First half:
Newly minted Heat captain, Bam Adebayo made his return in this one but the Nets bodied Miami in transition to start. The Heat were really sloppy to start turning the ball over often. Thankfully they managed to regain their composure with Tyler, Jimmy, and Bam both finding a way on offense. The Heat really showed some desperation in its play early having dropped multiple games back to back, getting out to a 6-point lead. On the other end, Mikal Bridges and Ben Simmons caused issues. After not being much of a transition team last season, Lowry and Bam both tried to put on their best Kevin Love impressions with outlet passes that just didn’t meet the mark resulting in cheap turnovers. Jimmy looked good early showing no signs of his knee bothering him with over nine points in the first quarter.
Despite Miami’s early success Brooks and the Nets continued to take advantage of Miami’s errant passes to keep things uncomfortably close, trimming the lead to just one. I really liked seeing Herro stay on with the second unit early as his offense kept the Heat from falling off the rails too badly. Miami also managed to get Ben Simmons into foul trouble with 3 fouls headed into the second quarter.
With the Nets flustered, Miami attacked increasing its lead to eleven off fearless offensive play by Tyler Herro. Herro’s improvement must be noted because he’s absolutely balling this season. Suddenly down 10, the Nets tried to claw back, but Herro’s 13 first half points kept Miami ahead. Though healthy again JRich struggled to score, leaving others like Thomas Bryant to make their mark.
With Bam nearly flawless from the field (he always kills against the Nets), Herro continuing to light things up from deep and Duncan also getting on the board the Heat managed to take a 10-point lead into halftime.
Second Half:
Lowry was successful in his role as a floor general, hitting his open shots. He’s no longer Raptor’s Lowry, but he’s doing a great job carving out his role in this new-look heat squad. Herro continued to feast building the lead up to 15, still, Brooklyn wouldn’t go quietly staying within striking distance but never quite getting there. Jimmy got back on the board halfway through the third with the Heat comfortably ahead, but with the Nets on a 9-2 run the Heat suddenly looked vulnerable. The Nets managed to cut the lead to five and didn’t slow down whatsoever. J-Rich hit a huge shot to end the third to keep Miami ahead by eight, but things looked shaky headed into the fourth and final quarter.
Armani Brooks off the Brooklyn bench was fantastic absolutely lighting up the Heat and tying up the game. Miami’s offense was suddenly stagnant and with Jimmy on the bench, Miami looked anemic. The Heat and Nets started to trade punches around the 7-minute mark, but even with Bam doing his best Atlas impression he couldn’t stop Brooklyn from getting ahead. The Heat fought well to try and re-take the lead with Jimmy and Tyler making some excellent plays, but despite pulling it back within two questionable shots, an unlucky miss and poor defense made winning this an impossibility.
This was an unacceptable loss for the Heat. This team needs to pick up the pieces quickly.
This is basically the standard Heat start in the season. We will win the next one, and lost another one at home, and then make a solid 5:5 on the road. Till all star weekend we will be around 50.
From the games I’ve seen so far it appears that a lack of continuity and a bench with no ball creation are the main problems.
All of the Heat’s best facilitators are in the starting unit which makes for a pretty unbalanced team.
There is no one to generate looks for the 2nd unit.
Playing Tyler with the second unit doesn’t solve this problem imo because he’s a score first guard.
Also, and what I think has been the biggest issue so far is the general lack of continuity with all the injuries and dnp-cds the team has had endured up to this point.
The heat have played 5 games and there hasn’t been a single unit that has seen the same 5 guys for more than 2 games.
And the lack of continuity has affected 4th quarter stability.
Of the 20 plus different units that have played in the 4th quarter of these 5 games, basically only 1 has seen the same 5 players for more than 1 game, and it was just for (you guessed it) 2 games.
There’s no continuity at all, the players are seeing different faces every game basically every quarter and it’s led to disjointed basketball (especially among the bench) and 4th quarter meltdowns.
Players need to get healthy and Spo needs to get his rotations set or the team could quickly find itself in too massive a hole to climb out of.
You forgot to mention a quality two-way starting PG. A ball handler who can consistently drop 12-15 points and 5-8 assists a game. Lowry is a good back-up PG at this stage, not a starter. There are a few sleeper back-up PGs around the league who would be improvements over what we have. Without a quality starting PG…there will be no consistency. Meanwhile, I would go with RJ over Dru. But that’s just me.
The Heat has a solid nucleus of under 30 players, with the exceptions of Richardson (30), Butler (34), Love (35) and Lowry (37). Is it too early to talk about tanking and rebuilding? Inquiring minds want to know.
At least the team knows how to survive a play-in tournament, if they finish in top 10. So there’s that.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting the vibes of 2021 season. Time will tell.
Oh no 2021! That might be better for this bunch (but I’m not giving up lol) then tank the next season for Cooper Flagg lol
We are still in the extended preseason. I will say again ,chill,chill,chill.
im gonna wait for caleb to come back and play a few games to see what we have
What we have so far sucks. Can Caleb play PG?
If jimmys gonna play like this it doesnt matter what pg we get unless its a top 5 pg which aint gonna happen.If jimmy can give us his all day in day out like 40yr old lebron does we’d have a chance to win every night.This team will go as far as jimmy takes us,
I think we’re seeing a a number of problems:
Plenty of season left, but this team today, has a lot of issues. Hope they can turn it around.
Agree on all points. But do think #1 is the main reason
telling it like it is as always zach.2qbn doesnt like to face reality.he would say give it 20 games waiting for his sarcastic remark or does he only do that to me.alls good just sports talk.go heat.back to work
Oh look it’s Dippy. Even Riley says 20 games is the measuring stick. Last I checked his track record is significantly better than yours. And to Riley’s credit he doesn’t poop his pants during every gamethread yelling where nobody can hear you. But please carry on, fan
Agree, still too early to judge. I am still ok with the Heat so far.
On positive not, we are not last in the league.
Memphis is.
wow we might be favored in a game yes
The question becomes, when should fans of this year’s team start to get concerned? To my eyes, everything is happening appropriate to the talent level of the Heat’s roster. Yes, Richardson is really limited. Yes, way too much optimism about how useful JJ may become was expressed. Same is true about Jovic, HH, Cain, Dru, O Rob, and the other untested and unproven players.
We have added one positive in Bryant, but him along with Bam, an aging Jimmy, and Ty is simply not enough. Lowry is too limited now (even though this may have been one of his better games, which even then is saying he was only slightly a positive) and Duncan is too inconsistent. When Jimmy or Bam isn’t on the floor, only Tyler being a threat isn’t enough. And, now Jimmy is aging maybe faster than expected. In the fourth quarter, in crunch time, we are being beaten soundly.
Pretty soon the deficiencies of this team are going to become apparent to everyone. Last year we did the improbable, but that was last year. The question is, will anything be done to help this years team? I hope so. At what point does the we’re going to be just fine optimism start to sound like folly?
Nobody is making trades after 5 games. So this will be the group for at least one and a half to two months.
hardenly true.
That was set in motion during the offseason and just happened to be finally consumated after game 2 or 3. Nice try, bub.
The Heat are short another consistent scorer. With Jaquez, JRich and Duncan as cold as ice, why didn’t Jovic play? When is Riley going to pull the trigger on a trade? Can’t the two-way players be used up to 50 games per season?
who the f wants dunc jricj jjj kyle etc.do u want to trade ty jim or bam ?
Hornets, Wizards, Rockets or Jazz might take an expiring contract, a pick and a rotation player.Who knows until you try.
I thought we’re still in the preseason 😂😜
So I guess the next game is the real start?
Two things:
One, I was one of the first people on HHH with the unpopular “J-Rich stinks” take in 2015, back when i was ‘odom butler wade’. I would like to be the first to the table with that take in 2023. He is, without question, the worst player on the roster. He was -13 in 30 minutes with the Heat, the worst plus/minus on the team tonight, and better than I expected. If you had told me he had a -25 plus/minus in a 4 point loss, I would have believed it. Shoot that guy into the sun. He stinks.
Two, I know that Spo is a great coach and all, but he gets some of the blame for this loss. The worst thing about this Heat squad is that they have a ton of great young wing players, but the have very few good guards. Why on earth did Spo run a 3-guard lineup to close this game? He had Lowry and J-Rich, the two worst players on this team, on the floor for the final eight minutes of this game. As soon as I saw that lineup, I knew they were going to lose.
On a positive note, good to see Hi-May starting. If he was in the finishing lineup, the Heat would have won this game. Also, Thomas Bryant is dope. I like having him on this team. There is some talent on this squad for sure. I am going to call this a coaching loss. And I trust the Heat coaching staff to fix it.
I agree. JRich stinks. Still, I dont think, is all his fault, at least not completely.
He is used in the wrong way. He is not, never been, and never will be a playmaker.
When he, Herro nad Dunc were on the floor together, Dunc made plays.
JJJ was off, but he gets his shots. He ll make them sooner or later.
Jimmy was a bit better, bt this is still not what we need from him.
Since the Big 3 Spo has always done really weird tinkering kind of stuff very early in the season. I doubt we see that lineup at the end of game, if not for a while, probably never again lol
If only JNicho could hear your JRich take..
JRich is Spos guy. ⁸
What’s up with no Niko?
Tyler’s big numbers gets us losses
The leader of the team looks unmotivated.
The Heat play more close games and gives up more big leads than any sports team I can think of. Product of the coaching style or philosophy?
Year after year. Same M. O.
It’s waay too early for panic but right on time for observations
Yes I definitely agree with your takes. Jrich was stink that game and didn’t deserve 30 mins. Also running that 3 guard lineup like you said against the nets length was a bad idea, when our strength is forward’s. Most of the blame goes on spo for that. Lowry needs to shoot at least 7 shots a game. I like that JJJ started, but he shot way too many 3’s for my liking, when he wasn’t really known for that in college. He needs 2-4 att from 3, not 6. Also bam needs to shot at least 15 times again with an increase of 4th quarter shots. He only had 12 shots against the nets, his play warranted way more.
Probably not a good idea to start JJJ with Jimmy and Bam if you don’t want him to shoot 3’s since the other two clog the lane. if you do start JJJ then I think we have to accept he is going to shoot more than if he was on the court without at least one of Jimmy or Bam.
Had Jaquez and Richardson made 30% of their shots, this would have been a different ball game.
We need Lowry to make more shots.
I was skeptical of Richardson signing, his skills have declined over the years and this game amplified it.
JJJ needs to keep shooting and not let his poor shooting affect his confidence.
Love’s 3 point shooting was clearly missing in this game.He could have take some minutes off JJJ and Richardson.
Getting 6 points from combined 49 minutes from Richardson and JJJ will not cut it.
I wasn’t against the Richardson signing and I’m still not. However, and this applies to Jaquez too, if a player is ineffective after extended minutes, I think the coach should give another player/s a chance. Whether that’s Jovic, O Robinson, Cain, Smith, Hampton, Swider, etc, maybe someone will get hot, change the momentum, and secure the win in a close game.
I would liketo know how Spo views those 2 way guys. For example, does using one of their games played to see if one “gets hot” is worth it compared to using one of their games played due to a couple of injuries.
I thought that if they are listed as active for any game, it is counted against the 30 (14 rosters spots) or 50 (15 roster spots).
Then I stand corrected
I totally agree with what you said, all I’m asking spo to do is just can you try to adjust more quickly .
Yup. I think this came down to 17 total points from Lowry, JJJ, Jrich and Duncan.
Also, Nets swept the Heat last year. For some reason the Nets have the Heat’s regular season number. Remember those teams with Garnett and Pierce? They would beat the Heat during the regular season and then Heat smoked them in the playoffs. Weird crap
94% of season left.we have 3 all stars but spo has got to figure out the best guys to play with our 3 all stars.please eric have at least jim or bam on the ct.when there both on the bench were fkd
Spo did the same with Bro, James, and Wade. He would aub both Lebron and Wade and let Bosh play with the second unit.