Miami Heat: Plenty of blame to go around in Game 1 loss
There was plenty of blame to go around in the Miami Heat’s Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.
You know how the Miami Heat thrive on playing team ball?
Well that also means there’s plenty of blame to go around, when they fail. Say, like they did on Saturday night against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Heat took an embarrassing 130-103 Game 1 loss yesterday, in a matchup where just about nothing went right for them. Between not managing to take advantage of a sidelined Joel Embiid, being incapable of stopping J.J. Redick and Marco Belinelli and letting Ersan Ilyasova bully his way all over the court, it was a hot mess.
To put it lightly.
Which of course led many fans to start pointing fingers, in a desperate hope to identity what exactly happened. Most of those fingers ending up straight in Hassan Whiteside‘s direction.
The big man, who many assumed would come out strong with rival Embiid on the bench, struggled from start to finish. Having only been allowed to clock in 12 minutes, he totaled two points, six rebounds, one assist and two blocks. Perhaps not the ugliest stat-line given his limited play, but made worse by his two turnovers and 1-for-4 shooting.
His energy seemed low, he was almost consistently a step behind on defense, and simply just couldn’t keep up with his opposition the way Miami needed him to.
Still, blaming the entire loss on Whiteside isn’t right.
Not when Josh Richardson finished with just four points and four rebounds, in 27 minutes. And Tyler Johnson totaled a meager nine points on 2-of-6 shooting.
Even Goran Dragic, who put up 15 points, went an uncharacteristic 4-for-14 from the field. While Wayne Ellington couldn’t find his usual red-hot stroke, shooting 2-of-5 from downtown.
In other words, the team as a unit had trouble staying afloat.
(Well, except for Kelly Olynyk, who finished with an impressive 26 points on 69.2 percent shooting.)
There’s also an argument to be made that head coach Erik Spoelstra had a hard time with his rotations, seemingly trying every combination to put a stop to Philadelphia’s lights out shooting. But neither his starting lineup nor the Platinum Group could hold it down.
Offensively, shots were rushed, and very few guys were able to find a rhythm. And defensively? The 76ers shot 64.3 percent from 3. Enough said.
Does Whiteside deserve some constructive criticism? Absolutely. An athlete of his caliber should be a headliner (both via the boxscore and eye test) night after night; not limited to essentially one quarter of play. But more than his performance needs to change moving forward, if the Heat want to make it out of this round.
Next: Takeaways from the Miami Heat's Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers
Game 2 tips off on Monday, at 8 PM ET.