Heat crack instead of coming together
Even in mediocre East, team has been unable to find solid ground
Even in a mediocre Eastern Conference that as of Tuesday morning had only three teams with winning records, one step forward and two steps back only gets you so far.
Of that the Miami Heat are more than aware amid a 1-2 start to their seven-game trip that opened with a victory over the Houston Rockets, was followed by a blowout loss to the Utah Jazz and then Monday night’s exercise in disappointment, when they managed for the second time this season to lose to a Los Angeles Clippers roster lacking Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
“It’s just who we are right now,” forward Jimmy Butler said of the Heat being unable to sustain anything meaningful this season.
“It’s not a good thing. No excuses. We’ve got to fix it. We’re capable.
“We’re still a very, very, very good team. We just don’t play as it sometimes or look it sometimes. And then, at times, I think we believe.”
Monday at Staples Center was not one of those times, with the Heat playing most of the game from behind and then unable to finish after closing within one point midway through the fourth quarter.
Beyond playing with a roster never completely whole, which has almost stood as the norm across the NBA amid the pandemic, the woes that have gotten the Heat to 11-16 have been particularly confounding because they seemingly change by the night.
Coach Erik Spoelstra, for example, cited turnovers as his overwhelming focus going into Monday night. The Heat committed just eight against the Clippers, half of their league-leading average and their lowest total in 12 games, and still lost.
And coming out of Saturday night’s 112-94 loss to the Jazz, when the Heat had a 15-point third quarter, the discussion focused on an offense ranking near the bottom of the league.
The Heat then scored at least 27 points in each quarter against the Clippers, closing at 50.2% from the field.
“It’s been a challenge,” guard Tyler Herro said. “I think you guys see it. From game to game, it’s the
offense or it’s the defense. But we’re just still working to be able to really put a full 48 minutes on both ends and really put it together. “We got to figure it out.” Next up is a back-toback set on Wednesday and Thursday nights against the Golden State Warriors and then the Sacramento Kings. Then Saturday night, it’s back to Staples Center for an NBA Finals rematch against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Only four months ago, with the Heat at the top of their game, they closed within two victories of an NBA title against the Lakers.
Now it’s as if the teams are operating in different orbits.
“We just got to get back to that,” Butler said. “I don’t think it’s too difficult. It’s just the will to want to do that.”
To appreciate how quickly the narrative can change in the compacted 72-game schedule, consider that if the Heat took advantage of the shorthanded Clippers roster offered up Monday, the talk would have been of five victories in the last six games.
Instead, it was of the Heat waking up Tuesday in 10th place in the East.
And yet Spoelstra’s outlook remains halffull in a season that so far has been more than halfempty.
“We think we have great mental toughness in our locker room,” he said before Monday night’s loss. “If any team can handle all the things that have happened, without making an excuse, without feeling sorry for ourselves, without asking for pity, it is this group.”
For now, it means continuing to work in the injury absences of Goran Dragic and Avery Bradley, who remain in South Florida nursing injuries.
So Monday, that meant turning to the likes of Max Strus and Moe Harkless and being unable to find a way to triumph even on a night when Butler went for his second triple-double in three games, when Bam Adebayo scored 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds and when Herro scored 27 points off the bench.
Typically, that would be enough. Typically, the Heat would finish it off on defense.
But this has not been typical Heat thus far this season, a team that too often cracks instead of coalesces.
“We just have mental lapses, which isn’t a good thing,” Butler said.