Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Grueling practice follows loss
J. Johnson: Team had ‘no heart’ in Pacer game
MIAMI — It was as telling a condemnation as can be delivered by someone wearing Miami Heat colors.
“We didn’t have no heart that game,” forward James Johnson said Monday of Sunday’s 25-point home loss to the Indiana Pacers.
And with that came the penance, a grueling practice at AmericanAirlines Arena intended to drill home just how much heart and hustle have to mean to this roster.
“Guys obviously came in motivated knowing we have work to do,” forward Udonis Haslem said.
The assumption had been that with a returning core, the Heat could pick up where they left off with a 30-11 run to close last season.
Instead, a month into the schedule, the record is 7-9, and it was as if the Heat were strangers in Sunday’s 120-95 loss.
Guard Dion Waiters said such assumptions were misguided, that even with just a few newcomers to the rotation, it has felt like a different mix.
“It’s different lineups,” he said. “Even though we have the same team, we have different guys in the lineup, as you can see. There’ve been different lineups so far throughout the season, right?”
In addition to injecting free-agent acquisition Kelly Olynyk and first-round pick Bam Adebayo into the rotation, the Heat also are attempting to reestablish rhythm with forward Justise Winslow, who missed the second half of last season after shoulder surgery.
“It’s not how it was last year,” Waiters said. “We’ve got to take steps and go back. I always go back and see and watch what worked for us last year. But that’s last year, it’s all in the past. Just because you have the same team, almost, it doesn’t mean anything. It don’t guarantee anything, either.”
For coach Erik Spoelstra, the aftermath of Sunday meant taking measure of matters beyond the court.
“We have to work on building the habit of consistency and reliability, and doing it every single day,” he said. “We talk about it all the time — consistency starts with your behavior. How you do anything is how you do everything.
“So your approach to every minute of the day leading up to practice, prepractice, practice, after practice, treatment, all of those things, have to be consistent. And then your routine on a game day has to be absolutely consistent enough to get you in a mind frame to compete at a high level.”
And push past the distractions.
Haslem said those, too, have been an ongoing issue.
“I think we’re focused on the things we can’t control too much,” the veteran tri-captain said. “We can’t control the refs. We can’t control the shots going in or go out. We can’t control the rotation. We can’t control any of that.
“The only thing we can control is the game that’s played in between the lines, and how well go out there and play and how hard we play having each other’s back, being accountable.”
Monday proved to be more about action that rhetoric. The anger of Sunday was distilled through sweat.
“When you’re on the floor, some guys were frustrated, some guys were talking,” guard Goran Dragic said, “but we get all this out of our way and we were only focused on the practice.”
And avoiding a repeat of Sunday when the Boston Celtics arrive on Wednesday night to close out this two-game homestand.
“We shouldn’t be in these predicaments or this position,” Johnson said, “but we are.”
Among the most perplexing elements of the season is the Heat stand sixth-best in the NBA in outscoring opponents in the first half, but are dead last in the league in the second half, outscored by 87 points.
“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said, “maybe the next game, on Wednesday, we won’t even go into the locker room and just stay out there and just warm up for 12 minutes.
“Because often we’re playing good basketball in the second quarter. And then we go in there, relax, and get out of that mindset of real competition. It’s just something we’ll have to get better at and correct.”