Heat players take bonding trip to Bahamas. Haslem addresses Butler incident. Tucker update
NBA teams who don’t make the playoffs get to go on vacation this week.
Some Heat players had a chance to experience the best of both worlds this week: a playoff appearance and a mini-vacation.
According to a source, a “bunch of players” on the Heat - more than half the team - decided to take a bonding trip to the Bahamas this week. The organization (meaning ownership and management) did not arrange the trip and did not pay for it.
Tyler Herro mentioned that he was on the trip, and Jimmy Butler posted a photo of himself in a gym in the Bahamas earlier this week.
And on Wednesday, it was back to work at FTX Arena in preparation for their first-round series, against an undetermined opponent.
Miami opens postseason at 1 p.m. on Sunday against the winner of Friday’s game between Cleveland and the winner of Wednesday night’s Charlotte-Atlanta game.
“We got away for a couple days as a team,” Herro said after Wednesday’s practice. “Being able to get away for a couple days and clear our minds [is good]. This run we’re about to go on, I think it’s going to be big for us. When we look back after the season, the trip we took together to the Bahamas” this week will be meaningful.
Asked about the importance of bonding off the court before the playoffs, Udonis Haslem told The Miami Herald on Wednesday: “That connection is huge, man. That connection is strong, that connection is key. We don’t believe that you build a connection just coming together when it’s time for practice.
“You have to build that connection beyond. So the fact that we were all allowed to spend time with each other off the basketball court and focus on other things and still enjoy each other’s company, still make each other laugh and still have genuinely good times with one another outside from the game of basketball, I think that only strengthens connection when you come on the court together, when you come to practice together, when you come in the gym together.”
Haslem, in comments to a full group of reporters, made clear that no resentment lingers from his heated sideline confrontation with Butler during a March 24 loss against Golden State.
“Typical day in Miami,” he said on Wednesday. “That’s how we get stuff done around here. We believe in eye to eye communication. Jimmy’s my brother. I love Jimmy.”
Earlier this week, Haslem said on Cari Champion’s podcast: “I could have been a little more cool-headed. Jimmy could have been a little more cool-headed. But I don’t think neither one of us regret that situation. Because you look at the type of basketball we’re playing now. A couple of days later, we were back drinking wine together.
Me and Jimmy got to the point we wanted to knuckle up. But that’s brothers. Once again, that’s an everyday thing with the Miami Heat. Me and D-Wade [Dwyane Wade] used to cuss and fuss and just leave it there. And Jimmy took it a step further, but it doesn’t change the relationship. It doesn’t change how I feel about Jimmy. It doesn’t change the goal of winning a championship.
“Like I said, we believe in eye-to-eye communication down here. If I have something to say to a man, you say it to that man, and you get past it. Because holding on to it, mumbling with your head down, it don’t get nowhere. So that was a minute and 30 seconds that we had to say what we had to say, and get on to a solution.”
Meanwhile, Haslem shrugged off the Heat being disregarded by some national pundits and oddmakers, noting “we ain’t got nobody out here scoring 85 points in one game but we’re winning basketball games as a team.”
TUCKER UPDATE
Heat forward PJ Tucker, sidelined since sustaining a strained calf last week against Atlanta, told Erik Spoelstra he intends to be ready for Sunday’s Game 1.
“It’s encouraging,” Spoelstra said. “He’s been doing round the clock treatment. From the night he got hurt to what he just told me today walking off the court, his message has been the same. He’ll be ready and don’t think otherwise with a few other expletives.”
Tucker wasn’t a full practice participant on Tuesday but shot on the side.
Bam Adebayo remains in COVID-19 protocol, with the hope that he will be ready for Game 1. Spoelstra, per team policy, offered no updates on Adebayo, but Haslem kidded that Adebayo is “on my damn nerves” calling him.
SCHEDULE SET
After Sunday’s Game 1, Game 2 will be on Tuesday at FTX Arena, with the time to be determined. The Heat will travel to Game 3 on Friday night, April 22 (time TBA) and remain on the road for Game 4 on Sunday, April 24 at 7 p.m.
The series would return to Miami for a Game 5 if needed on Tuesday, April 26; return if needed to the road city for a Game 6 on Thursday, April 28; and return to Miami for Game 7 if needed on Saturday, April 30.
“We’ve had six months to prepare,” Spoelstra said.
▪ At least three healthy Heat veterans - Victor Oladipo, Caleb Martin and Markeiff Morris - don’t know if they’ll play in Game 1. None were part of the rotation in the last game that the roster was fully healthy, but Martin started on Friday when Tucker was sidelined.
Martin said the uncertainty is not difficult to deal with: “The common goal is to win. Whatever the plan is, I’m following it. I’ll be ready for whatever my role is.”
Asked if he has given considerable thought to his rotation over the past two days, Spoelstra said: “Yeah” but “we’re past all of that now…. It’s not about the rotation or minutes. It’s about contributing to help us reach our ultimate goal.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 3:04 PM.
