Player Grades from Heat’s latest loss shows concerning trend

The Miami Heat fell apart in the second half of their matchup against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.

They contained Stephen Curry throughout the first two quarters, leading to a tie at halftime and a competitive start. However, Miami came out completely flat at the start of the third— getting outscored 38-23 in the period. Despite solid games from Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo and Davion Mitchell, it wasn’t enough to recover from that sloppy second half effort.

Curry ended up coming alive, finishing with a 29-point night. But the biggest negative for the Heat came from the continued disappointing play by Andrew Wiggins. Let’s explore those struggles from the key wing, plus several other rotation Player Grades from the loss that dropped Miami’s record to 3-6 on the season.

Andrew Wiggins: F

This is the main grade to go most in-depth on here. Wiggins has statistically been one of the worst starting forwards in the entire league this season, and the matchup in Golden State didn’t help that notion one bit.

The 31-year-old ranks around 140th in the league among all NBA forwards in points per game. He’s allowing the player he’s guarding to shoot nearly 60% from the field— worst in the league among all forwards who have defended at least 70 shots. Lastly, the Heat have been outscored by roughly 76 points in his minutes this season. Out of 452 players who have appeared in a game this season, Wiggins has the 12th worst plus/minus (all stats via Barry Jackson, Miami Herald).

During the Warriors matchup, he tallied an abysmal 2 points on 1 of 6 shooting in 20 minutes before coach Erik Spoelstra benched him for majority of the second half. Over the last three games, Wiggins is now averaging 4 points on 22% shooting. He has undoubtedly looked unplayable, despite high expectations as a third option behind Antetokounmpo and Adebayo heading into this new campaign.

Giannis Antetokounmpo: C

Antetokounmpo put up a 20 points and 14 rebounds double-double versus Golden State. Sounds impactful, but he disappeared in that poor Heat second half showing on both ends of the court— totaling just 3 points in the third and fourth quarter combined.

Bam Adebayo: B-

It was another strong and efficient outing from Adebayo, posting an 18 and 10 double-double himself. He shot 58% overall, but similar to Giannis— his impact wasn’t felt as much when Miami needed offense the most in their second half collapse.

Davion Mitchell: A-

As he often does, Mitchell never gave up on his individual two-way effort in this one, especially when they were down big down the stretch. Mitchell dropped 16 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter— doing all he could to keep the game in reach for Miami.

Klay Thompson: D+

Following Thompson’s 30-point night and game winner in the LA Clippers game, his streaky shooting was on display in his Golden State reunion. He was held to just 23 minutes of playing time due to a 3 of 10 shooting night.

Tim Hardaway Jr: F

The only Heat player that has been as disappointing as Wiggins this year is Tim Hardaway Jr. The veteran sharpshooter came to the Heat expected to build off his Sixth Man of the Year caliber campaign from a season ago, but has instead struggled heavily. Against the Warriors, Hardaway missed three attempts from deep before Spoelstra pulled the plug on his minutes early— just four minutes of action that looked rough once again.

Nikola Jovic: F

This grade will likely be a regular throughout the year. Unlike Wiggins and Hardaway, Nikola Jovic set the bar pretty low from his disastrous season last year right after signing a shiny new overpaid rookie extension. Jovic once again contributed virtually nothing against the Warriors: adding a whopping 1 point on 0 of 2 from the field in 12 bench minutes.

Ryan Conwell: B

If there’s one positive takeaway from the loss, it’s Spoelstra showing some trust early in the season in rookie Ryan Conwell. The 2026 second-round pick received a season-high 30 minutes versus the Warriors and didn’t disappoint. He finished with 13 points on 3 of 6 shooting from 3-point range. It’s clear that the Heat are in desperate search of a spark, and this game paved an opportunity for Conwell to do so moving forward.