Heat aims to handle LeBron while dealing with its injuries
The Heat, battling a series of injuries, wants a win after dropping its last two games out
West to fall to 1-2 on its fivegame trip. But to get one, Miami will need to deal with a player whom even Father Time can’t seem to stop.
That’s 39-year-old LeBron James, who is averaging 25.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 53.5 percent from the field and 40.9 percent on threes for the Los Angeles Lakers in his 21st NBA season.
He and the Lakers will host the Heat at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night at 10 (ESPN and Bally Sports Sun).
“All the work that he puts in behind the scenes, I don’t think that gets talked about enough,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said earlier this season. “Most people don’t see it and they assume that he doesn’t. They just assume that he’s the best athlete in this game, which he was for so many years. But he’s been able to maintain this level because of all that other stuff.
“There will be a day where he can still dominate even without the physical tools; he can do it with his size and his brain.
But he’s nowhere near that. He can still do it physically, as well.”
Spoelstra knows James better than most NBA coaches after spending four seasons as his head coach with the Heat from 2010-14. Spoelstra and James won NBA championships together in 2012 and ’13.
For perspective, James is on pace to join Michael Jordan and Karl Malone as the only players in NBA history to average 20 or more points in a season at age 39 or older. James’ current average is far ahead of Malone’s 20.6 per game in 2002-03 and Jordan’s 20 per game the same year.
James also is on track to
become the only one of the three to do it while shooting better than 50 percent from the field, as Malone shot 46.2 percent and Jordan 44.5 percent during that season.
James is also on his way to joining Tim Duncan, Robert Parish and Malone as the only players to average seven or more rebounds in a season at 39 or older while also joining John Stockton as the only players to average seven or more assists in a season at that age.
“It’s definitely respect for what he did for this organization, but also all the others he’s played for,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said of facing James.
“You respect that greatness. As a competitor, I’m going out there and I’m trying to get the W. He deserves his flowers. He’s done a lot of great things in this league. But when we step between those lines, your will versus mine, I want the W.”
BLASTED BY CLIPPERS
The Heat has to contend with issues beyond James after suffering its most lopsided defeat of the season in a 121-104 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night in Los Angeles. Most of those issues have to do with injuries.
The Heat, which entered Tuesday with the fourth-most missed games this season due to injury, were without four rotation regulars against the Clippers. Miami was missing
Jimmy Butler (right foot irritation), Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain), Josh Richardson (left back facet syndrome) and Haywood Highsmith (concussion protocol).
That left the Heat without four of its top perimeter defenders and it showed, as a Clippers offense led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George shredded the Heat defense whether it was in man or zone.
The Clippers shot 58.8 percent from the field and 14-of-29 (48.3 percent) from three-point range as the Heat recorded its fifth-worst defensive rating of the season.
The Heat, which has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in seven of the last eight seasons, entered Tuesday with the NBA’s 13th-ranked defense.
“I have to go to work and we have to get to work on that,” Spoelstra said. “Defensively, we can be better.
“That’s not taking away from anything that the Clippers did. We struggled again in one-on-one situations, whether it was in the man or in zone, when they just kind of isolated in the zone. Repeated attacks off the dribble.”
Spoelstra said it’s understandable that the opposition’s best players will find a way to score.
“But the ones that they broke our defense down and got either a layup or right at the rim, those were just way too costly,” he said.
Some of those problems can be fixed by the Heat getting healthier. But while their injuries are not considered long-term
ones, there’s no clear timetable for the return of Butler, Highsmith, Martin or Richardson.
Highsmith returned to Miami on Monday as he goes through the NBA’s concussion protocol.
“Our strength is in our numbers,” Heat veteran Kevin Love said. “When we’re whole, we’re very tough to beat.”
But the Heat isn’t whole, and to avoid a third straight loss and a 1-3 start to the trip, Miami will need to find a way to overcome James’ greatness and its own injuries.
The Lakers (17-17) also have their own problems, with losses in eight of
their last 11 games after a 14-9 start to the season.
“We’ll do whatever we have to do. Everybody is ready,” Spoelstra said. “Nobody cares if we have guys out, and we’re not making any excuses for it.”
DRU SMITH SURGERY
The Heat announced Tuesday that guard Dru Smith “underwent successful right ACL reconstruction surgery” on Friday.
The two-hour procedure was performed by Dr. Harlan Selesnick at Doctors Hospital Ambulatory Surgical Center.
The Heat said Smith will miss the rest of the season but can begin rehabilitation immediately. The club didn’t provide a timetable for his return.
Smith sustained the injury during a Nov. 22 win at Cleveland.
Anthony Chiang: 305-376-4991, @Anthony_Chiang