The Miami Heat aren’t where they need to be yet but after these past two games, they seem to be headed just there.
The Miami Heat are a middle of the pack team right now. A game below .500, record wise, the Miami Heat are coming off of two losses to their in-conference rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers.
From the outside looking in and especially in light of those past two contests against Philly, one might wonder why we are here. Based on the headline, some might say “gosh, we hope it was an aberration”.
Not so fast though. Without a number of their regular guys, their top three guys, and two of their five starters in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the Miami Heat were able to take Philly to the brink on Tuesday night, where they should have won.
While Thursday night wasn’t as pretty, the Miami Heat still competed with a complete and whole Philly team, without their top guys. What we most took from these contests were the freedom, confidence, and purpose with which guys like Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro, and Gabe Vincent played with.
The Miami Heat need more production from their “others” and the absence of their stars might have been just what they needed.
While Vincent is a two-way guy, he’s looking like more of a complete revelation with his ability to score it at all three levels with ease but then again, there is a reason why he’s still around. We noted recently how Duncan and Tyler looked as if they weren’t playing completely free, perhaps with the trade rumors floating around.
With James Harden moved to Brooklyn on Wednesday though, you can see things starting to shake back around. While that shooting came because they had all the opportunity in the world, it should continue to pick up and improve based on the security of it all now.
They aren’t going anywhere. They will be with the Miami Heat for the rest of the season, at least, though I hope longer.
They can finally play free. That’s why what we saw against Philly and even in defeat, the major production from the other guys, wasn’t a aberration but a sign of things to come.