It took two months to get above .500. Can Heat build on 4-0 trip? ‘We don’t want to turn back’
.JPG "Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro, right, slap hands with Orlando Robinson during the second half of an NBA basketball game against San Antonio Spurs, at the Mexico Arena in Mexico City, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022.")
As the Miami Heat began the week and a four-game trip last Monday with a 12-15 record, coach Erik Spoelstra knew the days ahead were critical.
“It’s an important week for us. We’re aware of that,” Spoelstra said Monday morning at the start of the week just hours before the Heat opened the trip in Indianapolis.
The Heat went on to defeat the Indiana Pacers in the lowest-scoring game of this NBA season that night.
Then Tyler Herro tied his regular-season career-high with 35 points and hit a game-winning jumper in the final seconds to lift the Heat to a victory over the Thunder in Oklahoma City a few days later on Wednesday.
Herro followed that up with another one of the best performances of his NBA career to set new career-highs with 41 points and 10 made threes to lead the Heat to a win over the Rockets in Houston 24 hours later on Thursday to complete the road back-to-back.
The Heat carried that momentum into Mexico City to close the trip with a 111-101 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday behind 69 combined points from Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Herro.
The Heat’s play during the trip was far from perfect as it battled injury issues throughout against mediocre to subpar competition, but the bottom line is its 4-0 record during the “important” trip was perfect. And just like that, the Heat (16-15) returns to Miami above .500 for the first time this season at the 31-game mark.
“We’re trying to get our footing on this season,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat in the middle of a two-day break before opening a four-game homestand on Tuesday against the Chicago Bulls. “We’re finally above .500 and we don’t want to turn back the rest of the way and hopefully we can just keep building on this.
“This road trip was unique. We were all over the place. The Midwest, Texas and then end up [in Mexico City]. So I know the guys are fatigued, there have been different zones. Not as an excuse. We love what we do, we love this opportunity. But we did have to show some collective grit on this road trip and gut out some wins and dealing with a lot of adversity and dealing with some injuries and things of that nature. But it’s good to see us show some fortitude collectively.”
The positives on the trip were clear.
The Heat’s defense continues to trend in the right direction, as it entered Sunday with the NBA’s seventh-best defensive rating for the season. Herro put together one of the best weeks of his NBA career. Victor Oladipo contributed positive minutes, especially on the defensive end. And Adebayo and Butler continue to play like All-Stars.
The negatives on the trip were also clear.
The Heat’s offense continues to struggle, as it entered Sunday with the NBA’s fifth-worst offensive rating for the season. And Miami’s bench is not a strength like it was last season, as the reserves have combined to post a plus/minus of minus-48 this season compared to a plus-97 last season.
“Nothing is guaranteed in this league. It’s tough,” Spoelstra said. “There’s a lot of parity in the league. We know what our road map is for success. It’s about doing it consistently. Night in, night out, we have to be able to defend, we have to do tough things, we have to do things that most teams don’t want to do. Then offensively, hopefully we’re starting to develop a little bit of a rhythm.”
The good news for the Heat is it returns home with a four-game winning streak to a schedule that includes more time than usual to rest and recover over the next week. Miami not only has two days off before opening a four-game homestand on Tuesday, but it plays just two games over the next eight days.
The Heat’s four-game homestand includes matchups against the Bulls on Tuesday, Indiana Pacers on Friday, Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 26 and Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 28.
With so few games during this span, the Heat has the rare in-season opportunity to get in multiple practices over the next week while also using the time for some much-needed time away from the court. But the Heat has opted for rest over practice during the first part of this stretch, taking both Sunday and Monday completely off with no practices scheduled during this current two-day break.
That time off should help the injury-plagued Heat, which was missing six players in Saturday’s win over the Spurs to close the 4-0 trip: Jamal Cain (G League), Udonis Haslem (right Achilles tendinosis), Kyle Lowry (left knee soreness), Caleb Martin (left ankle sprain), Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery). Then Dewayne Dedmon missed the second half of Saturday’s game after spraining his ankle in the second quarter.
“We just want to make sure that we’re moving forward,” Spoelstra said. “This has to be forward progress from here on out. This has been a grind to get to this point. That’s why you can never take anything for granted in this league. We’re coming off a successful season and it takes us two months to be able to get over .500. That can be humbling, but it shows you how good this league is.
“We’re going to pack up and get to Miami, rest up, hopefully get some healthy bodies and hopefully continue to build on this.”
What a difference one week makes.
The Heat left Miami three games under .500 searching for answers. The Heat returned to Miami a week later one game above .500 looking to build on the best week of its season.
“We get to go home and our food is going to taste better, we get to sleep better,” Adebayo said. “And everybody goes home feeling better about themselves.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2022 at 9:14 AM.
