Can the Miami Heat, off to a disappointing start, turn things around?

The NBA Eastern Conference was expected to be much more competitive this year with all the player movement. While that may still be the case, as the NBA is just a few weeks into the 2026-27 season, several teams have gotten off to unexpected slow starts, including the Miami Heat.

Miami entered the season with a lot of buzz after acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo and Klay Thompson in the offseason while also posting a 3-2 preseason record. Before the start of the season, the Heat was projected to compete for a top- 6 seed in the Conference and was even given a 4% chance of reaching the NBA Finals.

Granted, an Eastern Conference title run was probably a little ambitious for a Miami Heat team that gave up a boatload, mainly most of their backcourt depth, in the trade for Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis. But a 3-5 start to the season, with a -4.9 scoring margin, wasn’t expected.

Miami has been one of the top offensive teams in the early going. Miami is seventh in scoring (118.0), though they fell to 16th in offensive rating (112.6). The Heat are also one of the top shooting teams, ranking in the top 11 in both effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage. They have scored 115 or more points in half of their eight contests.

However, the Heat rank 26th in defensive rating (117.7) and scoring defense (122.9). The Heat are allowing opponents to shoot 48.7% from the field (27th) and 40.5% from 3-point range (30th). The Heat also rank in the bottom half of the league in rebounding, collecting 49.4% of all available boards.

The Heat Have Been Here Before

Poor starts have not been the norm under Erik Spoelstra, who is in his 19th season as head coach of the Heat. But this year marks the fourth time that Miami has started 2-5 since 2008. The Heat improved to 3-5 on Wednesday night with an 117-116 overtime victory over the lowly Los Angeles Clippers on November 4, on a Thompson 3-pointer with a second left.

The Heat have made the playoffs 14 times under Spoelstra. But two of the four times the Heat have not earned postseason berths have come when they began the season losing five of their first seven contests.

The first instance Miami opened the year 2-5 under Spoelstra was in 2014-15, when the Heat finished the season with a 37-45 record (10th in the East). The 37 victories are Spoelstra’s fewest as head coach – which last year’s team matched.

The Heat also missed the playoffs in 2018-19 after starting the season 2-5. The Heat finished with a 39-43 record that year and 10th in the conference.

But the Heat reversed their fortunes in 2021-22 when they found themselves in a similar situation. After starting the season 2-5, Miami went 38-27 the rest of the way, finishing sixth in the conference at 40-32. Milwaukee swept the Heat in the opening round of the playoffs.

So, if you believe Miami can repeat its 2021-22 turnaround, you should be able to get a good price in the NBA Crypto betting markets.

How Can Miami Turn Things Around

With Wednesday’s victory over the Clippers, Miami sits in ninth place in the East. The Heat are 1-4 against teams with a .500 or better record. They also have three losses of 10+ points.

Miami continues its five-game Western Conference road trip on November 5 at Golden State. The Heat will then head to Sacramento and Utah before returning home. Speaking of their schedule, following this road trip, the Heat will play 37 of their remaining 71 games at The Kaseaya Center. Moreover, according to Tankathon, Miami has the eighth-easiest remaining schedule. But the Heat do have to fix some things.

Miami Needs to Be More Consistent Offensively; Adding A Creator Will Help

Miami ranks ninth in field goal shooting at 47.2%. But Antetokounmpo and Adebayo are doing most of the heavy lifting, combining to take over 33% of the Heat’s shot attempts. Furthermore, Antetokounmpo has a 30.9% usage rate, while Adebayo’s is second on the team at 23.0%. Thompson is third with a 20.6% usage rate.

While Antetokounmpo and Adebayo have been extremely efficient and Thompson has shot the ball well from 3-point range, none of the trio are true creators. As a result, the Heat’s offense bogs down in the half-court as teams load up on their two bigs who are not floor spacers. The Heat score 14.6% of their points on the fast break.

Davion Mitchell is really the Heat’s only offensive creator. While Mitchell is playing the best basketball of his career – averaging 15.4 points with shooting splits of 50/40/73.3 – he is more of a defensive-oriented guard who is at his best playing around 22-25 minutes, not the 35 minutes that he is currently averaging. Andrew Wiggins has struggled and is more of a secondary creator than someone capable of consistently taking over games.

Improve 3-Point Volume

Another creator, who can consistently lead the offense, would not only open up the operating room for Antetokounmpo and Adebayo but also for Miami’s perimeter shooters. The Miami Heat have some shooters on the team, though they are only knocking down 33.5% of their nearly 39 attempts from 3-point range (13th). Wiggins and Tim Hardaway Jr. have particularly struggled from deep.

Kyrie Irving has been linked to the Heat, but he is not a real possibility at this point. So, the Heat will likely have to play the long game (with more options becoming more available closer to the trade deadline).

Improve Perimeter Defense

Defense has been a huge problem for Miami, particularly with the Heat’s starters. The Heat’s starting 5 (Mitchell, Adebayo, Thompson, Antetokounmpo, and Wiggins) have posted one of the worst Net ratings in the league (-11.4; with an offensive rating of 124.7 and a defensive rating of 136.1).

Moreover, Miami’s opponents are shooting an NBA-best 58% against them. While Antetokounmpo and Adebayo – who hasn’t played very well on the defensive end – are capable of covering for many mistakes, opposing teams’ backcourts are making 51% of their shots against the Heat (30th in the league). The Heat are also allowing a league-worst 17.1 triples per game at 40.5% from beyond the arc. Opposing backcourts are making nearly 10 treys a contest.

Wiggins and Thompson have been particularly awful. Thompson, Wiggins, Adebayo, and Mitchell have a raw rating of -17.2. Quick guards have been most problematic for Miami. So, the Heat will need to find another point-of-attack defender who can stay in front of these types of players.