It has been a painful start to the 2025 calendar year for the Miami Heat. From off the court trade drama, to on the court blown leads and melt downs— it has been a rough time for Heat Nation recently.
Miami has lost three games in a row after yet another fourth quarter collapse to the OKC Thunder on Wednesday night. They saw a 16-point third quarter lead quickly evaporate down the stretch. Unfortunately, the Heat have been no stranger to these disappointing efforts this season.
They somehow managed to score just 8 points as a team in the entirety of the fourth quarter in the previous loss. The Heat have had three of the NBA’s four single-digit fourth quarter’s this season.
This team needs the extended All-Star break more than ever. But first, they face the second leg of a road back-to-back versus Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks.
The Mavericks have been short handed in frontcourt depth, as injuries to all three of Anthony Davis, Derrick Lively and Daniel Gafford will keep them out against Miami. However, Dallas is still coming off a valiant win in the first game of their own back-to-back.
Ironically, the Mavericks defeated Jimmy Butler and the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. In that game, sudden one-man show in Irving led the way for the Mavs with a 42-point explosion. Nonetheless, their injury-struck core has put Dallas in an inconsistent stretch of play, going just 5-5 over their last 10 games.
Despite Miami’s recent struggles, they have gotten some All-Star caliber level of play from Bam Adebayo as of late. Over his last ten games, the big man has led his squad with averages of 21.3 points, 11.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists on 52% shooting.
The Heat are going to look for bounce back performances from several of their starters, including the likes of Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins and Kel’el Ware. Herro has shown some notable shooting struggles ever since he earned his All-Star nod around two weeks ago.
Can Herro and Miami respond to head into the All-Star break with a win?
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- NOT YET SUBMITTED.
Dallas Mavericks:
- NOT YET SUBMITTED.
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Duncan Robinson, G
- Andrew Wiggins, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
- Kel’el Ware, C
Dallas Mavericks:
- Kyrie Irving, G
- Max Christie, G
- Klay Thompson, F
- Oliver-Maxence Prosper, F
- Kessler Edwards, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 8:30 PM EST
- TV: Fanduel Sports Network Sun (Eric Reid & John Crotty)
- Radio: AM 560 Sports WQAM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)
- Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)
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Site disappears for months then reappears. Can anyone explain? Posted earlier…nothing showed
Strange. You received 3 replies on your earlier post. The site is fine. May want to check things on your end. Delete the link you’re using and google the site.
Just refresh and do it again. Happened to me too.
What’s up with this site?
If I had hfl address, I’d send him a case of rolaids for when he sees Duncan in the starting lineup.
Anyone who has an issue with Duncan after watching that 4th period last night needs more than a case of Rolaids. His actions and ability to hit the 3 are helpful to this offense. Yes, sometimes he doesn’t have it and it’s better to bench him at that point, but overall people really overlook what he does for this offense when playing well.
True, but your last sentence is the key. Duncan has added to his repertoire this season with nice drives and better passing skills. But he does get picked on unmercifully on the defensive side and he does commit some sloppy fouls. So, if he is having a poor offensive game, I would rather see him sit down to give another player an opportunity. He is having a decent season, 38% 3p%, 90% ft%, and a 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.
Of course, but that is why stating that X players should never play when this team lacks offensive punch is loco. For as awful as Terry has been that 4th quarter was so bad, including the ones in Chicago and NY, that I would be fine with Spo saying let’s see if Terry has anything tonight. Now if we could only get Spo to play everyone’s dream rotations at the same time. 😉
Spo’s job is to use the Swiss Army Knife that is the Heat’s current personnel according to who is playing well. (+/-)
Spo doesn’t have a consistently good starting 5 like OKC, Cleveland, Boston, etc. He has to constantly switch the players he has according to what kind of game they are having. He has to play them when they are hot and sit them when they are not.
The problem with “pull him if he’s missing shots” is that it runs the risk of falling into the gambler’s fallacy. If someone normally shoots 40% from 3, then there’s still a 13% chance they miss their first four threes of the night. Are they having an off-night, or are they about to regress to the mean with a vengeance and hit their next three straight? And if you pull someone early, how does that affect their confidence in the next game?
I’m not saying you’re wrong, per se, but I think aside from Rozier diverging from the game plan, the other examples aren’t the easiest to suss out mid-game.
Spo has mismanaged this team all season long. Last night was another example. He preps well but in-game decisions when it counts is awful. On another note…what has happened to this hothothoops Heat site? It’s been down like forever….then reappears momentarily…then goes away for months. What is going on? Can anyone respond to this?
Welcome back. It has been available, but it went through a few weeks where it loaded up glacially slow. That got resolved about a week ago and it has been fine since.
We had to perform a site-wide update about a week ago. The site was never down, but there were sluggish loading times that weren’t ever brought to our attention. Everything is now good to go moving forward.
Obviously I can’t speak for Spo. He deserves credit for holding this team together during all this Jimmy bullcrap. He usually likes to tinker in the first month or so of the season. I think with this Jimmy thing, and new players on the team, he’s tinkering as much as possible before the AS break so he has film and enough data to chew on during this break. I think it would be better to judge him coming out of the break and how his rotation flow is at that time.
Good assessment.