As expected, the critics haven't wasted any time in taking a victory lap after the Miami Heat's season-opening loss at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Admittedly, it wasn't great. There were moments of promise for Miami, specifically in the first half, but it all seemed to fall apart during the second half. There's no denying that the Heat need to be better when they take the floor Friday night against the Detroit Pistons.
But at the same time, it shouldn't be all doom and gloom for Miami. It was one game, and it'd be pretty crazy to draw any definitive conclusions after one loss to one of the best teams in the Western Conference. More specifically, there are three overreactions that we need to debunk immediately.
Giannis doesn't have a good supporting cast around him
In game one, it didn't look great. However, it will get better. Against the Wolves, it's almost as if every other player not named Giannis has a pretty off night. Bam Adebayo struggled to pick his spots while playing off Giannis, the 3-pointers weren't falling, and the x-factors weren't factoring in much.
It was a pretty rough night overall for the Heat, with the exception of Giannis' dominance. But sometimes that happens in the NBA. We have to remember that the Heat is still trying to figure out how to play with each other. It was never realistic to expect them to have it all figured out on night one.
As Giannis said, the Heat are going to be much better in game 40 than they will look in game 1. Plus, I'm not sure how many more times we can expect to see Tim Hardaway Jr., Andrew Wiggins, and Bam Adebayo go a combined 3-for-16 from 3-point range many more times this season. It was an off night for the Heat's "others."
The Heat's defense won't be as good as advertised
All offseason long, if there was one thing that Miami was expected to hang their hat on, it was defense. After the first game, their defense didn't look very good. While there were times their defense was disorganized and slow to react, this performance has more to do with LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards going nuclear from deep than it does with the Heat.
Sometimes the opposing team is just going to hit shots. And that's what happened in the opener. Erik Spoelstra clearly was willing to live and die by Minnesota's 3s. They gambled, and died.
Ball and Edwards went 14-for-30 from deep and, as a team, the Wolves hit 21 3-point bombs compared to the Heat's eight. In the modern game, it's hard to win games with that level of discrepancy. The Heat had a game plan, and it quickly fell apart when the Wolves decided to not miss any shots from deep.
The Giannis and Bam duo won't work
I'll be the first to admit that the Giannis and Bam minutes weren't great. And the advanced stats back up what we all witnessed in game one. Per 100 possessions, Giannis and Bam had a net rating of -29 when they were on the floor together. More concerning, they had a 131 defensive rating.
That's not a great first sample size for the season. But it's also just one game. And, again, Edwards had the type of game where it didn't matter what the defense was doing. He was red-hot, and there was nothing the Heat could do to slow him down. So that's going to make the Bam-Giannis numbers look that much worse.
But even if they were this rough, the Heat was always going to need time to hit their stride. Giannis and Bam didn't play many minutes together in the preseason and are still learning how to play with each other.
They need to be given some grace. If there's any coach you trust to figure it out, it's Spoelstra.
It was a rough first game of the season, but these overreactions, especially after one game, are absolutely insane. And, for lack of a better phrase, they should be flushed down the toilet immediately.
The Heat will be fine.
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