Teams like to have That Guy. When the offense grinds to a halt and you’re stuck slogging through the mucky muck, That Guy can lift you up. That Guy doesn’t always make things better, as all That Guy’s are not made equal, but he makes things predictable. Give That Guy the ball and through sheer That Guy-ness he’ll get you a shot. If he’s truly That Guy, he’ll get you points.

The Miami HEAT don’t currently have That Guy. They have a number of players who could eventually grow into that role, but as things stand in the first week of the season there’s no one player who is going to dominate the entire offensive system regardless of situation.

For this team to find success in close, late-game situations, it has to be about Those Guys.

“That’s the beauty of this sport,” Goran Dragic said. “You never know who is going to take the shot.”

The shot in this instance refers to the one that could make or break the game in the final minute, but while its easy to focus on those moments of potential heroism in reality games are made up of a bunch of high-leverage shots down the stretch. Score on three-straight trips before the final minute of the game and you won’t find yourself in a win-or-lose possession.

One of the downsides to having That Guy is exactly what many coaches see as the upside. Having a predictable source of offense can do wonders for settling a team down and churning out opportunities, but defenses also know what’s coming. One of the strengths of this HEAT team is in its variety of options. Variety, used correctly, can be tough to prepare for.

While Dion Waiters did his part to tie the game in the final minute and eventually force overtime against the Sacramento Kings with a dribble-dribble jumper, the HEAT know they can’t thrive by throwing it to one player over and over and expecting them to manufacture winning plays. So, in overtime with their first home win of the season on the line, we caught a glimpse of Miami’s crunch-time offense at play.

“Last year we knew where the ball was going to go,” Tyler Johnson said. “This year it’s whatever matchup we can exploit.”

Most interesting about the overtime period, coming after DeMarcus Cousins had fouled himself out of the game, was whose hands the ball kept finding. With Johnson, Dragic and Waiters (67 combined points) all having strong scoring nights, it was Justise Winslow often controlling the action.

On the second possession of extra time Winslow brings the ball down the court and, instead of deferring to another ballhandler, uses the space created by a Hassan Whiteside pick-and-roll to deliver a cross-court pass for a Dragic three in the quarter. It’s the type of pass, we should note, that is becoming so commonplace for Winslow that they won’t be very noteworthy in the near future.

Following a second half in which Miami shot 33 percent (with only six assists) and generally struggled to find offensive footing in the half-court, the Winslow assist was nirvana. Finally, here was the flow the team relies so heavily upon.

Winslow brought the ball up the floor on the next possession, this time in a scripted spot with both Dragic and Whiteside setting high screens to confuse Sacramento’s defenders. Winslow wasn’t necessarily being called on to score, he was being called on to make decisions.

“That’s our whole offense,” Johnson said. “It’s not necessarily predicated to get one person the ball. It’s just meant to get one person in a situation.”

In that instance, with Sacramento refusing to switch a smaller player off Dragic instead leaving Rudy Gay fighting through the pick, Winslow scored anyways.

Two possessions later, however, with Spoelstra audibly and visibly yelling from the sideline to set up the same situation, Winslow feigns the same attack as Dragic continues his task and frees Johnson for a corner-to-wing run at a three.

It didn’t have to be Johnson there. It could have been Winslow on another drive, Whiteside on the roll or Dragic popping back to the corner as before. It just happened to be Johnson. It all depends on the read.

“Where I hit that three, it wasn’t a catch-and-shoot for me to come off [a screen],” Johnson said. “If I was open obviously I can shoot it, but then we had another screen coming, we had a throwback and [then we] get to another situation which is basically how our whole offense goes. We don’t really script it like ‘OK we’re going to come off here and we’re going to look to [get this shot]’”.

What’s interesting about the approach is that, according to Johnson, the unscripted nature of the system can occasionally backfire. When everything isn’t centralized around That Guy, it can be difficult to keep going back to That Thing which keeps working.

“Sometimes we get into a little bit of trouble because sometimes things work,” Johnson said. “Sometimes things are actually working and then we veer away from it with the fact that we don’t call this a play for a particular person. But I think that’s what we’re starting to realize. When we find something that’s working, just keep going back to it until we find another read.”

If you’ve been following Spoelstra’s teams for long, you might recognize this as being a core tenant of his late-game philosophy. Whether there’s a high-usage talent on the floor or not, if something is working then you keep going to it until the defense stops it. So when the possession after Johnson’s three went to a different read – a Whiteside post-up that led to a turnover – it was back to Winslow up top with a point guard and a center setting a screen.

Winslow misses, but that’s the read he made. And with the defense overcommitting to stopping the drive, Whiteside gets a free putback. The game is effectively finished with Miami winning overtime 17-5.

Winslow wasn’t in this position, running the same set over and over, to be That Guy. He was in that position to maximize the collected talent of the group. It’s a small sample, but the tape so far backs up Winslow having the greatest positive impact on the team’s offense between when he’s on the floor (105.4 offensive rating) or on the bench (80.3). Not to mention Winslow (seven assists on Tuesday) has the second-highest assist percentage on the team (17.8) after Dragic.

Remember, too, that even though the trio of Johnson, Dragic and Waiters combined for over 60 percent of Miami’s total points, 22 of their 67 points came in transition and another 26 came off catch-and-shoot possessions.

There’s a concept at play here and it worked for Miami’s guards on Tuesday as much as they worked for it.

All this said, there will be instances this season where Miami could use That Guy. As more and more film is available for advance scouts to use, certain sets will be tougher to repeat down the stretch. Some teams will switch the pick-and-rolls and force Miami to score in one-on-one situations even if it means conceding a mismatch. You don’t have to have That Guy, but it makes things easier when you’re on the second night of a back-to-back on the west coast.

Rather than force players into roles they may not be ready for yet, Spoelstra is trying to find situations that make the most sense for everyone. It won’t always work, but if and when Miami finds itself with That Guy on the roster, maybe the experience that this young group is getting right now will elevate the eventual product beyond just throwing the ball to the same place over and over – offense that historically carries more value in repeatability than actual efficiency.

Maybe, if one of Those Guys becomes That Guy, he’ll know how to win without being a hero.