Run it Back! NBA Week in Review - Miami Heat! - Week #17

Run it Back! NBA Week in Review - Miami Heat Week 17 === eric-_2_02-16-2025_143144: [00:00:00] Week 17 of the 2024 25 NBA season is over, which means it's time to Run It Back. This is Run It Back, NBA Week in Review, Heat Edition. I'm Eric Labrador, contributor at thepeachbasket. net, covering the Heat. This is the show where we recap the week that was in the NBA, and then highlight the marquee matchup for the week to come for the Heat. We start with the only objective overall NBA power rankings anywhere. You can read more about how we get to these rankings and see the entire list at thepeachbasket. net. As for the Heat, they dropped one spot to 17 because of their 0 3 week. They are still the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. A review of the week was that the Heat had to play the Celtics, the Thunder, and the Mavericks. And a stomach bug, which appears to be the [00:01:00] norovirus. The Celtics proved far and away from their playoff rivalry with the Heat over the past four years that they've separated themselves to be an elite team. Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Davion Mitchell debuted Monday night. against the Celtics, but Tyler Hero and Jaime Jaquez Jr. were absent. The team was suffocated in the scoring 83 points. Then on Wednesday, the Heat traveled to Oklahoma City with Duncan Robinson and Terry Rozier then out because of the stomach bug. The Heat had a lead going into the fourth quarter, but the Thunder proved why they're the best team in the West, starting the fourth quarter out with a 24 to nothing run. The Heat scored eight points only in the quarter. The next day, the Heat had a lead going into the fourth quarter against the Mavericks, but gave up 34 points in the fourth quarter. Terry Rozier was still out and Andrew Wiggins caught the bug [00:02:00] and couldn't play in that game. In a review of the play by play of each game, the Heat appeared to have a lot of one pass, one shot possessions. In other words, three pointer or bust. There are very little drives to the basket, slowing the game down and getting to the foul line. Especially on the road, the way to slow the momentum of the home team is to get to the foul line. Apart from this, the Heat offense is at its best when the ball is moving. The players are screening and cutting with the defense trying to keep up. The most important missing ingredient for the Heat all season has been their defense. To use a spoeism, they haven't been defending to their identity. Their defense has really been Swiss cheese giving up over 120 points per game. The Heat have always used their defense with steals and other turnovers to spark their transition game and get points. In the game against the Thunder and the Mavericks, the Heat turned the ball over a lot. One [00:03:00] play specifically was when Dante Exum drove the ball the length of the court and split the Heat defense while the players were just looking at him. for a dunk and the crowd was going crazy after that. They couldn't stop the momentum. The marquee matchup this week with only two games in the week is gonna be at Milwaukee. Tyler Hero enters the game newly minted as an all star and he's from Milwaukee so will he put pressure on himself or will he play Within the offense, Milwaukee has an above 500 record, but will now field the team that doesn't have Chris Middleton, that he should be ready to avoid scoring only eight points in a quarter and play much better. I picked him to win both games in an article I wrote this week. On the Peach Basket page, I talked about the dreaded eight point quarters. The Heat have had two of them this season, and another one, [00:04:00] nine, scoring nine points against Brooklyn. The Casillas Center staff should have a temporary promotion with fans cheering. After the Heat pass 8 points in the 4th quarter, and if they don't, for some reason fit, score more than 10 points in a quarter, the fans should get something, free stuff from the Heat store, or from the Bacardi Lounge, who knows. I'm just saying. The Heat need in addition to Coach Spoh and Riley probably an overbearing youth sports parent to give them, obvious words of encouragement. Usually the youth sports fan is yelling at their kids and at the referees thinking that they're going to have an effect on the outcome of the game. They state the obvious, and he'd probably need to hear that Stay focused! It's the fourth quarter! Don't turn the ball over. Get to the foul line. You would think [00:05:00] that these guys the Heat players that have played basketball all of their lives would know this, but for some reason it's just not happening. They could also have, the baseball coach from Bull Durham, That while the players are showering after a game, he throws the bats at their feet in the shower, and he says, This is a simple game. You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball. My favorite that's a favorite scene of mine and the Heat probably need to hear that right now. You score, you prevent the other team from scoring. That's it. This leads me into the full court press, where I look at random articles based on a Google search of the Heat. Number three the Fadeaway World webpage predicted an off season trade. Sending Andrew Wiggins, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Haywood Highsmith, and the Heat's 20, 29, and 30 first round [00:06:00] picks for Kevin Durant. My take is that if Kevin Durant ever came to the Heat, they would, him and Tyler Herro would have to have a serious talk on who's the number one and number two options. And Tyler Herro would really, for the first time, have to lean into playing off the ball. a la Steph Curry or Reggie Miller. He could not hog the ball and be a volume shooter like he is now, even though he has said that he's trying to change his shot profile to play more off the ball. Number two is an article by Jake Ellman Talking about that the popular Heat Culture 13 Twitter handle has put up a poll if Coach Spoelstra should be fired or not. Many fans are upset and critical of Coach Spoelstra this season. And the bottom line is that, my take is that we the fans don't know the extent of the Jimmy [00:07:00] Butler's tenure with the Heat. It looks like the Heat did a lot of bending to Jimmy Butler. And the organization's kind of off track and they're reeling. But they're making adjustments and they're trying to get cap space available for the summer of 2026. SPO without a doubt is going to have these guys ready to compete every night. Um, one guy even mentioned Spo should be moved to the front office. Right now, Spo is the best that we can get. The usual default answer of a lot of writers is, if not him, who else? I don't think you can get any better than SpoStro right now. And finally A very interesting article from Brian Towns on the Sports Illustrated website also. Dwayne Wade and Candace Parker were participating in a Bleacher Report segment called Guaranteed 2, where they asked each other questions prefacing it with Guaranteed 2 And then the other one would give the answers. Wade [00:08:00] was asked by Candace Parker what the Heat were guaranteed to do. And Wade just said, talk about Heat culture. He didn't say anything else. I would say that's a vote of no confidence from the greatest player in Heat history. That's it. Week 17 of the 20 24, 25 NBA season is in the books. Join me next week after week 17 when we once again run it back.