The Miami Heat had the Orlando Magic on the ropes for the first 45 minutes of Wednesday’s season-opener inside Kia Center, but weren’t able to shut the door, losing 125-121.
There were both positives and negatives to take away from it — with one positive being the team’s offensive production, despite its late struggles. However, the process looked promising. And one of the main sentiments echoed this preseason — pace — followed suit, with the Heat quite literally playing the fastest it has in over a half-decade.
Heat records fastest pace in six years:
For most of the Jimmy Butler era — heck, for most of Erik Spoelstra’s career outside of the Big 3 — the Miami Heat have been one of the league’s slowest teams.
That wasn’t the case in their season opener.
Miami played at the fastest pace it has in six years, according to NBA.com’s tracking data, averaging 111.5 possessions per 48 minutes.
The game that my guy Coach Lu is referencing is an Oct. 23 game against the Memphis Grizzlies, where the team topped a pace reached 114 (without Butler) in a 120-101 win over Memphis.
The Heat’s four-point loss was magnified by poor rebounding at the end and poor defense throughout — which is part of the unintended consequence of pushing the tempo. Their offense, led by Norman Powell’s 28-point performance on 9-of-19 shooting, showed snap decision-making, good-not-great spacing in transition and a commitment to putting as much pressure as possible against a very good Magic defense.
It’s just one game, but those were two signs of encouragement. Process over results, in this case.
We’ll see if it sustains itself. Miami will need as much contribution as it can get from ancillary role players — such as Jaime Jaquez Jr., Simone Fontecchio and Davion Mitchell, who had 16 points with a game-high 12 assists (to just one turnover) with six boards — in Tyler Herro’s absence.
We’ve seen far too many times where offense comes too easily. We’ve seen far too many times they slog their way-and-down the hardwood, overcomplicating possessions where it fails to create any advantages, relying on hero ball (no pun intended on Herro’s name).
Now, it’s time to find a balance so its defense doesn’t completely fall off the map every night.
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Fast play is a little bit of a necessary improvement, and a little bit window dressing, a method of trying to cover up roster deficiencies. We still lost. And yes, faster play has its place, but having better players than the other team is far more important.
To make it real how far this team has drifted from that goal, our old friend Dunc had a 1-7, 0-5 from three night last night. I saw a report where they are already considering trading him but he is a hard asset to move because his salary is higher than his value. That happens a lot with our players and former players. That’s why they are so hard for us to get rid of too. Thank goodness we find occasional other fools like the Clippers taking Love and the Pistons helping us unload Dunc.
I wish we could find an idiot team to take Nico or Ty. Going to be hard to move them too. Better yet, let’s get a GM who doesn’t hand out contracts so foolishly and then try to fool the public into thinking we are going to be more competitive by playing faster.
I should have included Anderson in the Powell trade.
And, yes, we held off paying Ty and thank goodness for that. But, when he can’t be moved because he already gets too much, there is a high likelihood of Riley giving him about 40 mill which will only exacerbate the problem, leaving us with less maneuverability elsewhere.
Riley’s missteps have been many over the last few years but he has fleeced enough other owners to almost bring us to relevancy. We are really just one smart trade away. But, that trade is going to need another foolish GM to take our unmovable players because our movable ones will hurt us by losing them as much as anything we get back. So we are so close to relevancy and so far away at the same time.
Meanwhile we can play fast. And last year we could stop taking as many midrange jumpers. It’s all lipstick on a pig. Get better players instead.
Now, in breaking news Rozier arrested. That does explain some things.
I’ve been a fan of Herro despite his defensive limitations, but I wouldn’t be a fan at $40+m. I think his current contract is fair market value. If they are unable to trade him and he demands that kind of money, I would strongly prefer they just let his contract expire, freeing up that money for other players.
Yes, about the 40+ mill, I agree. But, I feel like you never know what’s going to happen with this team.
I know. I also hold out a tiny amount of hope that somehow the other four defenders help enough to make Herro not as much of an issue on defense. I also hope that the presence of the other four players, (and for this to work it has to be Ware at center, with Bam, Wiggins, Mitchell and Powell), give Ty so much more space to operate he scores in big numbers. Both, could happen. And, even then, the contract still a can’t go too high.
good points. with Ware’s limited minutes, Spo could be (purely my opinion) teaching the kid that he has to earn it, work hard and suck it up giving him tough love but that rebounding sequence(s) in the final minutes might’ve been the one that cost them the game. we’re all hoping that they will learn from this but a lot of close losses from last season tells you they (ei Spo!) should’ve learned already. one game. move on and make it better next. cross fingers.
Might? It IS what cost us the game. It kept happening over and over again in the final minutes.
I agree. You almost, in a team sport, couldn’t find a more direct relationship to one coaching substitution, made or not made, that led to the difference between winning and losing.,