The first game since Jimmy Butler’s suspension saw the Miami Heat get ran off the floor by the Utah Jazz on Saturday. It was an embarrassing 36-point blowout to a non-competitive squad in the Western Conference Standings, but they won’t have much time to dwell as the Heat will now open a six-game West Coast trip against the Sacramento Kings.
Miami has dropped two games in a row and have fell to a 17-16 record. They have hit a rough patch of the season, both with the outside Butler noise and in the win column. The Heat have lost six of their last 10 games, and now will have to gear up for the first night of a back-to-back during this road trip.
The Kings are in the midst of their own struggles, as they have also lost six of the last 10. They enter tonight with a losing record of 17-19 and down to the 11th seed in the West.
Their injury report has not been released yet, but the status of De’Aaron Fox will be crucial heading into tonight. He was unavailable in their previous win over the Golden State Warriors due to injury.
For the Heat, they will desperately seek a response from the poor outings of Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro in their last game. Adebayo put together arguably the worst performance of his entire career, as it was the first time ever that the big man failed to record a single made field goal in 25+ minutes of playing time.
Outside of Butler, everyone one the roster should be available. Haywood Highsmith is listed as questionable for personal reasons and didn’t travel with the team to Sacramento yesterday. But he is expected to meet them in time for the game, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Haywood Highsmith (personal reasons) — QUESTIONABLE
- Josh Richardson (heel) — DOUBTFUL
- Jimmy Butler (suspension) — OUT
- Dru Smith (achilles) — OUT
- Isaiah Stevens (G-League) — OUT
Sacramento Kings:
- NOT YET SUBMITTED.
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Terry Rozier, G
- Tyler Herro, G
- Haywood Highsmith, F
- Nikola Jovic, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Sacramento Kings:
- De’Aaron Fox, G
- Malik Monk, G
- DeMar DeRozan, F
- Keegan Murray, F
- Domantas Sabonis, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 10:00 PM EST
- TV: NBA TV & FanDuel Sports Network Sun (Eric Reid & John Crotty)
- Radio: AM 560 Sports WQAM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)
- Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)
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I expect Sabonis to have 20 or more rebounds against us. Hopefully Herro will keep us in the game and somebody else will step up, too.
Let’s go Heat!
I swear, it feels like some people would rather be the Sixers and make big splashy moves every offseason, and get their butts kicked in the playoffs ever year.
Miami has been one of the best teams in the NBA over the past five years, have given Jimmy the three best playoff runs of his career, and it seems like a vocal subset of fans just want to complain about what happens in the offseason.
They don’t hang banners for transactions, people.
I agree with you, but I can understand the frustration as well. Most of the fans here saw that running it back without any difference-making additions would not make us a contender.
Anyway, it is what it is. Miami Heat is not the worst team in the NBA and we do not need to be pessimistic. The worst that can happen is that there will be no trade and Jimmy leaves after the season with no return. But we would probably have our draft pick and could start the rebuild with free cap space.
I guess I am an outlier here, but I think this is the first time all season I’ve truly been interested in watching the Heat. This road trip is an opportunity for this team to figure out who they are, probably for the entire season, and possibly for many seasons to come. I’m not saying it’s going to be fun, easy, or even successful. But at least it will be interesting.
Hopefully it won’t be another 30+ point loss..
You’re not, for the past couple seasons the games without Jimmy have brought a different kind of intrigue for me.
I’d love to see Bam find his rhythm and creativity on offense again. I’d like to see Herro be more deliberate in creating offense for others (like he did, that one game, against the Celtics in the playoffs last year).
The Herro–Jaime–Jovic–Ware lineups are delightful. Ware seems to make everything simpler for guys like Jaime and Jovic, and even Terry too.
I wanna see Keshad get enough playing time that the game slows down for him, and Josh C’s quickness at the point of attack showed against Utah. When’s the last time we had a guard defender who didn’t lose after the first step? Pre big three Wade?
Maybe it’s because I expected better chemistry with all the continuity, but every offensive possession was high stakes and miserable. Jimmy wasn’t exactly lying.
Time for a different starting lineup, I would like to see ware paired with bam .
That is something I believe every person on the blog agrees with.
Well, good luck. I hope they put their shit together.
Funny how little you hear from Riley at times like this. He could say some things to the fans to make us feel like there is some sense of hope for the future direction of the team. All we get is press releases like, we aren’t trading Jimmy or, now we will look at offers, or after seven games, if he’s not traded, he is expected to play. This is not a reassuring or inspiring man.
And who can forget, if he’s unavailable, he should shut his mouth.
Acquisitions during the Butler era.
now show the playoff record
(Repost)
I looked at the transactions in that time period. I know you can’t be referring to insignificant contracts like Zeller, Ariza, Harkness, Bradley, etc. The contracts of note ($9 million plus) in that period were Leonard (he was a pretty decent player at the time), Dragic, Oladipo, Duncan, and (there goes that man again) Lowry. I’ve pointed out that I believe the Duncan and Lowry contracts definitely hamstrung the Heat. The Dragic contract was fine imo. Do you think, at the time, that Leonard’s contract was a mistake? Who should they have signed for $10 million a season instead? I’m not saying he was the best choice, I just really don’t know who was available at the time for that money. Should Riley have been hesitant to give Dipo the contract given his injury history? Maybe, but he had huge potential, again imo. So, other than the Lowry and Duncan contracts, am I missing anything?
I think it’s silly if/when someone calls either of us naive or worse because our opinions differ from theirs. We are both reasonably intelligent people who love the Heat.
So we apparently aren’t hearing anything from Riley, but then you list a bunch of things that we *are* hearing. So it’s just that you’re not hearing what you want, then? What is it that you want to hear? A false promise? That feels like a really idea from a business perspective.
Take a breath. Give it some time. Things aren’t great right now. But pointing fingers and getting hysterical isn’t going to make things better.
I appreciate all of your opinions. And your comments have some validity. But, all over the league players like Paul Pierce today and writers and pundits are saying Riley is the problem. I still say, despite being out on a lonely island, that they are right.
I came back to the Heat in 2020, mostly out of Jimmy love. And we had some great times. But, I don’t share the Heatles love, as I felt those guys colluded unfairly to get a ring. So, my perspective is different. Those years brought many of you an affection for Pat I don’t feel.
We were amazingly lucky to get Jimmy and have him blossom into a player who could carry a team more than anyone but the very best,a Jordan, LeBron, Jabbar, level impact. Then, Bam blossomed into something special. You can’t tell now because he is so frustrated playing center and also having to do more as Jimmy lost a little of the superstar level. And Ty is a nice player, but then it drops off pretty good.
I saw an article today that Shams wrote that said Jimmy begged Riley to get a third option for three years and he never did. What do you expect Jimmy to do, waste his last viable years? Then, the off season yielded Alec Burks, wtf?
Pat reminds me of an egomaniacal bully. Worse, he has been ineffective over the last few years, mostly opting to do nothing as his default option. Unless he acts different, that’s what I see.
Sorry, I hear you all but don’t agree. I was glad we didn’t pay Jimmy’s contract, but then I believe we owe it to his legacy to trade him or make the team better and stop pretending we are good enough when we aren’t. I remain on his side and point my finger at Riley. And, stop making excuses for him. With Jimmy and Bam in fold, are you truly believing he couldn’t have done better? Give me a break.
I agree with you that we are not good enough. I agree that Riley likely could have done better. But I am not going to take sides in this argument. I think it is a clash of two big egos and both Riley and Butler could have handled it better. But we don’t see behind the scenes so we are just guessing. And personally I am not interested in what Paul Pierce has to say about this. Or Shams and likes who make a living of spreading rumours. Part of what they report might be true, a part made up BS, but how should we know what is made up and what is real. Anyway no point in my opinion to cry over this mess. Hopefully it will pass soon (although I am not so optimistic in this regard).
Anyway, let’s go Heat! Thanks to all the fans for all their comments and opinions.
Hey, I’ll send a boat to pick you up on lonely island 😆. I agree with a lot of what Sharkey said. There is blame on both sides as is usually the case in any dispute. But it really doesn’t matter now, what’s done is done. In my other post, I did my best to point out facts about the transactions without attaching emotion to them.
Not the first time Riley has played a dead man’s hand. Not the first time Butler has burned bridges.
Ok, time for me to stop harping on it too. I had my say. We are all fans hoping for the best for our team. Thanks for all your input and thanks for being on this site.
I do appreciate that