Miami Heat Allow Memphis Grizzlies To Beat Them In Shifts At Home
The Miami Heat came into Tuesday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies with the NBA’s longest active win streak. Winning their previous four, the Miami Heat had a chance to extend their streak to five on their home floor.
They wouldn’t be able to do that on Tuesday night though. Allowing the Memphis Grizzlies to manhandle them for most of the game, the Miami Heat actually saw themselves get beat in shifts.
Center, Jonas Valanciunas took the first shift. He scored almost half of their first quarter points.
He would finish with 15 of Memphis’s 37 first quarter points. Now, with that in mind, the Miami Heat only had 34 points of their own.
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The Miami Heat were beaten on Tuesday because they couldn’t make stops on two guys.
While Valanciunas took the first shift in the first quarter, Dillon Brooks picked up his hammer and chisel in the third. Going on a personal tear, he would score 23 points in the third quarter and sadly to report, a lot of which was guarded by Jimmy Butler.
Or, at least that was the intent behind Jimmy Butler’s efforts. The Miami Heat were absolutely torched early on by Valanciunas in the paint, while Brooks made a mockery of their defense to open the second half.
Listen, while those two didn’t win the game by themselves, what they did had crucial impacts. It was because of Valanciunas’s dominance that the Grizzlies were able to getting such a rhythm with the weak side corner three ball, which killed Miami.
It was Dillon Brooks, single handedly, lighting up the score board for the Memphis Grizzlies in the third, which set a tone and let everyone else just fall into place with their production. If the Miami Heat had done better jobs on those two, then the outcome is likely different.
That’s all. The streak is no more and they get a chance to start all over again now.
Next. Miami Heat need another big to compliment Bam Adebayo & Company. dark
That begins Thursday against the Lakers and on national television. The Lakers likely won’t have LeBron James or Anthony Davis, but that’s even more reason for the Heat to be on the lookout for a let down effort.
That’s what they got on Tuesday.