The Miami Heat entered their second contest of the season on Saturday, against the Indiana Pacers, with an opportunity to extend their record to 2-0 on the young season. After demolishing the Milwaukee Bucks in their first outing, the Heat would surely come out with, at least, a decently-similar mentality, right?
Wrong and all wrong. The Miami Heat not only came out with poor effort, at best, but it was the complete opposite of the team that had displayed themselves on opening night, it seemed.
They were being lazy on the defensive side, they weren’t giving the extra effort to finish plays on either side of the ball, and the little things, the things that separate the Miami Heat Culture from most other organizations in the league, they weren’t doing those things either.
Most will want to point to the absence of one of the newest members of the Miami Heat in Kyle Lowry, who sat after tweaking an ankle in the opener, as assumed in all honesty and probably more caution than necessity.
The Miami Heat were without Kyle Lowry in Saturday’s Pacers defeat. They had enough though, talent that is, they just didn’t have enough effort about them.
To borrow a common Spoism though, they “had enough”. Well, they had enough talent or people available to play in order to get the job done, they just didn’t give the requisite effort to do so.
Jimmy Butler said as much himself after the contest, noting how he “smoked” too many close-ranged shots, blowing those looks. Bam Adebayo had opportunities to be the same aggressive guy he was most of the night and had been up until that point on the young year, but didn’t take them.
Though those were just a few specific examples, everyone could have been better, on both sides of the ball and simply, by trying a little harder. When they did, good things happened.
It was the increased effort that allowed them to close the double-digit gap in the second half. It was also that same lack of effort that allowed Pacer’s forward, Oshae Brissett, to grab the offensive rebound and make the stick-back in overtime that broke the 88-88 tie.
Taking the Pacers to 90 at that point, it was all downhill for Miami, as Indiana would get out to 97 points before the Heat ever got off of the 88. At the end of the day and again, everyone had a part in the Miami Heat’s defeat on Saturday.
They had enough talent to win, but they didn’t have enough effort with them to get it done and it’s really that simple. The good thing is this though.
You got that kind of game out of the way early. Now they know that teams aren’t going to lay down and that if they want to win it all, they’ll have to give it all… every single night.