Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Road (8-7) warriors, home (5-9) worriers
Spoelstra: Challenge is to bring a winning mentality every night
NEW ORLEANS — It seems backward, but now the Miami Heat have to bring their winning ways on the road back home.
The Heat finished 4-2 on their trip through the Western Conference after Sunday night’s 102-96 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. It put Miami above .500 on the road, at 8-7, but here’s the catch: The Heat are 5-9 at home.
With three days off before their next game, Thursday against the Houston Rockets, the Heat look to maintain the roadwarrior mentality that’s been so effective. After holding opponents under 100 points in all four victories on the trip, which is significant when the NBA average is 110 points, it starts on defense.
That identity is what coach Erik Spoelstra wants to see at American Airlines Arena, where the Heat play five of their six upcoming games and nine of the next 12.
“It’s all about us continuing to commit to this identity. That’s the most important thing,” Spoelstra said. “It doesn’t matter if we play on the road, home or on Mars. This is a road map of success, and we have to commit to that.”
Said wing Josh Richardson: “We keep buying into that, we feel it’s an area for positive outlook.”
The Heat (13-16) won their last two on the trip, also defeating the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night, bouncing back from a blowout loss against the Utah Jazz. They started with back-toback victories against the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers and lost to the L.A. Lakers in a game that came down to the final seconds.
Before the trip, the Heat came away with a 2-2 split of a home--
stand. It ended with a disappointing 105-90 loss to the Orlando Magic that prevented Miami from starting the trip on a three-game win streak. As it is, the Heat have won six of their last nine.
“It’s important that we can keep this momentum going and carry it over at home because I think, with a good showing on our home court of how our team competes on the road, that’s the recipe for what we had set out to do all this time,” said Tyler Johnson, who scored 17 and 15 against the Grizzlies and Pelicans, respectively, knocking down seven of his 15 3-pointers over the two games.
He described what the team’s mentality is when it goes on the road.
“It’s just you,” Johnson said. “Whoever came on that plane with you is the only people you’re going to get out the city with. That’s really what it comes down to — is just taking that mentality when we go home.”
How do the Heat do that?
“Just do it. You got a job you got to do, so do it,” Johnson said. “Whatever your routine is, whatever it takes, figure it out to where you can be locked in at all times during the game.”
Balanced scoring and a slower pace has worked in the past two wins, both without point guard Goran Dragic. In Memphis, Richardson and Kelly Olynyk tied for the team lead with 18 points each. In New Orleans, it was Richardson with 22.
“Just continue to play unselfish basketball for each other,” said Dwyane Wade, who scored 19 with three 3-pointers and a dagger floater in the lane that put Miami up eight with 50 seconds left on Sunday. Wade sat out Friday’s game in Memphis with back soreness. “Just understanding what works for us on both ends of the floor. I think [Spoelstra] has done a great job of kind of slowing us down.
“It gets us an opportunity to run sets, get the shots we want and, at the other end, let opponents see our jersey’s numbers. We’re a good defensive team when that’s the case. Not a lot of transition baskets have been given up, and a lot of that is because we’re slowing the offense down.”
Richardson summed it up well for the Heat.
“We came into this with the right mindset, and we did what we needed to do,” he said. “Going forward, we just got to bring how we’re playing on the road to the house.”