Heat is facing rocky road again
DENVER (AP) — Udonis Haslem has been through almost everything in his 20 seasons with the Miami Heat. On that list: Game 1 losses in the NBA Finals.
He’s seen lots of those — six of them, actually, in seven tries during his Heat career. Being down 1-0 in the finals against the Denver Nuggets is not optimal, but Haslem knows it doesn’t doom Miami’s chances, either. All three of his championship rings came in series where the Heat lost a finals opener.
And that will be the message for three days, all the way until tip-off of Game 2 on Sunday night.
“It can be done,” Haslem said.
He’s right. And by now, the Heat have just come to expect that nothing they want will come easily.
Virtually the entire season has been topsy-turvy for the Heat, and evidently, the jagged path is the one they’re going to take all the way to the end.
A 104-93 loss in Game 1 on Thursday night came when Miami shot poorly, struggled big-time from 3-point range until a late flurry and shot only two free throws — the fewest, the NBA said, by any team in any of the 4,359 games in league postseason history.
“That’s how we’ve been all year,” said Heat guard Max Strus, who went 0 for 10 from the field — 0 for 9 from 3-point range — in Game 1. “We’re battle-tested. We’ve been through a lot of down moments this year. So, we know how to deal with it and we’ll be ready.”
The list of adverse moments the Heat have endured this season is lengthy, to say the least.
They didn’t get over the .500 mark for the first time until about a week before Christmas. They sputtered for much of the year, never able to put a long string of wins together. There have been 45 different winning streaks of at least five games in the NBA this season, by 21 different teams — and the Heat wasn’t one of them. They lost a play-in game to Atlanta, trailed in the elimination play-in game late against Chicago, nearly blew a 3-0 lead against Boston in the East final … and keep finding ways to make it right.
“That’s just how our path has been,” said Caleb Martin, who was 1 for 7 in Game 1. “That’s everybody’s comfort zone. We’re never worried in situations like this. People might be saying it’s going to be tough or whatever the case may be, but we don’t think like that. We’re going to be ready.”