The Miami Heat did it again. They came out in this opening round Game 3 scenario and put up a dud.
Not only did they lose the game, as they have in the first two games prior to this one in this series, but they lost it the way that they lost Game 2, in ugly fashion. Coming out sluggish to start, as they have in all three games thus far, the Miami Heat found themselves down early.
Even with that though, the Miami Heat weren’t in quite as bad a shape as they were at a similar time in Game 2. Heading into halftime down 27 in Game 2, 51-78, they were only down 13 heading into the half of Game 3, 49-36.
First off, how bad off do you have to be to celebrate a 13 point gap but secondly, what’s happened to Jimmy and the Miami Heat’s offense? For a team that had flipped the switch, playing some of their best offense of the season and some of the best in the league as they came down the stretch of the regular season, how are they this bad at the moment?
The Miami Heat came out in Game 3 of their opening round playoff series and stunk the place up again.
It’s honestly befuddling, to say the least. Here’s the fact of the matter.
Bam Adebayo couldn’t get it going. Duncan Robinson wasn’t good.
Tyler Herro didn’t hit a few shots until late and Goran Dragic was missing shots that he usually hits in his sleep. Had Nemanja Bjelica not hit a few late, you wouldn’t have known if they could actually hit shots.
From here out and however long that is, the numbers are overwhelmingly against the Miami Heat and it’s an understatement to categorize this series as lopsided at the moment, however, with the Miami Heat’s DNA, Coach Spoelstra’s mentality, and Jimmy Butler‘s attitude, they won’t go down by laying down.
That isn’t saying they’ll go down with a fight either though. As unfortunate as this reality may be to accept, they are on the verge of being swept.
The Miami Heat really just have to go into the next game with the mentality of, simply, not losing that one, the rest of the series be darned. It’s awfully cliché at the moment or anytime, for that matter, but they really must take it one game at a time.
Let’s hope that everyone that has their brooms out for the Miami Heat right now don’t get their wishes. Let’s hope to, at least, avoid the 4-0 situation.
They have a day off before they’ll again be tested, this time to see if they fail the class, once and for all.