Five takeaways from Heat-Kings: Fast pace proves to be ... too fast ... for Miami
Here are five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 123-113 loss to the Sacramento Kings (4-3) on Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
1. It looked like the Heat (3-3) wanted to play at the Kings’ up-tempo pace. But Miami just couldn’t keep up.
After finishing last season as the slowest team in the league, Sacramento has used a totally new style this season with the second-fastest pace in the NBA. This had the Heat playing faster than usual, as it used 110 offensive possessions against the Kings. Before Monday, Miami had averaged 102 possessions per 48 minutes over the first five games of the season.
“Their whole thing is just go, go, go,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said of the Kings. “That was like a conditioning test out there. So they’re using their strengths as a young team. That’s the league, man.”
Miami tried to play Sacramento’s game from the start, pushing the ball whenever it got the chance. But the Kings were able to effectively play at that fast pace for a longer stretch, as the Heat came apart in the third quarter. Sacramento outscored Miami 43-32 in the period to gain some separation after the teams were tied at halftime.
The faster pace seemed to throw off the Heat’s usually strong defense. The Kings scored 123 on 49.5 percent shooting, including 72 points on 58.7 percent shooting in the second half. And Sacramento finished with a 18-8 edge in fast-break points and a 68-38 edge in paint points.
“They just kept on coming,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Kings. “The speed and the pace, the quickness just wore us down in the second half. We’re capable of much more and we like to play with pace, but it has to be on our terms and that was fully on their terms. Once they were able to really work that speed advantage, then threes started to open up and they had a comfortable double-digit lead for most of the second half.”
Willie Cauley-Stein led the Kings with a team-high 26 points and 13 rebounds. Buddy Hield contributed 23 points.
For Miami, Josh Richardson scored a career-high 31 on 10-of-21 shooting. Considering the efficiency that Richardson reached this point total with, it was his best offensive performance of the young season.
“It’s great,” Spoelstra said of Richardson. “We want him to be that kind of aggressive player. You can see his confidence is growing. It’s just a shame that that kind of performance was wasted tonight.”
2. Turnovers proved problematic for the Heat. The up-tempo game turned sloppy, with Miami committing a season-high 19 turnovers. Sacramento scored 27 off those mistakes. Meanwhile, the Heat finished with just nine points on the Kings’ 14 turnovers.
This isn’t the only game Miami has ran into turnover issues, though. The Heat is averaging the sixth-most turnovers in the NBA, with 16.2 per game.
“We have to be able to take care of the basketball better, actually better than we have been to start the season and it’s not a matter of our pace that’s creating these turnovers,” Spoelstra said. “It’s decision making and keeping it simple.”
3. This is the Hassan Whiteside the Heat wants to see. Miami’s starting center has been dominant to start the season, and his forceful play continued against Sacramento. Whiteside finished with 16 points, 24 rebounds and five blocks.
Whiteside was just one rebound away from tying his career-high of 25 for a game. Detroit center Andre Drummond and Whiteside are the only players to record at least 24 rebounds and five blocks in a game since the start of the 2014-15 season.
Whiteside is a big reason, literally and figuratively, why the Heat is one of the league’s top rebounding teams. Miami is averaging the second-most rebounds in the NBA with 52.7 per game, behind only the Milwaukee Bucks. The Heat has now out-rebounded each of its six opponents this season.
This version of Whiteside wasn’t around much last season. After dominating in the opener with 26 points and 22 rebounds last year, injuries derailed his season as he went on to miss 28 regular-season games due to multiple issues — 18 games because of two separate bone bruises on his left knee, nine games with a hip injury and one game because of a stomach illness. Whiteside never really returned to form, as he averaged just 5.2 points and six rebounds in 15.4 minutes during the Heat’s five-game first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
But with the way Whiteside is impacting the game on both ends of the court to start this season, last year seems like it was a long, long time ago.
4. Wayne Ellington is still waiting to make his season debut. Ellington has been available for two games after missing the first four games of the season with a sore left ankle. But he’s yet to make his season debut, as Spoelstra has gone with a nine-man rotation in each of the past two games. Derrick Jones Jr., Udonis Haslem and Ellington have been the ones left out, with James Johnson and Dion Waiters still unavailable due to injury.
“Anything could have been on the table,” Spoelstra said when asked if he thought of inserting Ellington into Monday’s game. “Wayne is fully on my mind. Derrick Jones, for sure. Derrick’s speed, quickness and youth probably made a lot of sense in the second half against this team.”
When asked why Ellington did not play in Saturday’s win over the Blazers, Spoelstra said there just wasn’t enough minutes to go around. That’s the challenge that comes with coaching a deep team.
5. Although it wasn’t a complete failure, the Heat’s homestand was not a success. It didn’t start well, with the Heat losing to the Hornets on Oct. 20 to open the four-game stretch. And it didn’t end well, with Monday’s loss to the Kings. In the end, Miami finished the homestand with a 2-2 record.
The Heat now hits the road for a three-game trip that begins Tuesday against the Charlotte Hornets. Miami also faces the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons on the trip before returning home next week.
This story was originally published October 29, 2018 at 10:00 PM.