Heat crowd must help lift Miami now after Game 2 debacle and 2-0 series hole to Bucks | Opinion
The Miami Heat is the team that has lifted South Florida so much, so often, so high, over the past 20 years.
While the region and its fans have waited (and waited) for the Dolphins, Hurricanes, Panthers and Marlins to be good again, let alone great, the Heat have been there. Delivering. Winning.
With Dwyane Wade, with Zo and Shaq, with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and the Big 3 era. With three championship parades down Biscayne Boulevard. With the godfather Pat Riley and his heir Erik Spoelstra bringing a culture of class and fight and near-relentless winning. Now, with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
It’s time for Miami to say thank you. For the fans to lift the team that has lifted them .
The Heat need that now.
Butler and Adebayo need it, too, because the two stars who led Miami all the way to the NBA Finals last year have all but disappeared thus far in this series.
Miami (team and city) took a hit Monday night that felt a lot like humiliation, losing at Milwaukee by a preposterous 132-98 score in Game 2 of their NBA first-round playoff series.
It didn’t seem that close. One team was on a mission. The other was on its heels.
On the hockey side of town, the Florida Panthers took care of business at home Monday night, beating Tampa Bay 4-1 to trim the Lightning’s playoff series lead to 3-2. Spencer Knight, the 20-year-old rookie goaltender, sparked Florida. Now the Cats face another must-win in Game 6 Wednesday in Tampa.
While the Panthers were rising, the Heat was stumbling
Spoelstra is a great coach. Heat culture is real. It’s why a Miami team that looked unprepared for the moment seemed so stunning.
On the heel of the narrow Game 1 loss it put the Heat in a 2-0 hole heading home for Games 3 and 4 here Thursday and Saturday.
The Heat ditched those awful Lakers-like gold jerseys from Game 1 for traditional black Monday. Didn’t help.
Adabeyo had 16 points on 5-for-11 shooting Monday and Butler had 10 on 4-for-10. Through two games they are a combined (17-58) shooting. Tyler Herro, another star of the bubble run in last year’s playoffs elimination of the Bucks, is now 3-for-15 through two games.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo rose to the moment Monday, with 31 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Miami’s essential stars did not.
The Heat’s best player Monday night was journeyman Dewayne Dedmon off the bench. This is not a good thing.
Miami is 1-8 all-time in playoff series that began with the Heat down 0-2. The lone exception: the 2006 NBA Finals, and the comeback against Dallas for Miami’s first league title.
The Heat eliminated the Bucks 4-1 in last year’s playoffs but nobody believes now. A spanking like Monday’s will do that.
The TNT guys were talking sweep at halftime. Giggling over what they saw as the Heat’s series corpse.
“They’re going to sweep the Miami Heat,” declared said Charles Barkley.
Can you do something about that Heat fans? Can you help your team believe in itself?
Miami will permit a near-capacity 17,000 fans in the building Thursday night. It will feel and look the most like a pre-pandemic home crowd than we have seen since COVID-19 entered our lives 14 months ago.
The atmosphere will be well-timed to buoy a Heat team that must now win two games in a row and four of the next five — all in the wake of a lopsided, rather embarrassing defeat.
Milwaukee’s 15-2 run to begin the game started the avalanche. The lead swelled to 36. Miami stayed in Game 1 with a club-playoff record 20 3-point baskets. Monday, it was the Bucks with a club-playoff-record barrage of 22 3’s and the Heat’s long game gone cold.
Miami never got on a major run. Monday, they needed a few of those.
Home now.
It’s where the heart is.
It better be where the Heat is, at its best, ready to be lifted by its fans, ready to rally and make a long series of this.
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 10:22 PM.
