The last two Miami Heat seasons have shared two common denominators— inconsistency and getting spanked by the Boston Celtics. That notion didn’t change on Monday night, as the Celtics spoiled Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Kyle Anderson’s debut on Miami’s home floor.
After what looked like an encouraging start to the game, Miami quickly saw a first quarter double-digit evaporate. They were outscored 70-41 in the second and third quarters combined. And the superstar play of Jayson Tatum was simply too much to overcome.
Despite Wiggins’ defensive upside, he had zero answers for the talent of Tatum. He led the Celtics with a game-high 33 points on 13 of 26 shooting overall. Even with his co-star in Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday sidelined, he got help from the remainder of his supporting cast.
Boston’s frontcourt duo of Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis had the edge over Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware. The Heat’s rookie put together a forgetful outing, finishing with 8 points and 7 boards on 4 of 12 from the field.
Adebayo did his thing as probably the only Heat player that showed up. He had a team-high 22 points and 12 boards double-double to go along with 4 assists. His All-Star teammate Tyler Herro was a late scratch before tipoff due to a stomach illness.
The new additions of Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell showed glimpses of strong defensively versatility. However, they each put together rough shooting performances. Wiggins had just 11 points on an abysmal 3 of 12 shooting. It is never easy being integrated into a new system midseason, let alone facing the reigning NBA Champions on the very first night.
It could be a work in progress, but look to see an offensive improvement from the former All-Star moving forward.
Mitchell provided the anticipated point-of-attack defense that he has built a reputation for, but couldn’t convert anything offensively as well.
As for Anderson, his 10 minutes of action looked quite disappointing, to say the least. He was an inefficient non-factor on both ends of the floor. Even worse, his playing time completely eliminated the role of Haywood Highsmith.
The Heat shot a disgusting 24% (11 of 45) from 3-point range as a team and 34% overall. That type of horrid efficiency is deserving for a scheduled loss, especially with the champs in town.
Miami won’t get much time to ease back into things and snap their two-game losing skid, with a road trip to face the top seed Oklahoma City Thunder coming on Wednesday.
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I hope Tyler is feeling better by tomorrow night. They’re going to have to get a win or two this week before a much needed break.
Some things are very obvious.
Heat often start very well, but the first slump comes with second unit coming to the court. And that first unit in second stint never play well. I think this is a concentration thing.
Newcomers:
-Wiggins will help this team. Kyle maybe.
I don’t know about Mitchell. He is clearly not a starting level point guard.
If he shoots like that at his age, then that’s it.
He doesn’t have talent to be a decent shooter.
He is useful player, though, for some special assignments.
special assignments lol what may those be if youd like to share with hhh
My guess would be a guy to stick on Brunson and chase him around. Missions like that
That what I meant. HH role for guards
Defensive, of course. A guy which starts a game, try to steal a ball or two, get an assist or two and make 3 fouls.
HH role for guards.
if u listen to ethan skolnick who i respect the most for heat stuff he kills rozier all the time .surprised he wasnt dealt but hes awful.stevens and keshad need to see them play spobot.ware going noware this year
I was a draft Keshad in the second round guy, but he has been injured. Same with Stevens. I think we’ll see a little bit of at least one of them after the All Star break.
Nothing to see here. Move along. OKC next, then Dallas (minus AD) before a much needed all-star break.
Despite Miami’s mediocre play, the team is in 7th place
i think we might be able to hold the bulls off yah 10th place ill take it
The Heat was a reason Celtics got Porzingis in June 2023. Not worried about the scoreline. As I said before, this is pre 2026/27 season. I am happy Ware got some minutes and so did the new additions. The Heat have a lot of time to fine tune for the ’26/27 season.
25/26 season just blowing off to
Exactly. We are two players upgrade away from being competitive. We need two players in our top seven, that are better than the weaker players we have now in that role. Bam is at a high enough level that he doesn’t need replacement. And Wiggins and Ty are probably good enough too. Kel ‘el is a player we hope will evolve to not needing better also. From there, we need better, at least two guys, one a starter, and hopefully he will be a star. And, we can’t lose anyone in our top seven in adding those two players, or we will need three players overall. It will take time, likely two years, but hopefully we will be a little improved next year.
Or we could tank. A decent argument could be made for doing that. We probably should have going into this season. We would have gotten at least a couple picks for Jimmy, but that’s spilt milk now.
This year is about getting these younger guys into roles they’re confident in playing. Try to make the playoffs and get some more experience and go in to this summer and do what you can to get at least one more offensive-minded player to help Herro. Durant cough cough 😉