The Miami Heat, missing two of their best scorers, are in the midst of a two-game losing streak and hope to stave off the Los Angeles Clippers in the second night of a back-to-back on Monday.
Currently at 3-3, the Heat enter the evening with the 10th-best offense and third-best defense. Miami’s bench has been otherworldly, as has newly acquired Norman Powell in the three games he’s played.
Yet, as potent as the Heat offense has been, they’re starting lineup has struggled to keep pace.
Heat’s starting lineup has been one of the worst in the NBA:
Yes, we’re still working with a very small sample, but the Heat’s starting lineup — with and without Powell — has been one of the worst in the NBA.
Let’s look at some of the numbers!
- Davion Mitchell-Pelle Larsson-Andrew Wiggins-Bam Adebayo-Kel’el Ware: -54.5 NET in 25 MIN
- Davion Mitchell-Norman Powell-Andrew Wiggins-Bam Adebayo-Kel’el Ware: -14.2 NET in 19 MIN
Of 96 lineups with at least 15 minutes played, the first lineup has the NBA’s worst NET Rating while the second has the 24th-worst.
Better yet, in 47 minutes together, the Mitchell-Wiggins-Adebayo-Ware quartet has a minus-35.3 NET, the worst of any four-man combination in the NBA (min. 45 MIN).
Correlation doesn’t equal causation, but Wiggins’ questionable shot selection (despite his timely hustle plays, good defense) paired with Adebayo and Ware’s clunky fit together hasn’t quite helped matters. Mitchell hasn’t posed much of a threat as a scorer despite generating myriad paint touches, either.
On the other hand, messing with the bench unit could be a bad idea because of role allocation. They’ve looked remarkably jelled; switching that up this early in the season may not be the wisest move, no matter how poor the starters have been in this very small sample.
A couple very good performances could swing these numbers because we’re still very early in the season. Getting Herro and Powell back will also help.
However, at some point, Miami will have to figure its starting lineup out sooner rather than later as it enters the most arduous part of its schedule. After all, nobody wants a repeat of Sunday, when it fell behind 18 to the Lakers in the first half.
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This is a developing news story. Stay tuned for updates!
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Stop with the criticisms of any player in the rotation but Nico. He’s the only one who does more bad than good. Every other player is fine. We just need to get more good players.