Miami Heat lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs last season — a four-game sweep by a margin of 122 points, the most lopsided postseason loss in NBA history — head coach Erik Spoelstra realized the team needed a new identity.

“It was a very painful and embarrassing first-round loss,” Spoelstra said this month before a regular-season matchup with the Cavaliers. In each of the last two games of the playoff series, the Heat failed to crack 90 points.

“So that sparked a lot of thought that we needed to do some things better and differently," Spoelstra said.

So far this season, Miami is not only doing things differently — its offense is essentially unlike any the NBA has seen over the last decade-plus.

After a 110-96 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, the Heat are 9-6 and averaging 123.6 points per game — a top-three mark in the league. Miami is doing so despite averaging only 15.5 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions — the fewest in the NBA by a galaxy or two, per Genius Sports. (The 29th place Utah Jazz, the next lowest, are running 44.7 pick-and-rolls per 100.)