Heat continues important week looking to change direction of season: ‘It’s a big trip for us’
The Miami Heat knows this week is important. Coaches and players aren’t afraid to admit it.
No, not because most of last offseason’s signings around the NBA become eligible to be traded Thursday. But because the Heat is looking to get its current roster back on track after a disappointing start to the season.
The Heat opened its critical week with a much-needed 87-82 low-scoring win against the Indiana Pacers on Monday night to kick off a four-game trip and move past last week’s rough 1-2 homestand. Miami still entered Tuesday in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s an important week for us. We’re aware of that,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the Heat continuing its crucial trip Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “We have an opportunity to do something significant on the road. Each one of our road trips have gotten better and we’re looking to take that next step.”
The Heat began the trip with a 12-15 record and improved to 13-15 with Monday’s win over the Pacers. A 4-0 trip would bring Miami above .500 for the first time this season.
Throw in the fact that the final three games of the Heat’s current trip — vs. Thunder (11-16) on Wednesday, vs. Houston Rockets (8-18) on Thursday and vs. San Antonio Spurs (9-18) on Saturday — are against sub-.500 teams, and this trip is one Miami simply can’t afford to waste.
“They’re winnable games for us,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “We know what we’re capable of, and I think just going out there and putting a consistent effort of great basketball, whether shots are going in or not. Just continuing to play the right way and try to impact winning as much as each player can. It’s a big trip for us.”
Heat captain Udonis Haslem attributed some of the teams’ early season struggles on connectivity issues on both ends of the court. The Heat entered Tuesday with the NBA’s 27th-ranked offensive rating, eighth-ranked defensive rating and 22nd-ranked net rating this season.
“I think last year, our super power was how connected we were,” Haslem said. “In games where teams might have had a little bit more of a talent advantage or whatever the situation was, our connection was what was able to get us through. Playing for one another, sacrificing for one another. So getting back to that pure authentic connection, where you make the plays for each other without even thinking about it and it’s just happening. That’s something that you got to build. You got to build a connection.”
Is Haslem surprised the Heat is still working on those issues two months into the season after bringing back 13 players from last season’s roster that finished just one run short of reaching the NBA Finals?
“No, because every year is different,” Haslem made clear. “I think we might have assumed a little bit. But every year is different. You don’t know what you’re going to have to deal with. Every team goes through something. Every team goes through something at a certain point in time during the year. We don’t know when it’s going to be or what it’s going to be. This is our challenge.
“Even as much as we are the same team, things have changed. Things are different now. You got Herro stepping into a starting role, you got Bam [Adebayo] emerging as a superstar, so things have changed. How Caleb [Martin] is stepping into a starting role. So these things are changing along with building and growing our connection. Through frustration and through pain, you see the results of teams turning it around and getting better.”
Even in Monday’s win against the Pacers to begin this crucial week, the Heat was far from perfect and continued to struggle on the offensive end. Miami totaled just 87 points on 38.6 percent shooting from the field and 9 of 34 (26.5 percent) shooting from three-point range in the win for its third-worst single-game offensive rating of the season (93.5 points scored per 100 possessions).
It marked the first time the Heat has won a game while posting an offensive rating under 100 points scored per 100 possessions since the start of last season. Miami is 1-15 in such regular-season games during that span.
The Heat did it with an excellent defensive performance, limiting the Pacers to a season-low 82 points on a season-worst 35.4 percent shooting from the field. Miami posted its season-best single-game defensive rating of just 87.2 points allowed per 100 possessions on Monday.
“I don’t think that we’re not connected,” Martin said. “I think that we just had a couple deflecting losses and performances, and I think we hold ourselves to a higher standard and sometimes those kind of games catch up to you. But I think we can be more connected and do a better job making sure that we’re all on the same page.
“Like [in Monday’s win over the Pacers], sometimes it’s going to look like that. But you can tell that no matter what or how the game was going, we came in and we all had the same goal and we were connected. That’s just the type of team we are. We’re just going to have to grind games out. As we keep grinding them out, it will get easier for us. But if we want to catch a winning stride, these are what most of the games will look like right now.”
Haslem believes the Heat can still turn things around and save its season just like other teams have done.
“Look at the pain Boston went through over the last couple years. Look at a team like Sacramento, who hasn’t had much success that are winning now,” Haslem said. “So through that pain, you got two choices. You either live in it or you use it and you use it to focus and you use it to get whatever you need to get out of it and turn it around.”
The Heat knows its struggles need to end now during this important week in its sixth-month regular season schedule before it gets too late.
“I think that we just kind of wanted to start [Monday] as drawing a line in the sand,” Martin said. “At some point, you got to stand your ground. I feel like we’re typically the bullies and I feel like the last couple of weeks, we’ve been the ones getting bullied. So this is the first night to be able to take a stand in order to get things back on track and get things moving in the right direction. Hopefully we can build on this.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2022 at 11:26 AM.
