Just when you think things couldn’t have gotten worse for the Miami Heat — they got worse.
The Indiana Pacers, a tanking team who entered losers of 18 of their previous 19 games, secured a 135-118 win over the Miami Heat inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse Sunday evening.
To make matters worse: Two of the Pacers’ 17 wins this season — remember, there are only two weeks left in the season! — have come against the Heat. The Pacers’ 17-point win Sunday is their biggest since that aforementioned victory, which came in a 24-point win on Jan. 10.
Indiana, who shot 68.2 percent in the first half (13-22 3PA), outscored the Heat 25-7 over the final 8:49. The Heat clanked 15 of their final 18 attempts, shooting just 17.9 percent in the fourth quarter while missing all eight of their 3-point attempts.
Once again, Miami couldn’t defend a stop sign for most of the night. It has now allowed 130-plus points in five of its last seven games, surrendering a 130.7 points per 100 possessions to a dormant Pacers unit that’s been a bottom-five unit the whole season.
Pascal Siakam tallied a team-high 30 points on 11-of-24 shooting with 11 rebounds and six assists, though it was former Sioux Falls Skyforce center Micah Potter who was second (21 points) in scoring, draining five of his six triples.
Kobe Brown (18 points), TJ McConnell (15 points, 9 assists) and Andrew Nembhard (15 points, 10 assists) were all very good in the winning effort.
Without Norman Powell, Tyler Herro posted a game-high 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting and 5-of-13 from distance. The Heat shot 46.5 percent from the floor and 13-of-37 from 3-point range.
Pelle Larsson, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo scored 15 points apiece. Jaime Jaquez Jr., who will be in contention for the Sixth Man of the Year award, had 17 points and eight boards on 7-of-17 shooting.
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This team is cooked, heat culture is dead for the foreseeable future. So tank this season and hopefully get a stud. I’m giving Riley 1- 2 years, if we can’t be a contender by then, then trade bam, tell Riley he has to resign or get fired, and let spo be gm Ala Brad from Boston. Sounds simple right, but probably won’t happen.
Giving Riley 1-2 years? Wow, generous. He’s run back the same team for like 6 straight seasons. They don’t have cap room, they don’t have an elite pick. How do you expect him to fix it?
I think the time to move from Riley was likely a decade ago, when LeBron took his bag home. He doesn’t know how to build a roster in the modern NBA.
Cap room will come after this season, and you don’t need an elite pick to get a talented player, a few examples are kawhi,giannis,Jimmy, maxey,pascal,jokic,Tony Parker. Also he should only get 1 year, but if he gets a really good player that improves us to a top 5 team in the east next season, then that deserves a second year. I don’t disagree with anything you said, but 2 seasons in the NBA isn’t that long compared to the Nfl,baseball,or even the NHL.
what is ware.why very little ware.ware is ——.nobody knows .what is spo a very stubborn dum coach whos been gifted generational players
Just like other coaches, Jackson, Riley, Kerr, Auerbach, etc etc etc etc
nobody puts wiggins on mobley but dumbot.nobody plays norm ty together but dumbot. hes terrible sir.with his use of players.auto subs no feel for the game .a stubborn robot hence the name spobot.gimme the roster ill use kj on their best forward or guard to shut them down .guy has something against kj but loved him some niko simone jaco.hmmm.spos #1 problem more than the players.goldin not 1 friggin second.bam ware all season 35 mins.wtf.#spo suks.read other blogs lots feel the same
the only savior to this team being relevant was seeing ware become wemby jr same build same type skill level to a lesser degree but the way dumbot has used him is a fireable offense.pelle jjj hice stories not diff makers.if ware could have been that diff maker season would look different.still to this day not sure what his level is.f u spobot
What’s the old saying – history is doomed to repeat itself?
Miami’s front office has refused to change. This team is dead for now and probably for the foreseeable future.
How do you fix this team? You need a Super Star. Not a Jimmy Butler (level), but a MVP candidate. The problem is, in the modern NBA – those players just don’t get moved (with the exception of Luka, and the GM was fired less than a year later).
So while Miami may make a bid on a broken down MVP, I don’t think that would cut it either.
They need to focus on the young players and the draft picks. Tyler, Andrew, Norman, should all go. I’d honestly listen to offers for Bam (I mean both for building the future roster, and Bam, would probably thrive on a different team).
The biggest issue with all of this, is now all of a sudden tanking is enemy number 1. So by the time Miami recognizes it’s in a rebuild and tanking becomes just the only option, this team won’t benefit like previous teams.
Miami is NBA purgatory, and there isn’t really a path out of it.
Should’ve started the process last year and had a chance at edgecomb but like the out of touch
Dinosaurs they are made the playoffs as a middle finger to the tankers and rebuilding only to get embarrassed during said playoffs.
Missing out on young talent in order to be a playin team year in year out is diabolical no way around it
My comment above sort of aligns with yours. And in retrospect, you were right. We would be one year into a new era now if we didn’t win the play-in.
Respectfully, I was as vocal here as anyone about missing the playoffs last season to secure the #11 pick, which turned into Cooper Flagg.
Well expressed. And the sad part is you could see it all coming. In a strange way if we hadn’t gotten Powell in a remarkable trade, this whole process, where we are forced to change course whether we want to or not, which currently will likely still take a little longer to acknowledge, would have come sooner. If we didn’t get Powell we would be a lottery team right now and the need to go thru the pain of rebuilding would already be apparent.
Wow, what a shit show that was. Again.
There are 4 former all stars in this team, and some really solid role players, and some good young players, and even some good G league players.
And yet the taste of the soup cooked out of this is terrible.
I m questioning players because lack of energy. That was a no show again. Energy wise, 3 minutes of Gardner brings more energy then the rest of the team.
But I m also questioning coaching. Design of defense, which gets 80 points in the half, is wrong. Somebody should be fired because of that. If that is Spoes design, he should go.
Anyway, play in here we come. This time with much less chances to advance, which is actually a good thing.
I was always optimistic about this team, I m not any more. Apologies to bout30man, HHH, HFL and others predicting this outcome… they were right and I was wrong.
We all wanted to believe and I admit I vacillated a lot. Sometimes it was hard to be sure what direction we were heading. Good moves would be made and then there were ones that didn’t work out. And all along we got more locked into certain contract parameters that limited the ability to make further moves. And some players would play good and improve and then it would turn out we still weren’t good enough. When you are mediocre it is hard to tell in basketball because you are two better players away from being highly competitive and two players away from being in the lottery. In the end, the bottom line is the won/lost record.
At least we all went thru this together and learned a lot.
Let’s start by trashing those silly slogans like “toughest, nastiest, hardest working”…blah, blah stuff. Would think that type of fiction just fires up the opposition. You want culture…it’s not with words but actions.
Sad…not sad. What was there ever to expect other than something delusional ? Finally…this will actually humble Riley with an eye opening reality. We all saw this coming…it’s an opportunity folks.
I hope so. But, it may take attendance to drop before they make some changes. I don’t know the figures on how that’s holding up but I thought I heard some deal on discounted ticket packages about three weeks ago.
i was lauding bam about his offensive play just when u think hes arrived as a ss(he is defensively) he plays like sht.taking 3s all over the place typical bam he knows hes got that guaranteed arison $ aja now lifes good.wedding plans coming soon baby ajas wnba season things going great for bam.if bam really cared hed stop standing at 3pt line and get dirty.what a con artist this guy is.please dont invite me to the wedding i aint coming
It’s over,,the idea of avoiding the play-in. And any idea of getting beyond the play-in now appears to be highly unlikely too. This was the kind of loss that should leave people questioning the team direction.
And, btw, my prediction of a 45-37 season will now almost surely prove to be optimistic. If we improved this year, if we really are on much of an upward trajectory, even that can be fairly debated. This humbling defeat leaves a bad taste, bad enough that front office change could be in the offing, or at least should be being considered.
What I am saying here is that no one should be accepting this level of performance. And there can be no excuses. We were totally healthy. A hard look should be given at everything this team stands for or purports to be. Heat Culture is becoming just an empty phrase. This loss brings shame on this organization.
And shame on the woefully inadequate efforts of our doddering, well over the hill GM. You should know when to leave the stage or you tarnish your legacy. You should be embarrassed if you have retained any ability to be objective and get beyond your massive ego.
Heat fans should be enraged and demand change.
Our prediction of 45-37 still should be close, but you’re right that it seems a little optimistic as it’s very unlikely they go 6-1. Even 4-3 seems like a stretch. But let’s remember that last season they ended 37-45. So, better this season, but not nearly enough. My buddy keeps saying that fans wouldn’t attend if they go in more of a rebuild, but are fans going to be filling the arena for a team in its fourth straight play-in season? If we don’t make the playoffs, we will be in the lottery with a pick between 12-14, with very long odds to move into the top 4 (unlikely, but not impossible). With the Warriors tanking, we will likely also have the 41st pick in this very deep draft. Some may discount the importance of this draft. I think between the draft and expiring contracts, this will be a pivotal period for the future of the team.
This could be a very important offseason.
Riley has his work cut out for him if he wants to build a true contender. If he’s happy going down the same mediocre path, not do much to do. Just a few minor tweaks.
Yeah, just a little minor tweaking at the edges is all that’s needed as things are going great. We are improving, on an upward trajectory, and the players are about to take a huge leap in growth. Maybe the only thing we need to do is lock the young ones down with a mulii year contracts. But, maybe we should watch them play over the summer in Europe first and then decide, just to be sure who to give the millions to. Anyway, we already have enough already and only need to play faster. And besides, we will be acquiring one of the best players in the nba and he will be coming here because he sees that our roster is the best place in the league to win a championship in the next year. So, we really shouldn’t do anything else while we wait for that player.
If we had a sarcasm font, it would be applied here.
I agree with you. All the NBA stars are going to want to play for Miami. They’ll be banging down the doors to get in this summer.
They will take a team friendly pay cut to be part of this emerging juggernaut.
ja did
The same way the fans will be spending big money and filling the arena next season, happy to go for a 5th straight play-in year.