The Miami Heat Showed Up Too Late In Home Nuggets Defeat

The Miami Heat and Heat fans everywhere had been anticipating this game for three weeks, exactly. After the clash in Denver in early November that has seen Markieff Morris miss every game since the incident occurred, this one was sure to be a battle unlike many the team has seen this season.

Well, that was until the Miami Heat were to be without their number one and two option on the night. With a tailbone injury he sustained on an Alex Caruso block attempt in Saturday night’s game, Jimmy Butler wouldn’t make a go of it on Monday.

Tyler Herro would also sit for the game as well. He hadn’t gotten over the illness that kept him out of Saturday’s victory.

Even without that talent in the lineup though, the Miami Heat still had enough to come out and compete. Well, they should have.

The Miami Heat had this one circled on their calendars, but apparently so did fate. Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro missed the Nuggets game, a defeat.

That’s the core takeaway from this one though. Even when you don’t have the talent and even when things aren’t going your way, you can still give maximum effort.

When you say things weren’t going the Heat’s way, you really mean that. The Denver Nuggets finished the game shooting nearly 60 percent from the floor and over 50 percent from three.

They came into the game near the bottom-third of the league as a team from range, shooting closer to 30 percent than 35 percent from deep. They then proceeded to make 18 of their 35 attempts from out there on the Miami Heat.

So, yea, that’s what it means when “things aren’t going your way”. However, the Miami Heat still gave themselves a minimal shot in the second half with a much-increased effort.

That’s the type of way they should have started the game playing and especially when your top-two scoring options wouldn’t be going. That’s the only way you can give yourself a shot in games like this, especially when you don’t have as much talent, and definitely when they start to hit the shots that they were hitting.

This one was a tough one, but you can’t dwell on it. They have the Cavaliers on Wednesday and they certainly will need a much better effort than this.

Don’t confuse, as if they have Tyler and/or Jimmy in the lineup, they should win going away. And while they should still win without them, the Cavaliers can make it a tough game, and possibly even steal it.

They’ll be just fine though.