President Pat Riley still sees lofty ceiling for Miami Heat despite February struggles
The 2019-2020 season has reached an unprecedented point for the Miami Heat. The Heat, once owners of a 24-8 record, fell to the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday in Atlanta and has now lost 5 of 6, all on the road. Miami is just .500 since the start of the new year.
The Heat is not the same team it was in the first few months of the year, when Miami reveled in the idea of shocking the NBA with a roster mostly full of undrafted free agents and still-unproven young stars. Jimmy Butler insists this won’t spiral deep into the second half of the season, though.
“Nah, we’ll figure it out. We’ve got nothing but time,” the All-Star wing said after the Heat’s 129-124 loss in Atlanta. “It’s just coming to an end very soon, but I’m confident in my group, confident in our group. We know what we’re capable of, as I said all the time. It’s a bump in the road. We’ll figure it out.”
Miami (35-20) saddled most of the blame Thursday upon its defense and its ongoing road issues. The Heat dropped to 13-17 away from home and will have an opportunity to get back on track Saturday when it returns to AmericanAirlines Arena to face the Cleveland Cavaliers at 8 p.m.
Still, two of Miami’s three home losses this season have come in the past month. The Heat has now been outscored by five points in February, albeit with just one home game so far. It was fair to ask Erik Spoelstra whether he thought his team could maintain its edge all season long, especially with some non-playoff teams, including the Cavaliers (14-40) this weekend, on the horizon.
The coach downplayed any concern ahead of the loss at State Farm Arena, although he did point out some larger concerns.
“The edge is something that’s built in with these guy,” Spoelstra said. “At some point it has to become more than that. That’s the last thing on my mind is whether we’re losing our edge. It’s more about developing a game that’s consistent and becoming reliable to that. That’s our next step.”
Pat Riley said Thursday he feels there’s still doubt surrounding his team. The president said most prognosticators still dont view Miami as a real contender and the belief in the team’s ceiling is different internally.
If doubters gave the Heat an edge early in the season, the case should still be the same now. If Miami wants to continue to be celebrated like it was throughout NBA All-Star Weekend, it has to continue winning.
“We want to make the playoffs, want to have homecourt advantage and the one thing that they have to realize that all of those things are good, but what really counts is the winning, so we don’t want any letdowns,” Riley said Thursday on WAXY, the Heat’s flagship AM radio station. “We don’t want anybody to think that they’re bigger than the team and if you listen to all the prognosticators out there — everybody who’s predicting who’s going to win, where are you going to place, what position are you going to be in in either conference — the truth is that nobody believes. I haven’t heard from anybody out there. Nobody believes that we can win a championship — the media, and I don’t think many of them even believe that we’re going to finish high. They give us a chance, they give us a shot, but there’s something out there about them that don’t have a real belief in us. And I think our players have more of a belief in what we can do than they do, so it’s not to use that as motivation, but that’s a reality.
“That perception out there that we’re not the team this year is something that is not a reality, but it’s the perception, and it’s up to us to prove people different by having great games going down the stretch and also when we get to the playoffs.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 11:04 AM.
