Among things that have changed for Heat’s Norman Powell since All-Star break? The officiating
Some things have changed for Miami Heat guard Norman Powell since the NBA All-Star break.
Powell made the first NBA All-Star Game of his career by averaging a team-high 23 points per game while shooting 47.4% from the field and 39.6% shooting on threes prior to the mid-February break this season. He also only missed 11 of the Heat’s 56 games before the break.
But Powell has been limited by various ailments since the break, as Wednesday night’s matchup against the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center marked the third straight game he has missed due to an upper respiratory illness. He has now missed 11 of the Heat’s first 21 after the break due to various issues (seven because of a right groin strain, one because of left calf tightness and three because of an upper respiratory illness).
Powell’s production has also dipped since the break, averaging 18.1 points per game on 46.6% shooting from the field and 32.3% shooting from three-point range in 10 appearances since the All-Star Game.
Among the things that have been different for Powell recently that has led to this dip in production is he’s getting fewer continuation foul calls on his jumpers — an area that he was among the best in the league in before the All-Star break.
“That I’m not in a shooting motion when I am getting fouled,” Powell said of what officials have told him recently when waving off the shooting foul and instead calling it a foul before the shot. “That I’ve got to have two hands on the ball. I mean, they’ve got all these excuses like, ‘Oh, it’s a fraction of a second of a close call to it being a shooting foul or a side out of bounds.’ That’s just some of the stuff. Or they don’t see it anymore. They don’t see it. ‘Oh, I can’t see it.’ Whatever. Those are just some of the reasons and excuses I’ve got when I’ve gone and talked to the refs about my continuation calls and asking them what’s the difference.”
Powell still ranks second in the NBA with 29 shooting fouls drawn on three-point shots this season, as only Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden is ahead of him with 55 such fouls drawn.
But the issue for Powell is he has only been able to draw three shooting fouls on three-point attempts since the break. That means 26 of his 29 such foul calls came before the break.
“I really don’t get it,” Powell, 32, continued. “Even when I talk to them, I tell them, like, ‘I watch so many games, like so many games.’ That’s what I do. I play video games and I watch basketball and I see guys getting the same exact calls that I get, but they’re going to the free-throw line.”
So what does Powell think has changed?
“I don’t know,” Powell said. “Maybe it’s the way I get my fouls. I know the guys on opposing teams complain a lot about me getting my foul calls, but there’s no difference from when other players and guys are doing it across the league that are getting the fouls. So I don’t know. One minute, I don’t have two hands on the ball. The next minute, I watch somebody else and they don’t have two hands on the ball, but they’re going to the free-throw line.”
While it hasn’t worked to draw many shooting fouls in recent weeks, Powell has become one of the best in the NBA at taking advantage of reaching defenders to draw continuation foul calls on outside jumpers. It’s something he has incorporated into his game over the years to “get the defense to loosen up and that way I can get some more freedom of movement.”
“It’s really a read that I have in the game and how physical and how pesky defenders try to play me to body me, be physical, use their hands. So I use that against them,” Powell said. “So that way they’re playing more off or less handsy so now I can attack and do things in free space. I don’t really adjust in terms of, oh, they’re not giving me the foul, let me try a new way to get the foul. It’s more so I use the fouls to loosen up the defense rather than I’m trying to get a foul every single time and go to the line. I just use what they’re doing against them.”
Powell, who will be an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason unless the Heat signs him to an extension ahead of free agency, learned this aspect of his offensive skill set from former teammates like DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and James Harden. But officials have seemingly adjusted to Powell in recent weeks.
“I watched DeMar do the rake through and he would always get the fouls,” Powell said. “Then with my shooting fouls, I started learning from Kyle because he would come off pick and rolls and guys would have their hands out trying to get over the roll and he would shoot through the hands. Then just over time, I just started developing different ways to get the foul. I got really good at doing it on the move, on the dribble. Then being with James and asking James how he does it. I just picked it up from different guys that I’ve been around and talked to, and then just mastered it in the summer.”
Injury report
Along with missing Powell, the Heat remains without guard Terry Rozier (not with team) for Wednesday’s matchup against the Celtics.
The rest of the Heat’s roster is expected to be available on Wednesday.
The only Celtics rotation player unavailable for Wednesday’s contest in Miami is center Nikola Vucevic because of a finger injury.
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 11:15 AM.
