Run it Back! NBA Week in Review, Miami Heat - Week 19

eric-_2_03-02-2025_143419 === Eric: [00:00:00] Week 19 of the 2024 2025 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 seem to switch places with the Sacramento Kings between 16th and 17th and now this week and move down to 17 because of Sacramento's 3 0 week. They're still ranked number 7 in the Eastern Conference. Tyler Hero, again, led the team in points. He also led the [00:01:00] team in field goals attempted, assists, steals, and game scoring. Kalel Ware led the team in total rebounds and offensive and defensive boards. Haywood Highsmith led the team in blocks. Ware has made rookie mistakes this season, but has rolled with the punches tremendously, going from draft pick to bench to starter. and has responded to teaching and criticism without pouting. This week the Heat were busy with four games, two home and two away. The Heat have suffered through dreaded fourth quarters and the game against Milwaukee was a continuation. The Heat were up 93 to 85 heading into the fourth when Milwaukee started the quarter on a 10 2 run to tie the score at 95. Then the two teams fought back and forth to 109 all. With the Heat running out of gas on offense and defense. The next night they played at Atlanta and their conditioning and focus wasn't there. [00:02:00] The Heaters trailed by 8 at the half and fought to close the lead to 3 points at 66 63, but that was all. Atlanta killed Miami on team assist, 29 15. So the Hawks were sharing the basketball and moving the defensive round. On Wednesday, the Heaters came back home and in an interesting fact, They are the only NBA team this season that has played more on the road than at home. They took advantage of it, beating Atlanta on Wednesday with a 42 point 3rd quarter. The defense picked up and held Atlanta in the 4th to 7 of 19. On Friday night, they played a winning team in Indiana. Indiana ran the Heaters off the court the last time they were here in Miami. Then the Heat Started the game by giving up 69 points in the first half and an 8 0 run to start the 3rd quarter. Then the defense came to play after a timeout, a very key timeout by Spolstra, [00:03:00] and held the Pacers to a 23 point 3rd quarter and 43 percent shooting. They outscored Indiana 29 15 to end the 3rd and then presented a balanced offense when they were scoring as much from 2 point land as 3 point land. The Heat appear to again have stumbled on a winning formula with a balanced offense. This team does not work with too many isos or too many three pointers. Historically, when the team has taken more three point shots than two point shots, the entire game plan suffers. It was a fun night on Friday to see the Heat disrupt the Pacers offense in the third. They were defending, they were quick, and they were holding up. The equal athletic quickness and length of the Pacers. The Pacers looked visibly bothered by the intention. Another highlight of the Friday Night Game was with Tyler Herro. [00:04:00] Herro has taken a step forward in his fifth season. He looked eager to make contact when he would drive to the basket. Was had some nice defensive sequences. And Constantly was playing hard. I have to recognize that because I've been a constant critic of Tyler Hiro. And the fact that he doesn't play off the ball is a ball hog. So that was good to see and hope to see more of it. As I said, as last as the heater number seven in the Eastern Conference, this marquee matchup is the entire week, the heat start off Sunday night with a game versus the Knicks. And then host the Wizards on Monday in a back to back. This back to back is crucial because the young, new Heat players have to go 1 1 or 2 0. They can't afford to psychologically let down against an inferior Wizards squad. Wednesday night, the Heat go to Cleveland [00:05:00] to play the world beating Cavaliers. Why do you ask, world beating? The Cavaliers cut the Celtics machine a la When Rocky hit Drago in the second round in Rocky 4, when Jason Tatum, after going, jumping out to a 25 3 lead, started to motion to Celtics fans that the Cavs should get the F out. The Cavs saw that, they woke up and outscored the Celtics by 29 the rest of the way to win the game. The Heat then close out the week with another back to back winning team then losing team. They'll play Friday hosting Minnesota and then switch up the next day against losing Chicago. The Heat have to finish this week going 4 1 or 5 0, at least 3 2. The young, new Heat must learn to manage themselves each week and be able to give the same effort or more [00:06:00] night after night. This leads me into the full court press. In the full court press, I do a Google search of the heat or interesting keywords related to the heat, and I found the following three interesting articles. One, number three, from Zach Buckley, a writer with the Bleacher Report, his write up was on interesting off season trades involving the heat. It would be making a play for LaMelo Ball. But in that same take, he seems to take it back. Why? Saying that, quote unquote, there would be defensive concerns with a ball hero backcourt. Duh. My take is that Lomelo Ball would compete with Tyler Hero for touches, and since both 25, that he would then become a very immature team. Number two would, was that DeMarcus Cousins said on a podcast that the Heat made a mistake trading Jimmy Butler. [00:07:00] Why? Because the Heat aren't playing well, and the Warriors are. To be fair, the Warriors have a culture themselves, and Jimmy Butler is coming in as a sidekick, not as the main guy. Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Davion Mitchell are playing on their first team together. Wiggins and Anderson being on the Warriors for such a long time. They're playing on their first team, new team in a long time. And they're assimilating to new guys and a brand new culture. It's comparing apples to oranges, DeMarcus. Finally, number one. Jimmy Butler is getting sued because he hadn't paid rent on a luxury house in Miami Beach and he left it in disrepair. Anybody looking at this article on the surface might say that might be like the landlord found a gum wrapper here and there. Jimmy Butler could say that was here before I got here. Excuse. No. There's not that. As per the Miami Herald, he didn't allow maintenance crews to work on the property. He didn't do upkeep himself. Then [00:08:00] to boot. There was some air conditioning techs that came out to the property and his chief of staff didn't let them in to check problems with the air conditioning. The line backed up, it caused a leak, and it caused damage to the hardwood floors which had to be replaced. Jimmy, too bad, so sad, you gotta pay. That's it. Week 19 is in the books. Join me next week, after week 19, when we run it back.