The Miami Heat needed a West Coast win after dropping their last three straight on the road. Here are 3 takeaways from that needed win in Golden State.
The Miami Heat were set to their play their fourth straight game on the road on Monday night in the home of the Golden State Warriors, the newly opened Chase Center. While there has been a ton made of the sight that their new arena is to behold, the Miami Heat were on a mission for a victory. While that’s so because that is the mission every night, it was especially the task on Monday night as they have dropped their last three straight games that also just so happened to be on the road.
They got the win in Golden State that they desperately needed to end their losing streak, but it shouldn’t have been so hard. While the Heat have a bad habit of doing that to themselves, they will need to continue to work to try and delete that particular feature from their collective hard drives. In any event, here are three big takeaways from Monday night’s win over the Warriors.
Jimmy Butler’s shoulder seems just fine
After missing the past two games, against the Sacramento Kings and the Portland Trail Blazers respectively, Jimmy Butler was allowed to suit up for Monday night’s contest against the Warriors. It was a welcomed sight to see in light of the losing streak and because no one knew exactly when he would be back, even though all reports had indicated that his shoulder injury wasn’t extremely serious.
Either way, he looked as though it wasn’t bothering him at all on Monday night. He was his usual aggressive and attacking self. We love the fact that he played because that means that it wasn’t that bad after all and he should be ready to go against the Jazz on Wednesday to close out the first half of the season.
Jae Crowder has been the player of the week in the NBA
The Miami Heat and Heat fans alike knew they had gotten a steal at the trade deadline, based on the fact that Pat Riley was able to move “unmovable” deals in return for assets, roster help, and cap flexibility moving forward, but Jae Crowder‘s play since coming over has taken that to a whole other level. Although he has only played in two games since coming over, he has already seemingly done enough to endear himself to Heat Faithful.
Jae Crowder has always been a Miami Heat type of player, without a doubt, so to see him doing the little hustle things isn’t that surprising. What has been surprising, however, is his offensive prowess and output.
He has been shooting the lights out of the ball from deep and even sprinkling in a little bit of everything else for a nice little mixture of scoring to go along with everything else he does. Jae Crowder is looking like the absolute steal of the NBA Trade Deadline and the NBA’s player of the week.
Jimmy Butler is still living rent-free in Andrew Wiggins’ mind
Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler are now both far away from their times in Minnesota, but that doesn’t mean that Wiggins has forgotten. Apparently not based on the way he played on Monday. He was practically scoreless in the first half, although he did get it going much later in the game when it was pretty much already decided.
Jimmy pilfer then power dribble dipsy do on Wiggins. *Wiggins face as Jimmy came down the lane... pic.twitter.com/J3M7Q52NGW
— All U Can Heat (@AllUCanHeat1) February 11, 2020
We made the above joke in the first half based on a Wiggins defensive play, but his play all night long in every aspect of the game reflects the same sentiment, but in a more general sense. Either way you look at it, there is still something there between the two players and it will be interesting to keep an eye on in future matchups.
The Miami Heat have a few days off before they head to Utah to face the Jazz on Thursday. This will be their last game before the All-Star break and they should be ready. They beat Utah in Miami a little while back, so that along with the continued integration of the Miami Heat’s newest additions should make this a very interesting watch and we can’t wait!