PLACE TO GET REAL
In locker room, Heat players free to speak openly
MIAMI — The impending five-game, 10-day trip might not necessarily be a search for spiritual awakening. But it doesn’t mean the Miami Heat are content where they stand.
“We’re good. We’re not complacent,” Jimmy Butler said ahead of Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers at American-Airlines Arena, with the season’s longest trip following. “We know how much better we have to be. But I think the group of guys we’ve got in this locker room, you can talk to them man to man. Nobody take it personal, and then you move on from it.
“That’s growth on everybody’s behalf, even the coaches, knowing that you can say something to somebody, get that point across, they receive the message, and they execute it.”
That certainly did not appear to be the case for Butler during his closing days with the Chicago Bulls, the end of his tenure with the Minnesota Timberwolves, or his season with the 76ers.
Center Meyers Leonard said it is as much a credit to what Pat Riley, Andy Elisburg and the Heat front office have built as to how coach Erik Spoelstra has pulled it together.
“Sometimes you look at a roster, you see all this talent, you wonder why they can’t win,” Leonard said, a question some have asked about this season’s 76ers. “Sometimes the puzzle pieces don’t work together.
“I truly believe we have a good blend of veteran leadership, young talent, guys who can make shots, guys who want to defend, guys who want to win, and we count on each other.”
While also pushing one another, including even the neophytes.
“We love it when not only amongst ourselves we are pushing each other, but the staff can give us constructive criticism and we can learn from it,” Leonard said. “Look at our two, three young guys — Tyler [Herro], Kendrick [Nunn], Duncan [Robinson] — I mean they’re playing incredibly good.”
Still silence
Spoelstra declined to comment pregame Monday whether Justise Winslow, who has made only one appearance since Dec. 4, will be part of the team’s traveling party Tuesday when the team takes flight for Los Angeles.
Monday was the 12th consecutive game Winslow has missed with what the team has been listing as a lower-back bone bruise. He did not travel with the team for Saturday’s road victory over the Orlando Magic.
The Heat’s last formal update came before the Jan. 17 road victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, when the team announced that Winslow would be reevaluated in two weeks.
Super time
Among those from the team at Sunday’s Super Bowl were Riley, as well as players Kelly Olynyk, Butler, Bam Adebayo and Herro.
Guard Dion Waiters, a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, took to Instagram after the game to congratulate Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, the former Eagles coach.
“He’s still an Eagle,” Waiters said. “Big Reeeeeid. He’s still my guy.”