The Miami Heat also lose battle of intensity in loss to San Antonio Spurs
The Miami Heat traveled to San Antonio for a second matchup within a week, with the first being in Miami. Could the Heat win for the second straight time?
The Miami Heat had a chance to come out on Sunday and really do something for themselves as a team. With a win, they could start to think about closing the proverbial first half of the season on a run and in a good way, as the All-Star break is a little more than but traditionally referred to as the “halfway” point of the NBA season.
They would have been able to continue to dispell the notion of mediocrity on the road put forth by their head coach in Erik Spoelstra, which I believe was just his way of challenging them, while also simple tacking on another win to their already impressive overall record, but teetering record away from South Beach.
Well, you would think with all these things in the air that the Miami Heat would come out and put their feet on the gas from the start, and they did. The issue is that they didn’t bring that same effort for the entirety of the game, especially on the defensive side of things.
There were too many times where the Heat team seemed as though they were just “there” and going through the motions, as opposed to actively trying to win the ball game. When it came to the other side, it wasn’t a question of what their motive was.
At one point, Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs got so many wide-open consecutive looks from the three-point line, we had to ask if that was the sum of the gameplan coming into the game. Coach Popovich would say, “When they go zone, Patty, you shoot them out of it”. It sure seemed that way, but either way, they imposed their will in whatever they were doing on the floor.
The Miami Heat have had lapses like these and often times in these same scenarios. That would be on the back end of back to backs, long road trips, 3 games in four nights sequences, so forth and so on.
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They need to be better about being their best selves every night though and we can only hope that they will. They are right back at it on Monday evening against the Sacramento Kings, so they better rest up. This is what it’s like to be the hunted.