The Portland Trail Blazers blew past the shorthanded Miami Heat, ultimately securing a 127-110 win inside Moda Center.
While Blazers star Deni Avdija exited the game mere minutes into the second half, Portland outscored Miami 63-47 over the final two quarters, including 39-29 in the third quarter alone. The Blazers scored at least 38 points in two separate quarters, getting whatever they wanted against an otherwise flimsy Heat defense.
Avdija was just one of three Blazers 20-point scorers. Undrafted rookie Caleb Love had 20 points off the bench, while Shaedon Sharpe exploded in the second half, tallying 27 points on 5-of-9 shooting from deep with seven rebounds and four steals across 34 minutes.
The Heat’s 17-point loss drops them to 1-2 on this five-game West Coast road trip. Their defense has not been up to par, but perhaps the biggest differentiators in this game came on the glass and from beyond the arc.
Miami finished a minus-12 on the glass while Portland more than doubled them up (20-9) from beyond the arc. Bam Adebayo had a team-high 32 points and 10 boards on 13-of-24 shooting; Simone Fontecchio had 17 points off the bench while Norman Powell also scored 18.
The Heat were shorthanded, but they must find a way to be more consistent from 3-point range while also getting back to their bread and butter on the defensive end. Even in their 13-point win against Sacramento earlier this week, their defense was far from perfect. This loss exacerbated it.
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You guys are reading waaayyy too much into this game. The Portland game has ALWAYS been problematic for the Heat historically because it’s usually at the dregs of a West coast road trip. With Ware out, we’re playing exactly ONE big in the rotation in Bam against Portland’s size and athleticism. Plenty of handicaps headed into this game, so a loss wasn’t unexpected.
Heat’s goal this season are basically to develop their young players and try to be as competitive as possible. The hot start with Normal Powell and new fast paced play was fool’s gold. We knew the Heat didn’t make any significant moves this summer and that most of the East was going to be better. No need to start launching tomatoes at Riley at this point. Kevin Durant was not going to make us a contender. Giannis is not walking through that door. We have $20M of wasted salary in Terry Rozier. This team is incomplete.
No need to dote over the results of every game.
u win u praise u lose u complain thats the way it goes.norms a good #2 type player.there no youngens besides ware that are diff makers.wares where this year.the reason why we havent taken the jump is cuz ware looks lost on offense,yes riley takes the blame for this mess.hes been great for 25 years last few been bad.he must have been a fan of vanilla fudge growing up.
A breath of fresh air, thank you. Everything you said was correct. I feel a lot of if is true after every loss here.
You’re right. Criticism is fair and warranted and we all want a winning team, but in sports as in life, sometimes things don’t go your way and you just have to struggle through to see better days.
I m not really interesting in results, I know we wont win a title this year, but seeing our young players playing poorly game after game makes me mad.
Yes, solid reasonable comment. I’ve mentioned in the recent past that some experience irrational exuberance when we win and equally irrational despondency when we lose. We were not going to be a contender this season. I looked forward to seeing the development of our youth, which has been a mixed bag. Jaquez and Pelle, yes. Ware hot and cold. Kas and Jovic have a long way to go. Keshad? Who knows? Gardner, encouraging. Changes are sorely needed. The Herro and Rozier issues must be resolved. I’m still hoping for a trade by the deadline, but I am not expecting a big splash.
You have a right to your opinion but I see a clear trend that is concerning. We barely beat a 12-34 team, then got beat soundly by a 23-22 team (who the Raptors are beating tonite on the same court) without their best player for the second half. Good teams don’t always have trouble in Portland. And Ware may have helped but the fact that we had noone to replace him should be of at least some concern. If you don’t launch your tomatoes now, just when will it become appropriate- in another four years? And when did we go into this year with the goal of trying to just develop our young guys? I don’t remember when we told our fans or ticket holders that. Finally, you worry about the results after each game because it reiterates a trend, a trend that shows this team is mediocre, just like last year and the year before that. The only thing I agree with is no Giannis is coming thru the door if and when he does become available (or any other top echelon player) because, despite our mediocrity, we find ourselves in a situation where we don’t have the draft picks or players to acquire him that other teams have.
Mr. Hyde returns.,And this is a better gauge of where we stand than Sacramento. We are an average team at best. We were far less shorthanded than Portland so don’t use that excuse. It takes a lot of good players to make an NBA team, and we only have about 3/4th of them.
All the ones who warned about how this team was deficient, and even the ones who complained about its composition, they were right. Riley was wrong, and if it wasn’t for an unusual situation between him and the owner, he would be gone. If nothing gets done to improve us by the deadline, there will be a lot more of what we saw last night.
All we have are our words here. We have no power. It’s too bad that nothing gets fixed. Sometimes it’s disheartening.
Excellent summary 30. You are exactly right. The way the team came out like gangbusters in November, several of us allowed ourselves to believe it might be special this year. We were very wrong.
If Miami could have used the salaries of Rozier, Herro and Jovic to acquire a ss or at least a two way PG and a good back-up PF/C, it might have been different. They didn’t and it won’t.
A few of you have been adamant that the team should be rebuilt. It’s hard to argue with you. The only other options are to plan to acquire a ss in the off-season or to gamble on a player with a high potential upside who is also a great risk, e.g., Ja Morant, Zion Williamson, Davis, Leonard, etc.
Any way you cut it, Riley cannot stand idly by and watch the team slide further into oblivion. He also can’t keep putting bandaids on a gunshot wound, expecting different results. It won’t. If Riley can’t figure out how to turn this ship around soon, maybe it’s time for him to retire. Otherwise, Miami will begin losing fans and revenue. As is, the team is getting more difficult to watch by each passing game and is no longer entertaining.
No improvements whatsoever.
It seems everything is wrong with this team.
niko dru head of class.kaspar not ready.all 3 need to be tied to bench and we will be much better off.niko needs to play in europe hed be a top 5 player .game doesnt fit nba style.been saying that for quite a while.
You can’t use the excuse he’s still very young anymore after four years. There should be a two year moratorium on that excuse because after the second year you usually know. And forcing a player into the lineup after that only brings the team down. And then Riley compounds the error by signing him to a four year deal. Maybe Jovic will morph into our new Udonis and become a mentor for the next three years because he is pretty close to unmovable. .
Nico reminds me a bit on JJJ. JJJ played himselves out of the rotation last season, as Nico this one. The only reason he plays is that there is not another big available. I agree he shouldn’t play right now.
niko has never been good.jjj good to start then sukd now good although his style wont sustain.too long.there waiting for him at the hoop and that body will wear down
He was good occasionally. Not this season, true.
very few games hes been good.any nba player can be good every now and then.the best ones good every game just about.the nikos of the world bad about every game
as JJJ last season.
Right.
That was 2nd season for Jaquez. This is 4th season for Jovic.
4 years
Wow! What a great game…if you are a Portland fan. They are clearly on an upward trajectory…unlike the Heat. There is absolutely no rhythm or flow in Miami’s game. Miami’s mojo has left the building. Time for Riley to take a good look in the mirror and decide if he can live through a rebuild or pull a rabbit out of a place the sun don’t shine and come up with a solution cuz “this s*** ain’t working.”
I absolutely do not understand Riley extending Jovic BEFORE he proved he deserved it. Gotta either send him to Sioux Falls to get his s*** together or commit him to a mental institution for intensive therapy, cuz his head is all f’d up. Before he was playing cocky because of the new $62.4M extension. Now it looks like he’s playing scared and with no confidence because he knows he is not meeting minimum expectations of the team or the fans. He does not know what kind of player he wants to be. Instead of doing a few things well, he does a bunch of things crappy.
I also do not understand Riley not making a big public stink about the situation Adam Silver put the Heat in when he withheld pertinent information from the team before approving the Rozier trade. He should accept full responsibility for his mistake and fix it. Instead he’s hiding behind the FBI. What a spineless punk!
Next stop on the Heat’s trip is the powerhouse/juggernaut known as the Utah Jazz. Fans can’t even pencil in wins against bad teams. They always seem to get their games together at the expense of the Heat.
P.S. There should be a mandatory retirement age for NBA executives…say 80 or so.
Good comments. And Riley deserves every one.
the terry sit nobody really knows whats up thats a criminal investigation.rileys mainly here to pick vanilla players
Four out of the last six and counting.
the chances of kaspar being good are the chances of me meeting rc slim to none
You said the same about Jaquez and Pelle.
He uses the shotgun approach. Shoots in wide spray pattern hoping something hits.
He’s 19. I disagree with you. By the end of his rookie contract, I think he will be pretty good. How good…who knows.
Good energy out there to start the game. There were “Let’s Go Heat” chants behind the Heat bench, starting at the opening tip. Bam was a force of nature out there.
But you could see the energy for defense and rebounding flag int he second half. Probably from all the travel over the past few days. Then there was a huge 3-point shooting desparity, and after that the game was over.
One thing I found really interesting – no Herro and no Ware in street clothes on the bench. I haven’t watched enough Heat basketball this season, is that common for injured players not to travel with the team? Or are those dudes about to get traded?
Herro stayed in Miami. Ware should be there.
I hope the Spo – Ware relationship doesn’t turn into Kerr – Kuminga.
They sent Ware home to get treatment for his injury and regroup once it was determined that he’d be out for the rest of the road trip.
This isn’t anywhere near the Kerr-Kuminga situation. Kerr never really wanted Kuminga. The GM got him as a part of their “two-timeline” strategy. He doesn’t fit into how Kerr wants to play, but the organization are still trying to use him as an asset.
The Heat clearly need Ware. Spo is just giving him tough love trying to build good habits and make him into a great player long term. The raw tools are clearly there. I guarantee you the Heat will have ZERO hesitation on extending Ware. He isn’t going anywhere unless it’s in a trade for a superstar, and that’s looking more and more unlikely.
If Spo keeps calling Ware out publicly, he’s going to lose him entirely the way Riley pissed off the quitter. Some people never learn.
closer to home spobot whiteside
An exciting opportunity for HHH comment section participants. A chance to meet RC in the flesh? Even without a championship? Wow! Anyway, if any of you locals would like to meet me (us) or take a poke at me, we will be at the Intercontinental Hotel near the Kaseya Center Saturday and Sunday. I will buy you an overpriced beer if you can make it. So, hfl, 30, hhh, big guy, 2qbn, I know 2 much, Zak, Z Kap, if any of you might be in the area, put a comment here and we can coordinate the time. Any of you out of towners may feel free to fly in. 😆
Put here a photo of a beer, if nobody shows up.
Have a great time.
Sorry I can’t make it. I’ve got to re-primer the Jeep.
your prob a suns fan too?i forgot u said u got into the heat when the dragon came here?
Haven’t been since 2015. You should never assume anything. I followed the Lakers too in the West-Baylor and Kareem-Magic eras…but no more.
sorry rc play tennis nfl playoff games.im a broward guy.if theres a tribute band concert in broward ill bring mrs hfl and we can hang out.if we start talking about niko u better be negative.dont give me the bs like sun need to see more .
I need to see more alright…in Sioux Falls.