This is our GAMETHREAD: Chat live about the game here!
Miami Heat Injury Report:
- Andrew Wiggins (toe) — OUT
- Bam Adebayo (calf) — AVAILABLE
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. (hip) — OUT
- Keshad Johnson (G-League) — OUT
- Jahmir Young (G-League) — OUT
- Terry Rozier (not with team) — OUT
- Trevor Keels (G-League) — OUT
Los Angeles Lakers Injury Report:
- Maxi Kleber (back) — OUT
Miami Heat Starting 5:
- Davion Mitchell, G
- Tyler Herro, G
- Pelle Larsson, F
- Simone Fontecchio, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Los Angeles Lakers Starting 5:
- Luka Doncic, G
- Austin Reaves, G
- Marcus Smart, F
- LeBron James, F
- Deandre Ayton, 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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- Jaime Jaquez Jr. named finalist for Sixth Man of the Year award
- Heat will have 13th best lottery odds ahead of 2026 NBA Draft
- How this Heat rookie ‘surprised’ many in organization
- Why this two-man combination was ‘challenging’ for Heat
- How the Miami Heat can move up to 12th in lottery race
- Norman Powell noncommittal on future with Heat
- Pelle Larsson reveals areas he wants to improve entering third season
In addition to basketball and other sports, my wife and I are big boxing fans. In boxing, there are contenders and there are journeymen. The contenders are the ones in a position to compete for a championship. The journeymen can range from very poor to very good, although, for all intents and purposes, none are good enough to contend for championships.
The thought occurred to me that the contenders in the NBA are:
In the next tier of teams, the top journeymen are:
The remaining 13 teams are canon fodder for both the contenders and top journeymen teams. Several of them can only dream of making the play-ins, much less the playoffs.
We see the potential Miami could have if everyone was healthy and the team was operating on all cylinders. Unfortunately, the reality is, even then, Miami would not be good enough to be a contender. The only way the Heat can be a contending team in 2026-2027 is if significant personnel changes are made this coming summer. We can debate who should stay and who should go. However, we can all agree that “this dog can’t hunt.”
It is clear that Miami has one elite (Class A) player in Bam and several very good (B/B+) journeymen players. This team will never become a contender until at least one more A level player is brought in via trade, free agency, the draft or internal development. To do that, Riley will need to find ways to part with those players who do not fit into Miami’s future plans.
Meanwhile, let’s all just sit back, relax and try to enjoy the rest of the season, the play-ins and the playoffs. We will have plenty of time later to debate which players should be kept, traded or allowed to walk away and which players should be targeted for acquisition via trade or free agency. We can also debate which players Miami should consider selecting in the first and second round of the draft.
Hang loose.
u left off the knicks as contenders sun.isnt your wife from brooklyn?gotta remember no wiggy or jjj and that game was close.if u take herro and sit his no d shoot mentality and stick him on the bench sub him with wig and jjj u win that game last night.and become a better team.i just think he hurts u way more than he helps.with jjj wiggy u can first level d every fn night.with pelle and kas to lesser extent u get pretty solid play every night.tyler is to up and down offensively and crappy every night defensively.will somebody please wake ware up and tell him his competitive juice aint cutting ittheres alot more in ware i believe is he discouraged by his use by spobot only he knows ,spobots non use of kj is baffling.hes such a freakish athlete can hit js why the f not eric is pat telling u this.theres enough on this roster when whole and used properly that can give most any team in the east a very competitive 7 game series.i truly believe that spobot is a weakness with his rotations.why not have your best defender on luka.pelle had no shot just not big enough,
Sorry about that. Knicks belong in the group too. That’s 10 contenders, 7 pretenders and 13 dead enders.
Miami doesn’t need one way players unless they are putting up 25-30 points or 10 assists a night. Herro and Powell are defensive liabilities.
Imagine if Miami had Wiggins, someone in Rozier’s spot like DeRozan and Jovic performing at the level Riley thinks he is worth. They might be good enough to be at the top of the journeymen list or very bottom of the contenders list. Otherwise, they are a mediocre play-in team with a chance at qualifying for the #7 or #8 spot and a probable speedy first round exir… again.
pat did nothing to help this team nothing.hes stealing mickeys $$ this year why not give keshad minutes like jovic was given whats the difference because pat paid jovic.kj could be a good backup pf hes got the perf nba body.if franz was healthy believe orlando with banchero bane black could be a contender
MIA +20 PITP, a huge margin usually an indicator of a win, but that is canceled out by Lakers being +16 in free throw points (they shot double Miami’s FTA, 45 vs 22).
And of Luka’s 30 FGA, over half were from three and he made 9. Not much you can do except credit LAL
with the dissapointing play of ware u can say that wiggins and jjj are our 2nd and third best players.ill wait for the tank talk till wiggy especially gets back.i dont want rc to be the only one here during the tankathon.
I disagree with Spo.,The Heat players are giving all they got, not much more for them to give. What they need is two players as good as Luca, Austin or even old man LeBron.
we got players as good as ar or better.none better than luka or lebron..if im bam im saying to pat ill give u one more year to upgrade roster or im out
theres only 4 players as good as luke wemby joker sga ant maybe jalen/tatum,
Like the Offspring said, Luka’s pretty fly for a white guy. That was impressive, but I don’t think the Lakers will go that deep into the playoffs. Their defense is suspect.
tylers super fly for white guys
Yes Curtis, he will make his fortune bye and bye.
curtis mayfield.ty is really fly for a vanilla 30
I agree with what Crotty said earlier, that it likely comes down to Thunder vs Spurs in the west.
minn denver have a fair chance.boston possibly to
I think so too. And it’s a toss up to me even though the Spurs had OKC’s number head to head during regular season
just not good enough im going to the blow this up.trade everybody for picks.suck for a few years.this medicrity is hard to take
Very realistic approach
only hing is if the heat are gonna suk i wont watch all the games so maybe u should root for that
I am, I am!
you;ll be by yourself.you still would watch every game when there 10 35
Yes I would. I always have. But, gee, I’m already feeling a bit lonely.
dolphins are tanking maybe its time to tank for the heat.suffer for a few years build it up like minn okc orl det
kas wasnt great but not bad .herro was real bad til the end..if i was the coach herro wouldnt play a second.pelle norm jjj better options ,time to sit herro for good.team is better off wo his one on one play and always always crappy d
Only reason any player would want to come to Miami in this modern day is the state income tax and the warm weather.
Those antique rings, and a front office that over rates its home grown players, a cheap owner who won’t go all in…don’t exactly shout come to Miami.
they were coming to play with wade not pat the city inc tax
I think the owner is not inclined to pay the penalties for going over the aprons. And Pat has burned him a few times recently, wasted Mickey’s money.
The pregame line (Miami 3.5 pt favorite) gave too much weight to LAL being on a road back to back, not enough to Doncic being on a MVP run recently
Not enough weight to Miami being middling bad and the Lakers being good.
didnt understand that line with luka and lebron dumbot line
bam on lebrom kj on luka anybody want me as coach ?
I think its safe to say they’re tanking haha
if we dont get bam help i could see him wanting out soon
Seriously blow the team up. Not only will Pat be dead before this team is a contender again, i might be too. And he’s got a good 40 years on me.
no wiggy jjj not bad .jjj wiggy 2 wayers good players.tyler is not
Lakers mvp chants at home in Miami. This is the squad you built Pat.
Afraid it’s game over now, would take a Reggie Miller miracle. Good game, but tough loss.
tyler shoots 43% we win
Another Herro turnover…
lakers dont have the defense to win it all
bam on lbj kj on luka makes sense?
I mean anyone would be better to have in defensively than Herro, but your insane if you think Keshad is stopping Luka…He was cooking Bam, he’s gonna cook anyone on our team.
u look at kjs build and athleticism u try him on luka hes got the size power and athleticism way more than pelle zach
had to have fouled him
Must be nice to root for a team with good players, rather than just hoping your scrappy squad can play above their level.
tylers explosive zach he loves the challenge gotta hand it to him alway liked the big moment
Big moment? More like empty calorie points…scoring big when a games basically over, and then giving up points on the other end? Meh.
lakers vs okc minn would get smoked
How do you leave Dončić wide open?
hes making miraculous shots alot rc hes to big for pelle.kj and bam would have guarded him better,put bam on lebron kj on luka
The one I was talking about, he was wide open behind the line and nobody defended him
Playing 3 on 5 on defense is rough.
thats a foul crutty comeon u homer
Getting to see the greatness of Luca.,Too bad it’s at our expense.,We need to score on this possession, then get some stops.
mcdavid to lol
too small not athletic enough team is close but like rc says need more prob a ss and keshad johsnon to get some pt.
Good job Spo. Rebounding doesn’t matter, keep playing your no D scorer who can’t shoot tonight.
id a had kj dogging luka all night
try bam or kj on luka
Another dumb foul from behind.
dav big hit there
too small eric
i can see why aytons bounced around
what was tyler doing there that was funny just getting out of the way
ayton pelle jostling for position luka runs into pelle is that a foul.
bam ware bam ware bam ware gotta be35 minutes each we just look diff with that lineup
Ware and Kas helped get Miami close. Both taken out.
Austin Reaves having a bad night, and still cooks Herro overall.
luka yelling force ref to make call looked pretty clean there ref
This one is going down to the end.
got ball first then arm i thought that would be ok if u get ball first guess not
Hey wow, the NBA ruled in Miami’s favor? I’m shocked.
miamis a beautiful city not for me like quietness relaxing watching heat games
That was a foul refs
ayton finally made a play prob fouled him though.hes got a motor like ware not much competitive juice
Looked like Ayton got a lot of arm, so logically it’ll be there ball when we get back.
ayton fouled him maybe before shot though