The Miami Heat entered Thursday night’s game already on the defense. Coming into a game that they should have never been in, by all accounts and because most of their roster was down, they almost won the game.
Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic wouldn’t be suiting up for the Miami Heat for regular injuries. Udonis Haslem and KZ Okpala wouldn’t suit up either, as they both are in the NBA’s Health and Safety protocol program.
As far as the other guys not mentioned, Kelly Olynyk, Chris Silva, Moe Harkless, and the injured Avery Bradley, they are no longer apart of the Miami Heat’s team. As apart of a frenzy of deadline day dealing for Miami, they shipped them all out to new teams.
KO and AB both are not members of the Houston Rockets as apart of the deal that landed them Victor Oladipo. Both Chris Silva and Moe Harkless are apart of deals that sent them to California in exchange for Nemanja Bjelica.
The Miami Heat had a shorthanded roster to play with on Thursday and almost got it done.
With that, the Miami Heat still had a game to compete in. If you know anything about this Miami Heat team and organization, it’s that no matter the situation, circumstances, or available excuses, they are, most often, always going to play hard and compete.
That’s exactly what they did on Thursday night. It helped out a ton that the NBA Trade Deadline had passed too though, as the freedom in Duncan Robinson‘s and Tyler Herro‘s game were apparent.
Though Kendrick Nunn hadn’t been as impacted, he had his best game over the last several as well, so it likely did something for him as well. The Miami Heat shouldn’t have ever been in the game against an almost fully healthy Portland squad, but they were.
That fact and the fact that they have a ton of new help coming in is more than enough reason to get excited. The game ended on a fluke foul play that never gets called there, but you should still leaved encouraged about the fact that it even came down to that.
Regardless of that though and based on the moves made Thursday, the Miami Heat will be just fine. This game, one that was within reach, was just tough to take in the way it ended.