Just when it felt as if the Miami Heat couldn't fall any lower, they turned around and lost to the Charlotte Hornets. To begin the Giannis Antetokounmpo era, the Heat have now lost three straight games.
Losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons, despite the concerning effort, was at least understandable. It was a tall task for a Heat team learning to play with each other to play against two contenders this early in the season.
Both the Wolves and Pistons are expected to play deep into the playoffs and could very well factor greatly into who makes the NBA Finals. The Hornets, on the other hand, are not the contender that many expect the Wolves and Pistons to be.
They may not even be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat continue to look like a lost team with Giannis
Yet, the Heat found themselves in a dogfight. I suppose you have to give the Heat some credit. They were down 20 late in the third quarter. They fought all the way back, but just ran out of gas at the end. Giannis also battled foul trouble and picked up his sixth foul with a few minutes left in the game.
He only ended up playing 24 minutes on the night and finished with just 14 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field. You'd have to imagine that if Giannis had played as he did in the first two games, the Heat probably would have won this game.
Then again, the "if" and "buts" game doesn't count for anything in the Association.
There are no moral victories here, and Erik Spoelstra won't let that stand in the locker room. The result? The Heat are 0-3 after the first three games of the season. There aren't many positives to draw from any of these games, and it's becoming more and more difficult to pinpoint what exactly this Heat team is good at.
They can't shoot, struggle in the half-court, and even their defense is bad.
That's what has to be most frustrating for this Heat team. Even the one thing that many thought they'd be good at, they're not.
Again, it's still too early to panic, but the more the losses stack up, the more concern is going to grow. The Heat have talent. They have a top-5 player in the world. You'd imagine that, eventually, something is going to click.
Right now, everything looks like a struggle for this team. They're learning how to play with each other, and it's always going to take some time. What's really jarring is that I'm not sure if many thought it would look this rough at the start.
The Heat are back in action on Monday as they host the Dallas Mavericks, still looking for their first win of the season.
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