Run it Back! NBA Week in Review, Miami Heat - Week 21

[00:00:00] Week 21 of the 20 24 25 NBA season is over, which means it's time to run it back. This is run it back NBA Weekend Review heat edition. I am 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. We start again as we do every week with the only objective NBA 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 moved down to number 21 because of their oh and four week, and they dropped from eighth to ninth in the East. Tyler hero was the leader in many categories, points, field goals, made, assists and steels. BA met. Abi was again, was the rebounding leader, and Andrew Williams averaged one [00:01:00] block per game during the four games. A review of the week, the heat were busy with four games, three at home, and one away. You heard it here last week from me, that the heat needed to beat Charlotte because of Charlotte's record, and also that they were at home. That didn't happen. I posted an article after the game of the heat's poor shot selection, specifically in the fourth quarter when the score was 1 0 1 to 99. Tyler Hiro took a contested three pointer with. 20 seconds left in the game and 12 seconds on the shot clock way, way too early to be taking a three pointer. Babi did have a chance at a tip and layup, but he didn't make it. And the clip, the clippers were, the hornets were able to rebound and get an easy layup at the other end as former heat analyst coach Tony Fiorentino would say in those situations. Instead of [00:02:00] trying to get a three pointer, get a two, take your chances. Maybe you get a three point play. You don't need a three pointer just to go for a three pointer in that situation. The heat after the Jimmy Butler trade appeared to have lost a lot, but it's no different to me than when Dwayne Wade was on the team. The heat for all they have advocated of heat culture is a simple NBA franchise made up of human beings that defer to one person to factor in winning or losing. No different from anybody else. This is antithetical to the heat's next man up and team oriented approach. The heat definitely need in the off season to reexamine this to try and play more team basketball. With Tyler Heroes fantastic season and the talent of Andrew Wiggins, Babi and Hero, you still have to have [00:03:00] five guys attached on a string working together. I'll say it all the live long day and beat a dead horse until it's beaten more than enough. The heat offense works well when it's moving the defense around from side to side, having a balanced attack of attacking the basket, getting to foul line, getting to the foul line, shooting more foul shots, getting to line more times per game, and mixing that in with timely three pointers. The defense as always sparks the offense. On Wednesday after the Hornets game, they played the Los Angeles Clippers that are themselves sixth or seventh in the east, and also need every win at this point in the season. The Clippers played like it. He did. Los Angeles, killed Miami on the boards out, rebounding them by 16. A surefire trend for the heat in the last four or five years is when they get out. Rebounded. They lose the heat. Defense did [00:04:00] manage to turn over the clippers 16 times and 14 of them were steals. Bogan Banovich was the main culprit with five turnovers. He only had four assists, and James Harden turned the ball over three times. I want to look at positives anywhere I can get it. On Friday, the heat faced the Celtics and it was assumed that the heat would lay down against the seas, maybe dropping by 20, 30 points, but they decided to fight until the fourth quarter. The score was 78 77 Boston, heading into the fourth Boston showed why they are the champions by holding the heat to 14 points in the final quarter. The saddest stat of the game and of the games during the week was the heat's inability to get to the foul line, which is a big part of any offense in the NBA nowadays. Had a bio, had three foul shots. Wiggins got to the line four times, and Hero only twice. If [00:05:00] you were to get any negative trends, it would be their inability to get to the foul line. Rebounding and shot selection, the heat went to the line only 14 times against the clippers, 17 times against the Celtics, 15 times against the Grizzlies. They were out rebounded by Charlotte by 10, and as I mentioned before, by 14 by Los Angeles. The referees are basically saying, let's keep running the time, get the game over, get everybody home. There's no one on the heat offense that deserves any calls. By us going to the marquee matchup, as I said last week, I'm gonna be looking at all the games during the week because every game is Marques, no matter how good or bad the other team is. The heat have three games this week, starting with a trip to Madison Square Garden on Monday to play the Knicks. Then they, on Wednesday, they played the surprising Detroit Pistons [00:06:00] ranked six in the East, and then finally on Friday, the 43 and 25 Houston Rockets. It's very difficult to say even being a heat fan how the heat will fare in these games. Some concerning comments after the game last night from Memphis. Whereby Coach Spora, where he said that we lost our competitive spirit in the second half. I appreciate this from Coach Spolstra ever since the Cry Gate from 2010 and 2011. He's not gonna explain things away like some coaches and just give you a word salad of basketball e on which is basically an excuse on, why they lost and what they were doing. He's gonna be honest. And he said we lost our competitive spirit in the second half. Andrew Wiggins stayed on the same thread and he said, we have to stay consistent the whole game. On both sides of the floor. The heat appear to be now after the Jimmy Butler trade, a fair weather [00:07:00] team. When they're making three pointers and scoring, they're happy. When they can't, they don't defend well and they lose. It's not saying much when before the Jimmy Butler trade, you didn't know where Jimmy Butler ended and the heat began, and so on and so forth. The heat as of now stand at number 11 in the upcoming NBA draft. The heat have with their draft pick whether 11th or 13th have managed to get good picks. In that position, and it's not an advoc advocating for the heat to tank the rest of the season. It's just saying where they are if the season were to end and they didn't make the play in tournament. Finally, this leads me into the full court press in a Google search on the heat and keywords related to the heat. I found the following three interesting articles. Number three was an si.com article on the heat on their [00:08:00] heat fan site. About fan sentiment following the Grizzlies game. The heat should take the rest of the season, supposedly needs to be fired. Ba and hero need to be traded. Basically, delete the whole team and start over again. If you were playing NBA live, this is not a good idea. From Kal Wears double last night against the Grizzlies to Pella Larson's, great play throwing himself on the ground for a 50 50 ball against the Clippers. There are good things going on with this team. Fans should basically watch basketball just like any other fan in Oklahoma City or Chicago. Enjoy the fact that we can watch basketball night in and night out and this team. They're constantly working on getting things corrected. They're not making excuses. The only thing that's concerning there is when the coach says we lost our [00:09:00] competitive spirit that needs to get weeded out. They always have to have that con, competitive spirit. Spirit Number two was an article on Dwayne Wade's comments during Carmelo Anthony's podcast. He Wade commented that he didn't like the way that the PR was handled by the heat during the Jimmy Butler situation. This is the third time or so that Wade has gone out and made public comments about things that the heat have done. I think looking at this. It was a mistake that Pat Riley committed not offering weight, a partial ownership why Riley's even admitted to it. His voice would really be better inside the organization. Number one was an interesting factoid from the Heat fan site. All you can heat.com from the STAT website cleaning the glass.com. With Adibi and Hero on the floor together they have a plus minus of zero. [00:10:00] Now this is not good because usually your two best players should have a better plus minus. I was looking at the cleaning the glass website and their points per game isn't that much better. So there might be something there and there might not. So we'll definitely see at the end of the week and I'll be watching the games. I hope you will be there too. Week 21 done of the 20 24 25 NBA season. Join me next week for week 20 two's. Recap when we run it back.