Struggling Heat searching for answers at 11-14: ‘We do have to collectively own this’
After bringing back 13 players from last season’s roster that finished just one win short of reaching the NBA Finals, the hope was that the Miami Heat would pick up where it left off. Instead, the struggling Heat is busy searching for answers 25 games into this season.
The Heat followed up one of its worst losses of the season — a 101-93 loss to a very short-handed Grizzlies team in Memphis on Monday — with arguably its worst defeat of the season in a 116-96 blowout loss to the 7-19 Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night at FTX Arena. Miami entered Wednesday in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings, reaching the 25-game mark with an 11-14 record ahead of another home game on Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and NBA TV).
What makes the last two games especially frustrating for the Heat is it came on the heels of probably its best win of the season — a 120-116 overtime road victory against the Boston Celtics on Friday.
“Just five days ago, we think that everything is trending in the right direction and then we have two games that are not to our standard,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So we’ll just have to regroup.
“We’ll have a day off [Wednesday] and get back to work on Thursday and get ready for a big game Thursday night against the Clippers, and really work collectively to play better than we did [Tuesday]. That will be all of us — the entire locker room and the coaching staff. All of us will work to find some solutions for Thursday. None of us feel great about this and that’s sometimes this league. You have to manage things that don’t necessarily go your way and collectively come together and figure it out.”
The Heat has plenty to figure out, as it entered Wednesday ranked 26th in the NBA in offensive rating and 12th in defensive rating this season. Miami closed last regular season with the league’s 12th-best offensive rating and fourth-best defensive rating.
But Heat players and coaches have been quick to point out for weeks that judging this season’s team based on last season’s success is a bit unfair. And that message continued to be relayed in the locker room following Tuesday’s loss to the Pistons.
“Every year is different. You can’t compare last year to this year,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “Even though we did bring a lot of the same guys back, every year is different. Every year brings new challenges. It’s still early.”
The schedule moves fast and the Heat will be halfway through its regular-season schedule in a month. Miami needs to start making up ground in the standings now, with seven of its next 10 games coming against teams that entered Wednesday with a sub-.500 record.
After its disappointing back-to-back set that began in Memphis on Monday and ended in Miami on Tuesday, the Heat did not practice Wednesday to give players an opportunity to rest. But Heat coaches spent the day working to find answers to the team’s problems.
“None of us are happy about this,” Spoelstra said. “You walk in the locker room, nobody feels good about the last 48 hours. And again, as a reminder, just five days ago, we were coming off of a very good road win. But we do have to collectively own this and that’s all of us. Everybody in the locker room and the coaching staff and myself, we have to do a better job. That’s what I’m going to focus on [Wednesday]. It’s a good work day for the coaching staff. It’s a good re-calibration and hopefully guys can clear their minds and we’ll get back to work on Thursday.”
Injury issues haven’t helped Miami this season. Heat players have already combined to miss the third-most games in the NBA this season because of injury at 92 games, behind only the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies, according to Spotrac.
The Heat’s best player, Jimmy Butler, has missed 10 of the first 25 games because of injuries and sat out Tuesday’s loss to the Pistons as a precaution on the second night of a back-to-back.
This has led to the Heat already using eight different starting lineups this season as the rotation has been forced to change from game to game based on who’s available and who’s not.
“When you have all the different lineups, it’s hard for a lot of guys to catch rhythm,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “Going from starting, then you go to the bench, then you go from starting and then you go to the bench and I feel like that’s hard for a lot of guys throughout the whole association.
“It’s not an easy role to be in when you don’t know if you might play 30 minutes or you might play five. But for the guys in and out of the rotation, they’re doing the best they can. I can’t be mad at them, they’re playing hard. We’re just coming up short right now.”
The Heat could make a change to its roster to shake things up in hopes of pushing things in the right direction, but its options are limited.
The Heat is only about $200,000 away the luxury tax threshold that it has been reluctant to cross this season unless it’s for a significant upgrade. Even with one open spot on its 15-man roster, Miami would enter the tax if it signed a free agent any time soon for an extended period of time.
Then there are trade restrictions in place for a few of the Heat’s players that must be considered.
Herro is essentially untradeable until the 2023 offseason after signing his extension with the Heat because of the “Poison Pill Provision” that he’s subject to through June 30.
Udonis Haslem and Caleb Martin can’t be included in a trade until Dec. 15, and Haslem can’t be dealt without his consent this season.
Dewayne Dedmon and Victor Oladipo aren’t eligible to be traded until Jan. 15, and Oladipo also can’t be traded without his consent this season.
Just like things changed for the worse following Friday’s big win in Boston, the Heat’s hope is that things change for the better just as quickly after two of its ugliest losses of the season.
“I think everybody on that road trip, we felt something good,” Herro said. “We felt like we were headed in the right direction and we can’t forget that feeling. But we got to be able to be consistent and duplicate that from game to game, whether we’re at home or on the road.”
