After long stretch on road, Erik Spoelstra says Heat ‘a different team coming back to Miami’
On the road for 17 of 19 nights, this segment of the schedule was supposed to be a rough one for the Miami Heat. Instead, it was a rough one for the Heat’s opponents.
During a 10-game stretch that included nine on the road, the Heat went 7-3 to turn a disappointing 3-4 record at the start of it into a quality 10-7 record at the end of it. The Heat went 4-0 on its first four-game trip during this span, won its one home game that was sandwiched in the middle of two long trips, and then closed it out with a 2-3 five-game trip.
“Overall, we did what we set out to do, which is get to a higher level as a basketball team,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We wanted to push ourselves to a different level than where we were and these two road trips pushed us to a better level.”
The Heat was left feeling accomplished even after dropping the last two games in a span of 24 hours on Friday night 100-98 against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden and on Saturday night 112-97 against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. Miami began this 10-game stretch with a 7-1 record before these two losses.
“It’s actually what I just addressed to the team right after the game that these last 24 hours or 22 hours was pretty humbling,” Spoelstra said minutes after the Heat’s double-digit loss to the Nets on Saturday. “Being in control of the game in New York and having the opportunity to really do something good on the road trip and then taking this lopsided L tonight, that’s humbling. However, when you look at it when we were going out for 10 games, nine of them on the road, we finished 6-3 on the road and won that home game.”
It’s worth noting that while there was plenty of travel and time spent away from home, the opponents weren’t the the most challenging. Miami beat one team during this 10-game run that entered Sunday with a winning record and that was the 8-7 Atlanta Hawks.
The Heat now returns to Miami for what’s guaranteed to be least a three-game homestand and could end up as a four-game homestand depending on the NBA’s scheduling once the quarterfinalists are determined for the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. The Heat opens the homestand with a game it must win on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks for a chance to stay alive in the In-Season Tournament.
Spoelstra said Saturday the Heat is “a different team coming back to Miami” and the numbers back up his statement.
The Heat entered this 10-game stretch with the NBA’s 26th-ranked offensive rating (scoring 107.4 points per 100 possessions), 14th-ranked defensive rating (allowing 110.5 points per 100 possessions) and 19th-ranked net rating (outscored by opponents by 3.1 points per 100 possessions) through the first seven games of the season.
At the end of this 10-game stretch, the Heat holds the NBA’s 18th-ranked offensive rating (scoring 112.1 points per 100 possessions), eighth-ranked defensive rating (allowing 110 points per 100 possessions) and 14th-ranked net rating (outscoring opponents by 2.1 per 100 possessions) through the first 17 games of the season.
“Certainly, we made some strides,” Spoelstra said. “We got more comfortable, we got a lot closer to a consistent identity on both ends of the court. We made big, big improvements defensively, big improvements with our offensive game. We’ll just continue to work on it.”
The Heat just hopes injury issues don’t follow the team back to Miami after playing without seven players in Saturday’s loss to the Nets.
The Heat was without its top four scorers against the Nets, as Bam Adebayo (left hip contusion), Jimmy Butler (right ankle sprain), Tyler Herro (right ankle sprain) and Duncan Robinson (right thumb sprain) missed the game. In addition, the Heat was without R.J. Hampton (right knee sprain), Orlando Robinson (G League assignment) and Dru Smith (season-ending ACL injury) on Saturday.
Heat starting forward Haywood Highsmith also left Saturday’s loss early in the fourth quarter after taking a hard fall. The team labeled Highsmith’s injury as a “lower back/SI joint contusion.”
And Heat backup center Kevin Love came away from Saturday’s loss in pain after a knee-to-knee collision with Nets wing Mikal Bridges. Love was able to remain in the game, though.
“Jimmy’s ankle, he wasn’t ready to play,” Spoelstra said on Saturday night. “He tried to get some treatment to see if it would loosen up. It didn’t. We’ll see how he feels and recovers when we get back to Miami. K-Love did bang knees, but he seems to be fine now. We’ll see, as well. And Haywood landed on his tailbone. He says he’ll be alright. But all of that stuff, you just take with a grain of salt until we get back to Miami and get off the plane and see them on Monday.”
The Heat will see them on Monday for the team’s first practice at Kaseya Center in three weeks since Nov. 5.
“We got to go home and our thought process has to change,” Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “We have to think about defending home court. We’re there for a while and we have to defend home.”
Through the Heat’s first 17 games of the season, 12 came on the road. That’s the most road games for any team in the NBA through Saturday.
The Heat found a way to survive that schedule despite a slow start to the season that included a 1-4 record in the first five games. The Heat now hopes to take the momentum it built on the road back to Miami, where it will spend most of December.
Not including the week that has been left unscheduled because of the uncertainty surrounding which teams will advance to the knockout rounds of the In-Season Tournament, seven of the Heat’s 11 scheduled games in December will be played at Kaseya Center.
“I wish the season started out different than 1-4,” Love said. “But we certainly bounced back in a way that was conducive to who we are. Guys are getting back, finding their roles within the team, different guys stepping up when others are out. But I think being who we are, we’re going to continue to fight.”
