The Oklahoma City Thunder rolled past the Miami Heat 124-112 inside Paycom Center Sunday night.
The Heat have now lost three-straight games, losing by 24, 28 and now 12 points, respectively.
Trailing by five at halftime, the reigning champions outsocred the Heat 70-53, including 64-39 in the first 17:28 of the second half. Miami has been outscored by 46 combined points in the second half over its three-game skid.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did MVP-like things, scoring 20 pointw with eight assists on 10-of-19 shooting. He completely took the game over the in the second half after a slow start.
Jalen Williams had 18 points and four rebounds while Chet Holmgren added 16 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Second-year guard Ajay Mitchell piled on with 16 poitns on 8-of-15 shooting off the bench. Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe added 11 points apiece.
Andrew Wiggins tallied a Heat-high 23 points on 7-of-10 from 3-point range. Nikola Jovic had 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting; Pelle Larsson totaled 16 points in his 19th start of the season, replacing an injured Norman Powell.
Bam Adebayo’s struggles offensively continued, scoring just six points on 3-of-10 shooting despite hauling down a team-high 14 rebounds.
Miami didn’t have enough firepower, despite shooting 53.7 percent from the floor and 17-of-32 from 3-point range. Their stars also need to be better. Their defense also has to be better.
Miami’s second half woes is a culmination of a lot of issues. Once again, it ran out of gas and couldn’t crawl back after another team went on a run. It will always be more difficult against the best team in the NBA, but this isn’t quite new news.
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There are two things which are obvious.
-Heat cant play winning basketball for some reason, if both Herro and Powell are available, no matter what combination and lineups are used. From time to time are able to do that, if one of them is available.
-Again, for some unknown reason, Pelle must be a starter for this team play winning basketball.
Good points Vagi. This mess is in Riley’s hands to fix. If he can’t, Heat needs someone who can.
It’s tricky to find a spot for Pelle, even though I agree he deserves to start because we do seem to play our best with him in that role. Herro should definitely be a seventh man. There must be some reason Spo forces him in to the detriment of our outcomes, perhaps a trade? But, even if that is the reason it is backfiring on us. But, then, who else starts, Ware or Wiggins? Maybe Andrew could be our sixth man and bump Jaimie and Tyler down. I think that could be worth a try.
doesnt matter who plays what # in pecking order need a #1ss
WHERE IS MIAMI HEADED?
INVENTORY OF ASSETS?
It is very clear that the team’s performance is rapidly declining. At this rate, we must all acknowledge that Miami is a mediocre team without a ray of hope (even with a ss) of being a top tier team. The team’s style of play is chaotic and fluctuates game to game. Spo is now having one of his worst years as a head coach. He is very slow in making adjustments when they are needed. He insists on playing small ball despite having one of the better frontcourts in the league (although Bam is having a bad year and Ware is going through a period of growth and maturity while he acquires experience and confidence).
The most tradeable players (who are not on rookie contracts) that Miami has and their potential trade values, are in my opinion, as follows:
Veteran players with trade value:
Expiring contract to keep until summer for cap space
Veteran players to keep on affordable contracts:
Player on rookie contract with 4 year extension (untradeable):
Players on rookie contracts Miami should keep and continue developing:
JUSTIFICATION FOR RE-TOOLING OR RE-BUILDING
If there was ever a good time to re-tool or re-build, this may be it. The team is going nowhere and several players have trade value.
Bam and Herro will be under contract next season, have trade value and could bring in quality players and first round picks (maybe one or more in 2026).
Powell and Wiggins have trade value (players and picks). Powell is on an expiring contract and Wiggins has a player option which he may very well decline.
This is all true. This does seem like the time to rebuild because the Rozier situation and the quality of the players we have, and their contracts, will make it very hard, although not impossible, but very hard to improve this team. And this team does need improving, and that will remain true even if it looks good occasionally, as the collective strength of this team is just mediocre.
The question is, will the Heat accept reality and do the best move for this franchise for the future.,The Heat seem adverse to doing much of anything, possibly due to the Rozier situation, players that are difficult to move, or perhaps because of limitations imposed on spending due to previous contracts or ownership reluctance. We seem to be treading water, playing for time while doing nothing, and that is frustrating for us fans.
Meanwhile, every time we play someone good, we get beat. But then, the large number of bad teams allow us to get some wins which then falsely alleviates the pressure for making changes.
Sometimes, I don’t know how we hang in there. Our fans loyalty is to be commended. I’m not sure the Heat deserve it anymore.
This reminds me of the Phoenix Suns after Dragic was traded to Miami. Directionless and difficult for fans to watch. Miami appears headed the same way. Suns lost a ton of fans during that period and have yet to fully recover. Booker has had to suffer through it all. With all due respect to the powers that be, it feels like it’s time for a regime change.
one reason the heat prob dont want to do a rebuild is the arena will be empty.the tv viewing will go down,and the interest in the team will go down,miami loves winning team.theres panthers fans in the city just because they got real good.dont know sht about hockey.it looks like we might have quitter 2 in maxi man.sometimes good players see no chance for jewelry they have indirect ways of saying gmtfoh.sames as tys defense yells gmtfoh.get the playin bros tfoh bring in a couple ballers and try to land a whale in off season or thru athens.i hate rebuilds personally especially when u have bunch nice players on squad.top 15 could go 0-82 and still have a job.btw im renamimg niko niko spobotovic
“Mediocrity never goes away – but neither, I hope, do those who are willing to challenge it.”
~ Milos Forman ~
what is pat thinking now in that 80 year old brain.
yup we dont run as fast as them