A lack of national buzz? Heat players explain: ‘We’ve kind of just flown under the radar’
Tyler Herro was asked earlier this week whether he believes the Miami Heat has received enough national recognition this season.
“I have no clue. Whatever people say is cool,” Herro replied. “Whatever people want to say about us is cool. Whatever floats people’s boat. We just want to keep playing as a team. We love each other and we want to keep things rolling and continue to make each other better every game.”
The Heat has done a good job of keeping it rolling regardless of the attention it’s getting or not getting, as it has won 10 of the last 12 games and leads the Eastern Conference with a 42-22 record. Miami, which holds the NBA’s fourth-best record, is also one of only two teams with both a top-seven offensive rating and defensive rating this season along with the NBA-leading Phoenix Suns.
But the lack of outside buzz surrounding the Heat is especially noticeable at this specific point in the schedule because it just defeated arguably the East’s most talked-about team in the Brooklyn Nets, 113-107, on Thursday night at Barclays Center despite missing three starters in Jimmy Butler (left big toe irritation), Kyle Lowry (personal reasons) and P.J. Tucker (left knee pain).
And next up for the Heat is another game against one of the most-talked about teams in the conference, as the Heat hosts Joel Embiid, James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday at FTX Arena (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) to open a season-long seven-game homestand.
“I think we’ve kind of just flown under the radar,” Herro said. “I think people forget how well we started off the season. I feel like that’s when we were kind of getting a little bit of love, when we started off like 7-1 or whatever it was. Then guys got hurt, COVID and we really haven’t lost our attraction, but people are just not talking about us, which is cool. We’re going to continue to get better and build for the playoffs, and that’s when people will really talk about us.”
Thursday’s Heat win over the Nets was scheduled to be nationally televised on TNT, but it was dumped last week in favor of a game between the Boston Celtics and Memphis Grizzlies.
As of Thursday, the Heat’s only remaining national TV game was a March 30 matchup against the Celtics in Boston that’s on ESPN’s schedule. The Heat also has two games set to be on NBA TV, a March 26 matchup against the Nets in Miami and an April 3 matchup against the Raptors in Toronto.
On Friday, the NBA announced the Heat’s March 9 home game against the Suns was added to ESPN’s schedule.
“I think it’s probably a combination of things,” forward Duncan Robinson said when asked why he believes the Heat is trailing other teams when it comes to national attention despite sitting in first place in the East. “I think part of it is there’s not like any great storylines there. I think the media understandably is going to follow narratives and discuss narratives and build narratives.”
The Nets have seven national TV games left on their schedule and another three airing on NBA TV. The 76ers have three national TV games remaining and another coming up on NBA TV. The Los Angeles Lakers, which sit eight games below .500, have seven national TV games remaining and three on NBA TV.
Both the Nets and 76ers entered the season with plenty of storylines surrounding their team.
Brooklyn began the season with the superstar trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Harden, and Irving has made national headlines with his decision to not get vaccinated against COVID-19 that has prevented him from playing in home games. Philadelphia entered the season with the leading duo of Embiid and Ben Simmons, with Simmons’ offseason trade request generating national buzz.
The Nets and 76ers then teamed up to pull off the biggest trade of the season last month, with Harden moving to Philadelphia and Simmons dealt to Brooklyn.
“Obviously, it’s a superstar heavy league,” Robinson said. “Wherever you fall on it, obviously I disagree, but we have one All-Star. Jimmy is also a unique star in he doesn’t really care to be at the All-Star Game. He’s just kind of like chilling, which is unique in that sense. I think that’s probably part of it, as well. I think there’s a lot of variables.”
Meanwhile, the Heat’s only trade of the season involved dealing seldom-used forward KZ Okpala to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 2026 second-round pick to open a roster spot, add flexibility under the luxury tax and unlock additional first-round picks to deal.
“We haven’t had a lot of commotion, we haven’t had a lot of drama,” Robinson continued. “We’ve just kind of shown up, competed and tried to handle business. I think that’s part of it.”
The Heat has handled business regardless of who has been available. Miami has somehow managed to post a 17-8 record without Bam Adebayo, a 13-7 record without Butler, a 10-6 record without Lowry and a 6-2 record without Tucker this season.
“We’ve been doing that the whole season. This isn’t like it has been one or two games,” Adebayo said after defeating the Nets on Thursday without Butler, Lowry and Tucker. “I missed six weeks and they were still winning. I come back and we’re in the No. 1 seed. Jimmy goes out, we’re still winning. P.J. goes out, we’re still winning. Kyle is not here, we’re still winning. It just shows the level of commitment all of us have to this team and how we want this season to go.”
Heat captain Udonis Haslem doesn’t care about national recognition. The wins are enough to make him happy.
“Like Tyler said, whatever floats their boat,” Haslem said. “It don’t matter to me. I don’t care. There’s only one team that can get the ring. So it doesn’t matter.”
If anything, the perception of being overlooked just adds another chip on the Heat’s shoulder.
“The natural human thing is to like want to paint yourself as that underdog when nobody is talking about us,” Robinson said. “So I think we lean into it, as we should. I think any opportunity you can get to try to hard-wire some competitive juices is good.”
