The Miami Heat typically never have issues of effort, but that’s been the case all too often this season already.
The Miami Heat aren’t playing Miami Heat basketball. All too often this season, we have found ourselves having to ask, “where’s the effort?”
This same issue has reared it’s head all throughout the season. When you look at specific examples, they are there.
At the end of the game against the Boston Celtics, a game in which the Miami Heat should have won or at least taken to another period, they allowed the smallest guy on the floor to get an offensive rebound. With Tyler Herro appearing to be right there, all it would have taken was a box out to keep him from sticking the winning bucket back as time expired.
In the most recent contest against Detroit, there was a sequence where one Piston rebounder secured an offensive rebound against all five Miami Heat players. The real kicker here is that the Miami Heat were the team down about 20 points at that time.
That sounds backwards, right? Why is the team that’s up by 20 giving exponentially more effort than the team that’s down by 20?
The Miami Heat were destroyed by Detroit on Saturday and that has everything to do with their lack of effort.
It makes no sense. That’s what happened though.
To look at a general example, we can actually use that same Pistons game along with the first game against Milwaukee, specifically. These were contests that saw two teams have their best three point shooting nights of the year against the Miami Heat.
Most of that is simply due to having a ton of easy and open looks from distance. Quite a few of the teams that have beaten Miami have had rather good nights from distance and that has everything to do with the lack of defense being played out there.
Unlike a lot of things in sports, defense and especially when it comes to running out to guard open shooters, is all about effort. The Miami Heat can be a lot better in a few areas, turnovers for example, but the first thing they must address is the effort with which they are playing with.
Last season, many got tired of hearing about the Miami Heat culture, calling it fake or made up at times. This season and right now, this team is proving them right.
The whole “fluke” thing is also looking exactly right at the moment as well. It isn’t quite doomsday just yet, no yet, but the Miami Heat need to get back to the basics.
They need to get back to playing harder and for longer than their opponents, with an eye on winning by not allowing them to score a ton, as opposed to counting on outscoring them. That’s why effort is at the heart of the biggest questions surrounding this Heat team right now, but I have full confidence that they can still get it together.
It starts with an opportunity to right Saturday’s defeat on Monday.