The last two Miami Heat seasons have shared two common denominators— inconsistency and getting spanked by the Boston Celtics. That notion didn’t change on Monday night, as the Celtics spoiled Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Kyle Anderson’s debut on Miami’s home floor.
After what looked like an encouraging start to the game, Miami quickly saw a first quarter double-digit evaporate. They were outscored 70-41 in the second and third quarters combined. And the superstar play of Jayson Tatum was simply too much to overcome.
Despite Wiggins’ defensive upside, he had zero answers for the talent of Tatum. He led the Celtics with a game-high 33 points on 13 of 26 shooting overall. Even with his co-star in Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday sidelined, he got help from the remainder of his supporting cast.
Boston’s frontcourt duo of Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis had the edge over Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware. The Heat’s rookie put together a forgetful outing, finishing with 8 points and 7 boards on 4 of 12 from the field.
Adebayo did his thing as probably the only Heat player that showed up. He had a team-high 22 points and 12 boards double-double to go along with 4 assists. His All-Star teammate Tyler Herro was a late scratch before tipoff due to a stomach illness.
The new additions of Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell showed glimpses of strong defensively versatility. However, they each put together rough shooting performances. Wiggins had just 11 points on an abysmal 3 of 12 shooting. It is never easy being integrated into a new system midseason, let alone facing the reigning NBA Champions on the very first night.
It could be a work in progress, but look to see an offensive improvement from the former All-Star moving forward.
Mitchell provided the anticipated point-of-attack defense that he has built a reputation for, but couldn’t convert anything offensively as well.
As for Anderson, his 10 minutes of action looked quite disappointing, to say the least. He was an inefficient non-factor on both ends of the floor. Even worse, his playing time completely eliminated the role of Haywood Highsmith.
The Heat shot a disgusting 24% (11 of 45) from 3-point range as a team and 34% overall. That type of horrid efficiency is deserving for a scheduled loss, especially with the champs in town.
Miami won’t get much time to ease back into things and snap their two-game losing skid, with a road trip to face the top seed Oklahoma City Thunder coming on Wednesday.
***
To check out our other content, click here.
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter/X here!
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram here!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
Some things are very obvious.
Heat often start very well, but the first slump comes with second unit coming to the court. And that first unit in second stint never play well. I think this is a concentration thing.
Newcomers:
-Wiggins will help this team. Kyle maybe.
I don’t know about Mitchell. He is clearly not a starting level point guard.
If he shoots like that at his age, then that’s it.
He doesn’t have talent to be a decent shooter.
He is useful player, though, for some special assignments.
Nothing to see here. Move along. OKC next, then Dallas (minus AD) before a much needed all-star break.
Despite Miami’s mediocre play, the team is in 7th place
The Heat was a reason Celtics got Porzingis in June 2023. Not worried about the scoreline. As I said before, this is pre 2026/27 season. I am happy Ware got some minutes and so did the new additions. The Heat have a lot of time to fine tune for the ’26/27 season.