Week four of The Good, Bad and Miami Heat Culture looks at what is going on with the team losing to underdog opponents, and struggling in close games.
The Good
The Miami Heat went 2-2 this week, which was probably a little better than expected given their opponents: the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards.
While the Heat lost to the Wizards, a division opponent that was 2-9 before the game, they also beat a pretty good Spurs team along with the Pistons, who have shown a lot of good things so far this yea,r after winning their first four games.
While there are still a lot of things for this team to work on, Hassan Whiteside has been doing some things right.
After not playing against the Pistons at the beginning of the week, Whiteside had a monstrous game against the Spurs. Totaling 29 points, 20 rebounds and nine blocks, Whiteside showed once again what he is capable of — and the Heat need more of it.
If there is one major thing that the Heat are doing right this season, it is rebounding.
The Heat are No. 2 in the league in rebounding, averaging 59.6 per game, sitting behind the Milwaukee Bucks (60.2 per game.) Whiteside is at the front of those rebounding efforts, averaging 15.5 per game, along with 14 points.
This puts Whiteside at the second best rebounder in the league, trailing only Andre Drummond, who averages 16.1 per game.
To add to the efforts, Whiteside is also leading the league in blocks with 3.55 per game.
Remember that whole proving people wrong thing that was talked about all summer with Whiteside?
It seems to be happening for him.
Now if everyone could get on the same page consistently, some of those close losses might turn into wins.