Defense pains Waiters
MIAMI The ankle, Dion Waiters made clear, was not an excuse. An inconvenience? Absolutely. The reason he shot 7 of 17 and the Miami Heat lost their season opener to the Orlando Magic? Not when he took time to reflect.
“We dug ourselves a hole early and we tried to turn it on late,” Waiters said of the Heat falling behind by 17 before clawing within two late and then falling 116-109 Wednesday night in their season opener to the Magic. “That’s what happens when you mess with the game. We’ve just got to do a better job.
“I feel as though we scored enough points, but we just couldn’t get enough stops down the stretch. We’ve just got to come out with that sense of urgency.”
What followed was talk about what effectively stood as a Waiters trip to urgent care, the need to retreat in the second half to the locker room at the Amway Center to re-tape his troublesome left ankle, the one that kept him out the final 13 games last season and flared up again during training camp.
But that was not the focus or message the Heat’s shooting guard wanted to carry into Saturday’s home opener against the Indiana Pacers at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“It’s the first game, but we got to do a better job on the defensive end, which is our identity, and I don’t think we did that,” he said of allowing 116 points, the most surrendered by the Heat in a season opener since they lost 120-115 to the New York Knicks in their 2008 opener, when they were coming off a 15-67 season. The Heat had not allowed 100 points in their previous four season openers.
Waiters’ ankle is a somewhat delicate issue, for more than the decision to bypass surgery. As part of his four-year, $52 million free-agency agreement with the Heat in July was a $1.1 million bonus for appearing in at least 70 games this season.
So an early season break would appear unlikely. Among the Heat’s Wednesday starters, only power forward Kelly Olynyk played less than Waiters’ 30:37.
Waiters cast Wednesday’s contretemps as isolated incidents, rather than a flare up.
“I didn’t sprain anything until I got here, three times,” Waiters said after Wednesday’s game, with the Heat taking Thursday off. “It’s weird. Just guarding and trying to get through a screen, a guy kicked my foot and tweaked it a little bit. I’m not going to make it a big thing right now.”
Waiters did come around to score seven of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. He did, however, miss a 3-pointer that could have brought the Heat back within two with 67 seconds left, the Heat down by at least five the rest of the way.
“Mind over matter,” he said of playing all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter, the lone Heat player to do so. “I wanted to get the win, so I can’t be limping and do all that type of stuff and show weakness. At the end of the day, that’s not who I am. But we just got to keep strengthening it and whatever, and just take care of it. That’s all I can do.”
Coach Erik Spoelstra attempted to downplay the issue.
“We’ll evaluate when we get back,” he said of Thursday’s training-room sessions. “But he was moving well after he was re-taped. We’ll just have to see.”
Asked if he might be dealing with the issue all season, Waiters said, “yeah.”
“But, like I said, we just got to go about it the best way we can,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s me more strengthening, the little exercises and just getting it strong. Once everything picks up with that, it should be fine.”
Waiters said he did not plan additional evaluation.
“Nah, nah,” he said. “I’m not going to X-ray it, not right now.”
iwinderman@ sunsentinel.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ ira.winderman