South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Altered schedule leaving team with splitting headache
As the Miami Heat moved into their latest two-game, baseball-style series, an argument could be made they arrived to Brooklyn with a splitting headache.
Four times this season the Heat have played the same opponent in consecutive games on the same floor, a product of the pandemic-altered NBA schedule. Three times they have emerged with a split, as the team losing the first game came out with greater fire for the rematch.
The latest example came in Friday night’s 101-81 loss to the Toronto Raptors in Tampa, a game after defeating the Raptors 111-102 on Wednesday night at Amalie Arena.
“It’s a different format — it definitely feels different,” guard Goran Dragic said, with the Heat moving
on to a similar Saturday-Monday set against the Nets at Barclays Center.
“If you don’t win the first game, then the second game they’re going to make adjustments, and they’re going to play harder. And we have to have that mentality too.
“Even if you won the first game, you should come out and compete even stronger.”
Of the Heat’s four baseball-style sets completed so far, the only sweep came when they lost consecutive games to the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center
The late show
Saturday’s Miami Heat game against the Brooklyn Nets did not end in time for this edition.
Go to sunsentinel.com/heat for complete coverage.
while playing with the NBA minimum of eight players in uniform. Otherwise, it’s gone like this: Lose to the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 29 at AmericanAirlines Arena; defeat the Bucks on Dec. 30 at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Lose to the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 16 at AmericanAirlines Arena; defeat the Pistons on Jan. 18 at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Defeat the Raptors on Wednesday night; lose to the Raptors on Friday night.
“I’m not sure,” coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about the pattern. “I think probably anybody
who loses the first one, you’re going to come out — it’s human nature — with a different level. But I don’t know, actually.”
Outside of the playoffs, the last time the Heat defeated the same opponent in consecutive games was in October last season, with a home victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Oct. 29, 2019, followed two nights later by a road win over the Hawks.
When it came to the failure to follow up Wednesday’s victory over the Raptors with another Friday, center Bam Adebayo simply said, “I don’t know. I just feel like we missed a lot of open shots.”
In addition to the two-game series in Brooklyn, the Heat have two more such sets during the first half of the season: a Feb. 3-5 coupling against the Washington Wizards at AmericanAirlines Arena, and a Feb. 28-March 2 home pairing against the Hawks.
The NBA has not yet released the schedule for the second half of the season, as it awaits to see how many postponements need to be rescheduled. The Heat’s Jan. 10 game against the Boston Celtics, for example, was postponed due to contact tracing, making it possible that the second-half schedule includes such a two-game set at TD Garden.
In addition, the Heat’s first-half schedule does not include games against the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers, making such baseball-type series against those teams possible as well over the second half of the schedule.
Coaches have largely been receptive to the approach due to the reduction of travel.
“I just think that makes so much more sense from a product standpoint, makes more sense from a performance standpoint, certainly travel, saving legs,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Friday, having competed in such a Wednesday-Friday pairing in Philadelphia.
Moving parts
As the Heat continue to work shorthanded, Spoelstra said gains still can be made.
The Heat arrived for the series against the Nets with Jimmy Butler, Avery Bradley, Tyler Herro and Meyers Leonard back in South Florida, Butler and Bradley due to pandemic protocols, Herro with neck spasms and Leonard because of a shoulder sprain.
“The most important thing is to try to create an identity for your team and develop some consistency to that,” Spoelstra said. “That is our main priority, and because of the moving parts this season, we’ve had to address each game pretty much game by game.
“That actually is a great place to be in the absolute present moment.”
Spoelstra emphasized that the team’s goals transcend those missing persons.
“You absolutely can develop your identity,” he said of working in the void of so many regulars. “We’ve put this roster together based on an identity, certainly on how we want to defend. And we want to build those habits. And you build that through competition. Then offensively, certainly the movement and the way we play, you develop these habits of sharing the ball.
“I think this is good for all of our guys.”