Through two games, the Miami Heat's starting 5 looks old, uninterested, lost (especially on defense), a step too slow, and, perhaps most importantly, they're just flat-out bad right now.
I wouldn't say that the biggest reason why the Heat find themselves at 0-2 through the first two games of the season is because of their starting 5, but this lineup has done little to set the tone. And, as Giannis Antetokounmpo put it after their second-straight loss to open the season, setting the tone is often what ends up dictating the rest of the game.
“We don’t set the tone. We just expect the other team will come in this building and lay down.”
The Heat's starting 5 isn't setting the tone for the rest of the game
Right now, for the Heat, the starting 5 is just not cutting it. Because of that, it may be time for Erik Spoelstra to shake things up. If the Heat is going to have any shot at turning things around quickly, it may start with reshuffling the starting 5.
It's not the Heat's only problem through the first two games. In fact, far from it.
The Heat are shooting 27 percent from 3-point range. Bam Adebayo is coming off a game in which he had more fouls than points. The Heat have been outrebounded by a combined 22 boards through the first two games. And the list goes on and on and on.
But with all the issues the Heat are trying to work through, there may not be an easier fix than coming with more energy and effort in trying to set the tone after the opening tip. That's the job of the starting 5. They just haven't been good enough as a collective for the Heat so far this season.
The Heat's starting 5 numbers are jarring
In 22 minutes played together through the first two games of the season, Miami's starting 5 has a net rating of -52.2. Perhaps most deflating, they have a 160 defensive rating. They just haven't been bad. The Heat's starting 5 is literally getting run off the floor.
The Heat's bench units haven't exactly been bad. By the time they get in the game, they find themselves in an impossible position, down by 10-plus points. Because of how outplayed the starting 5 has been in both games for Miami.
Miami's game against the Pistons was the perfect example of this. By the 8:46 minute mark of the first quarter, the Heat already found themselves in a 17-2 hold. Three and a half minutes into the game, the Heat were already down 15.
That's a riddle. It's downright impossible.
But that's the type of start to the season that it's been for the starting 4. It's a problem. And, right now, it's hard to envision how they're going to dramatically make that shift. That's why Spoelstra may need to change things up.
He may need to reshuffle the starting 5. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just not working right now for Miami.
The question is, how much longer is Spoelstra willing to let this go before making a change? I can't imagine we're going to see a lineup change after two games, but if the starting 5 gets run off the floor during the opening minutes in Charlotte, something has to change.
Right now, the easiest thing Spoelstra can do is to try and find the right starting 5 formula. If anything measurable is going to change this early in the season, that seems like what it will be. And maybe it may be just enough to spark this team.
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