This is our GAMETHREAD: Chat live about the game here!
Injury Report:
Milwaukee Bucks:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (calf) — OUT
- Alex Antetokounmpo (g-league) — OUT
- Taurean Prince (neck) — OUT
Miami Heat:
- Davion Mitchell (illness) — AVAILABLE
- Nikola Jovic (back) — OUT
- Terry Rozier (not with team) — OUT
Starting 5:
Milwaukee Bucks:
- Kevin Porter Jr, G
- Ryan Rollins, G
- AJ Green, F
- Kyle Kuzma, F
- Myles Turner, C
Miami Heat:
- Davion Mitchell, G
- Norman Powell, G
- Pelle Larsson, F
- Andrew Wiggins, F
- Bam Adebayo, F/C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 8:00 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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i was gonna go back to sleep but cking box score pelle 36 miins ware 19 come on wtf..back to sleep now.dumbot or spobot not sure which i like more.how bout dumbotic
the ups and downs of da heat.hard to tell which version u get.thats the definition of mediocrity.only consistent is jovic is bad just about every night.frustrating team theirs more there it seems just players not utilized properly.when porter is torching us call the gardner to fix the problem.gardners do work at night.the coach does not adjust to situations fast enough or not at all.hes very sp(R)obotic.use of personnel not being maximized especially ware who .by now should be a seasoned player but no jovic was a better option.
The Jovic comments are so true. Imagine giving a sixty two million dollar contract to a player no better in overall effectiveness than Myron Gardner. I mean, Myron occasionally gives us a spark, but I use him just to make it real how crazy that contract is. Seriously, a four year contract and all the chances Jovic has gotten, at least in part because our GM could not admit his original mistake. It’s a colossal blunder.
This game serves as a sobering reminder of why it’s important to not get too excited about wins over tankers. We had a full, healthy squad and lost to a tanker without their best player. The Bucks had nothing to play for so there are no excuses. It’s just shows our mediocrity, an up and down team that will get bounced easily in the first round if we make it that far. And that will be the third year of this as any improvement over that span has been incremental. It just shows why those of us who lamented over Riley’s lack of acquiring more help at the deadline were right. Maybe if he made just one transaction we would be a little better and would not lose games like last night.
Sometimes complaining is all we have. And, for you on this thread who like to try to attack anyone who goes to the effort to explain rationally why they are unhappy with our progress, just know I’m not going anywhere and I don’t care if you don’t like what I have to say. And further, just know that I think your overly optimistic takes are the inaccurate ones, but I never will put you down for having that opinion. I will say it’s a good thing nothing we say here matters because you would be letting an inadequate GM shirk his responsibilities. How long are we supposed to wait for this team to become relevant again?
And one more thing. Those who voice their displeasure are fans of this Heat team just as much as anyone else. Why do you think we take the time to write if we didn’t care. I assure you ,when that fine day comes again when we are a good team, not a mediocre one, when we can truly be competitive, we will be writing with an overall much more positive tone. Even now, I am happy to say there are good players on this team, just not enough of them. I root on all our players as long as they wear the Heat uniform.
Having said that, let’s make this site a place where everyone can give their opinion, bring their point of view, and not be ridiculed or attacked just for not believing what someone else does. Let’s be respectful of peoples’ honest opinion, positive or negative. That should not be too much to ask.
Amen! We all want the team to succeed. We don’t always agree on how the management and coach perform their duties.
Riley has pretty much decided these last few years that he will try for a ss and accept mediocrity if he is unsuccessful in attracting one. He takes it for granted the fans will accept whatever product he puts out on the court. He takes the fans for granted. That is not the way to run an organization.
This team has needed a bonafide closer and another big all season in order to be competitive. Riley apparently didn’t think they were needed. He was wrong.
Another game vs a mediocre team…another loss.
It seems very time they give us hope they may be breaking out of their funk, they let us down again. Even with everyone healthy, they couldn’t beat a 24-31 team playing without their ss. Powell 6 turnovers. Herro 5-17 with 3 turnovers. No consistency. No flow. Bad defense. Wiggins was the only player who performed up to snuff. These are the situations when Gardner should be inserted to bring some energy into the game.
On other fronts:
All good questions.
Sheeesh…Milw w/out Giannis. So much for the culture luring the Freak
hothothoops 4life is always negative but always right.im both neg and pos but right and wrong alot as my good friend rc points out.
Agree 100% on that last part! Bravo!
Heat defense with Bam on floor – 111.1 (would be #3 in league behind OKC and DET)
Heat defense with Ware on floor – 115.2 (would be #15, league average defense)
Ware struggles to guard in space (which is totally normal for a 2nd year big)
he also grabs lots rebounds.and is 7 feet tall with very very long arms the two of them are our 2 best players all round
They’re significantly worse on both ends with Ware on the floor, particularly on defense. Normal for a young player and not a knock on Ware, but there’s a reason his minutes are low. With Bam on the floor they are the #1 defensive rebounding team in the league (78%), with Ware on the floor that goes all the way down to #24 (72.8%)
Same pattern evident tonight as all season long, Miami has less rebounding on defense when Ware is on the court
With Adebayo on court – Miami DREB% was 83.9%
With Ware on court – 70.6%
Not to single out Ware for this loss at all, just to point out that the increase for Miami in offensive rebounding with Ware on the court doesn’t make up for what he is giving up on defense
Excellent, fact based analysis. Those are surprising stats because Bam gives up inches to almost all opponents. It just shows his effort level and knowledge to be in the right positions. I do think Ware will eventually reach that potential, maybe not quite to Bam’s level as Bam is so athletic, but close enough to be quite effective with the added benefit of offering more rim protection than Bam. I do wish we had another big who could do a good enough job to give each of them a breather.
The stats are empty, Bam plays with the starting unit. Ware plays with less defensive abled players. If you changed their playing positions those stats would change. Most games teams stop driving with Ware on the floor, bigger centers eat Bam alive. Minute to minute Ware is the best rebounder and scorer.
Lineup data supports the eye test, shows Heat is worse with Ware on the floor (including rebounding) than with Bam. Not surprising, comparing the impact of a 2nd year big to a veteran DPOY candidate. But it is a problem right now for the Heat because Ware is the primary/only backup big
The 5 man lineup Mitchell/Powell/Larsson/Wiggins/Adebayo has a +30.6 net rating in 106 minutes played
The same lineup with Ware in for Adebayo has a -10.9 net rating in 116 minutes. There’s a 40 point swing in this lineup just substituting Ware for Bam (but in a small sample). The net defensive rebounds in this lineup go from +4.2 per 100 possessions with Bam to -4.9 with Ware
-4 man combination of Bam/Mitchell/Powell/Wiggins is +8.4 in 488 minutes
-4 man combination of Ware/Mitchell/Powell/Wiggins is -1.3 in 350 minutes. Losing 9.7 points in this lineup with Ware in for Bam
-3 man combination of Bam/Mitchell/Powell is +9.3 in 610 minutes
-3 man combo Ware/Powell/Mitchell is +3.0 in 503 minutes. Losing 6.3 points here with Ware in for Bam
-Of all the 2 man lineup combinations >500 minutes played, the only three that are negative are Ware-Jaquez (-1.8), Ware-Powell (-2.6) and Ware-Wiggins (-4.1).
Bam-Jaquez is the #1 two man lineup on the Heat at +9.8, Bam-Powell is +6.2, and Bam-Wiggins is +2.5, which is close to the Heat’s overall net rating of +3 (Bam and Wiggins play the most minutes on the team, 31 mpg, although Larsson recently has been playing around 35mpg)
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIA/2026/lineups/
How many wins does that account to? Ware 9.4 rebounds Bam 9.7 .10 minutes per game less playing time. 1 think with equal playing time Ware is the better player.
Bring up wins around this stat monster he disappears. Hes a delusional guy so hurt by this team he tries to rationalize bad play with stats it’s embarrassing for everyone around here
I don’t mind people talking about stats, but stats can be very deceiving. It’s like plus/minus. Sometimes they can be an indicator of a player or lineup, but sometimes you can have a player at +15 even though he didn’t score and had 3 turnovers, just because he was out there when the other players went on a run. Rosy stats, even though accurate, don’t change the reality that this team ìs currently mediocre and has lost some embarrassing games, including the Utah debacle.
Empty stats, who you’re on the floor with matters most.
Ware on any other team would treat Bam like a stepchild.
do u think if gardner get porter he gets 30 fire spobot.gardners a better defender than pelle
porter 32 pts need guys like that that every now and then due to their athleticim can go off
we need some explosive players who are hard to defend like a fresh tyler but after a few games of bumps and bruises he regresses.pats fault.he went to vanilla
The racism here is ridiculous. You’re not seeing the game at all if you think Pelle isnt a good defender and Herro is soft
pelle is gritty but ahtletic guys beat him all the time.herro isa terrible terrible defender.why is it ridiculous its the truth sir
No it isn’t the truth or anything close to it. It’s your own idea of what a “white” player is. Watch Larsson’s feet on defense and see who Spo has him guarding
hes good on d agree .im a 69 year old white fart but bruhs have better ahtleticism
About as ridiculous as Mia being 10 in offense and 4th in defense but you keep spewing that bs every chance you get. firmly in the playin spot and will end the season in the playin as well
yeah hes delusional like me both into sports obviously
Do you only post here after losses?
Heat are #15 in offense (115.1), #4 in defense (112.1), #10 in net rating (+3.0)
Just posted the other day about how Mia will remain mediocre until bam and herro are no longer here. Mid picks mid results delusional fanboy. I want them to lose for real change to happen instead of running it back for the 10th damn time expecting different results literally the definition of insanity. What I wanna keep getting my hopes up believing they can compete and beat any team when they in the playoffs with no ss, all nba perennial all star type player, same thing you were posting last year when they got dog walked vs the Cavs last year. Team needs to take a step back to take 2 steps forward delusional fanboy
Those stats are against bottom feeders, and you know it. Post numbers against top teams.
Those are the full season stats/rankings
Record wise the Heat are just 10-20 vs teams .500 and above (a big issue, but not automatically a disqualifier – the Knicks were 15-23 vs teams with a winning record last year in the regular season and made the ECF)
Point differential is considered more important as a single measurement than W-L record, Heat have a SRS of 2.97 (point differential vs strength of schedule). They’re 10th in the league in SRS, all the teams above them are contenders
1 OKC 11.14
2 DET 7.03
3 SAS 6.64
4 BOS 6.57
5 NYK 5.06
6 HOU 4.92
7 CLE 4.48
8 DEN 3.7
9 MIN 3.67
10 MIA 2.97
That 2.97 is against the league’s worst teams all data is skewed,
eye test supports this. Heat is 14 in league standing more accurate. Mid team.
You seem new around here. Meet 2015heat a delusional fanboy who bring up dumb meaningless stats to prove irrelevant points all day everyday
I think he’s Spo or Godfather, this team is flawed. Any team has an A player usually demolishes us.
No, SRS is against all opponents the team has played throughout the season
I think Pelle is a decent defender also. My worry with him is he takes a lot of elbows to the face. Ty, on the other hand, is just as athletic as anyone out there. Everyone gets blown by occasionally. And yet, he is still a below average defender due to his lack of strength.
I have been accused of reverse racism also for some of my takes. It has been tough to not be able to even talk about that issue. I now try to avoid it again because I felt bad when I did discuss it before and now I have said everything on the subject that I needed to. But, it took me years because of my initial reluctance to actually express myself.
It remains an interesting aspect of the Heat, ever since they changed from a more typical nba line-up, which was about five years ago. I don’t think we can make any inferences from the results of all the teams in the league, vis a vis this issue, as there are good and bad teams with a lot of white players and no white players. The one thing that seems to be consistent, is the need for a superstar. And that would be defined as a player who is another step better than Norm Powell, our best player, and is almost unstoppable during crunch time. A superstar, or better yet two, can carry a team far more than they can in any other sport. The superstar is so important that they can cover up a lot of other shortcomings, but not all of them.
spobots not using players properly dam it
ware bam wiggy norm jjj are 5 best players they need to be 35 mins a game
vanillas just dont have the explosion to go off like bruhs pat doesnt see it that way
Oof, 39-25 for MIL in 4Q. Great shotmaking from MIL
not first time youve been wrong btw with your observations.its cool your into sports no biggy
Yeah not the way I thought that game was going. Heat tightened up in 4Q and MIL played with nothing to lose and kept hitting shots, credit to them. 49.5% FG, 41% 3FG
ty kas jjj not 1st team all defense
no gardner wow
ill take a cam thomas any day over pelle
Weird to single out Pelle tonight. Herro rocking a -20, 5 for 17, and had 3 turnovers
Pelle, out scored, rebounded and assisted Cam tonight. He did play double the minutes, but seems strange.
i was argiuing with rc pelles an averge player need to be better at that position the scoring guard position pelle aint good enough thats one of many reasons for medicority.need an explosive 2 g who any night gets u 30.
Did you see where I wrote he wasn’t an average player. If you did , you’re hallucinating. You can have him in that spot if others are scoring. However, you can’t have a backcourt that averages 20ppg.
hes a 10 min guy rc but on a team of mediocre players he can get up to 30 mins a game cause dumbot likes small ball and nobody is that great
He’s not a 10 minute player any more than Herro is a 15 minute player. But 36 minutes is far too much.
Yup
Take Thomas over both matter of fact over everybody on the team besides bam only over Wiggins and Powell because of age
agree mr negativity
bam ware bam ware our only savior fire dumbot hire me
out athleticized again
Why do some of the folks here think Miami is a good team? They are essentially the detention of Mid. They can occasionally beat a good team, just as they occasionally lose to a bad team.
Games like this aren’t shocking.
Got hfl and others acting like we have a roster to compete this year? And folks acting like Giannis would want to come here? Why, same situation as Milwaukee. We got some pieces, but not nearly enough to compete, and freak wouldn’t change that.
Really wish this team would either lean into a rebuild or go all in….but Pat likes our team…I don’t.
-Top of the east is weak/no clear cut contender
-MIA has depth and coaching advantage
-Underlying numbers are pretty good (#10 net rating, #4 defense)
Lmao.
Playin championship number 4 loading
not if orl in there
Top of the east let’s see.
Det Cade
Celtics brown
Ny Brunson
Cle Mitchell
Tor Ingram
Phi maxey
Orl banchero
All the players I’ve named are stars/ss/all nba players something Mia doesn’t have you can throw out all the stats you want to they don’t mean shit without those kinda of players
And Mia not beating neither of those teams come playoff time don’t gaf about how weak the east is
2015 delusional like me mr negativity
i would take ingram off that list but yes others are ss.ingrahms always been hurt id take bam over ingrahm.i wouldnt take bam of any others mr negativity
Nothing to argue about if you have Cam Thomas as better than Larsson and Herro
Delusional ass fanboy larsson is not better than cam Thomas wtf is wrong with you?
You really have no idea what you’re talking about and need to watch games instead of looking at box scores. Go ask a NBA team who they would rather have, a two-way wing or a 20 ppg scorer who doesn’t play defense and has never shot over 44% FG in a season.
bam ware would def help 35 mins a piece?
They are, and have been, a mediocre team all season. I don’t hate them (can’t hate the Heat), but they are sorely lacking that A level player that would make them more competitive.
“Why do some of the folks here think Miami is a good team? They are essentially the detention of Mid. They can occasionally beat a good team, just as they occasionally lose to a bad team.“
That’s delusional fans like 2015 and hfl. He (hfl) also said the same thing this year as he said last year they can beat anybody in the playoffs blah blah blah only to get mollywopped in the 1st round. And now the other delusional one 2015 saying no clear cut team blah blah blah analytics blah blah blah lmao no ss no rings no playoff series wins period
2015 too analytical for me i like the eye test method
wheres ware prob our best player f this coach
we need explosive guys that can go off dont have one
3 missed free throws in a row, yikes
to vanilla wiggy norm good players old though pats fault
This is unfortunately how this season has been going
wheres ware dumbot
wheres ware dumbot u idiot
wares where our best player possibly
hey pelle can u score above 25 1 friggin game porter can
Be realistic. That’s not his game.
why cause he doesnt have the explosion to do it every guy wants to score
Not every player is a scorer. You don’t know that? Wow
pelle vs bruhs thats tough guard pelle
Because of one play? Lmfao!!
come dude the athleticism is off the charts pelles a grinder he gets the most out of his swedish body
u add ja to this team next year there a top tier ec team
wheres myles turner he hurt
Bobby Portis shots all nothing but net tonight
whats the plan for ware
Ware comes in, rebounds, shoots 3s, blocks some shots, changes others. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
he might be our best player i guess we willnever know
Maybe you will never know.
Keep developing. Defense takes big men a while. Heat switch on defense and he can’t do that yet, he plays drop coverage so he’s a tricky fit right now
They switch because Bam has to try cover for short slow short teammates.
Heat +9 in the 3Q
spoke to soon
drus steals are a thing
Bucks playing well but Heat are going to break this game open eventually
Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way
whats the plan for ware?
great tip in ware
porters head got to the rim kas saying whoaaa
Need to see if they can survive the non Bam minutes
ru familiar with kelel ware
Rollins trying to go 1 v 1 on Bam in transition, Bam drops back with arms up, miss
not a top 25 player cant do much
Bam blowing up every possession for Bucks offense
Kuzma trying to catch his breath <2 min into 3Q. This offense is tough to play against
I think they’ve found something with the starting lineup this game. Elite defensively, and maximizes Powell as featured scorer
Bucks aren’t guarding the 3 at all, should be a big 2nd half for the heat offense
d wade and pelle larsson play same position theres a reason we are medioce pell larsson players a dime a dozen get me a wade pat u old fart
Just recently, you were extolling his virtues. Now a dime a dozen. Wades come around once every 10-20 years. Well, as usual, you are consistently inconsistent
pelles meh not difference maker better than niko.to many mediocre players.tired of it already
Got a remote? What happened to ‘we can compete with any team in the east’ (again)?
watching trump btw heat no volume
cam thomas 10 40 pt games with nets and they release him
mitch always looking to pass
cam thomas looks like a full back