The Miami Heat came into Tuesday night’s game on the back of an embarrassing defeat. With nearly their full roster in tow, their Big 4 to say the least, the Miami Heat went into Memphis’s FedExForum and dropped a game to the hobbled Grizzlies.
Playing without Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Ja Morant, the Memphis Grizzlies walked out of their building with a big victory over Miami, scoring over 60 of their 101 points in the paint. With all of that and a chance to make it right on Tuesday against one of the league’s poorer teams, the Detroit Pistons, you just knew the Heat would come in with a dominant mentality.
Though they would be without Jimmy Butler, who could have been predicted to miss the second leg of a back-to-back set after his long absence prior to his Boston return, the Miami Heat would have enough to take care of the Pistons, right?
Nope, wrong. All wrong.
The Miami Heat just had to win Tuesday night, coming off an embarrassing defeat on Monday and playing the Pistons, right? No, is a short answer.
The Miami Heat got out to a double-digit lead early on but after the Pistons pulled back to within even, it became a back-and-forth affair all night long. You would have thought that the Pistons were a better team than they are or that Miami were just as poor as they have been on the year.
The Miami Heat, for the second straight night, came out disengaged and to the point where they allowed inferior teams to beat them. On Monday, they couldn’t stop the Grizzlies from entering and dismantling them in the paint.
On Tuesday, they couldn’t get a clutch stop on the Pistons in any area of the court when they needed to most. Listen, you have to be realistic about it all though.
Is this rock bottom? No, as it can get much worse.
Is this that far off though? Also no, as it could begin to get much worse quickly if they don’t begin to bounce back and show some consistency soon.
After beating the league’s best on last Friday, they have since dropped two of their most disappointing defeats of the year. And more than a quarter way through the season, they better figure it out fast if they really still hope to try and contend.