Winderman’s view: With losses, Heat suddenly looking behind instead of up in standings
· Yahoo Sports
Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night’s 136-106 loss to the Charlotte Hornets:
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– After a performance like this, yes, scoreboard watching.
– Because now for the Heat, it’s as much about looking behind as ahead.
– With the Hornets only three games back.
– Which means the Heat are only three games up on No. 10.
– So, yes, watching the standings after this second straight loss.
– How can the Heat not, with only 13 games to play?
– And Tuesday counted a bit more, considering a team that wins a division title receives an extra potential tiebreaker advantage.
– “It definitely adds to the importance,” coach Erik Spoelstra said at the morning shootaround, with the Heat still with three divisional games left (two against the Wizards and then the final night of the season at home against the Hawks). “More than anything, it’s just looking at the standings.”
– But only looking to a degree, Spoelstra said.
– “You don’t want to get overwhelmed by what other teams are doing,” he said, with his team now having dropped two in a row.. “It really just matters what we’re doing and what we’re bringing to take care of our own business.”
– He added, “The East is extremely competitive. When you’re training in the summer, you’re really hoping for these kinds of opportunities. When games have this much meaning, both teams know what’s going on. Games are really competitive. That hopefully brings out a higher level out of our team.”
– This time, it didn’t.
– Tyler Herro said the appreciation for the moment is quite real.
– “At this point, every game is a big game,” he said. “Every night is like a playoff night, a playoff atmosphere.”
– With Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins out, the Heat opened with a lineup of Kel’el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Norman Powell, Davion Mitchell and Herro.
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– With his first assist, Powell reached a single-season career high of 130.
– The Hornets opened with Kon Knueppel, Miles Bridges, Moussa Diabate, Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball.
– Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Simone Fontecchio entered first together off the Heat bench.
– Fontecchio did not play Saturday against the Magic, but Spoelstra had to get creative with Larsson called for two early fouls.
– In the void of options at center, Keshad Johnson then was third off the Heat bench, in place of Ware.
– With Kasparas Jakucionis then also entering.
– From there, it became 10 deep when Dru Smith entered for the first time late in the third period, after being held out Saturday against the Magic.
– Going in, Hornets coach Charles Lee had ample praise for the Heat offense,
– “I think it’s a bunch of factors; number one is the quantity. They definitely force you to just maintain a level of discipline and a level of focus in that area,” he said of the Heat attacks. “Give them credit, they have good players leading it. They do it with a certain purpose and a force behind how they drive. There’s a relentless kind of nature to try to get there and create open buckets, create open threes, catch-and-shoot threes, or get yourself to the free throw line.”
– He added, “The other aspect, I think, is just some of the movement behind it. They’re slashing, they’re cutting, they’re opening up the elbow in certain ways, and you know, you’re not able to really hold your shifts to give your partner some protection. So, you’ve got to make sure you’re there early and as soon as you get stuck on one of those two-way stunts, it puts you in a compromising situation where you’re late to contest, and you’re also going to get hit with a go-and-catch, and then you’re late to a close-out as well.”
– But not so much this time.
– As is often the case on the road, Spoelstra was asked pregame about the Heat’s ample use of zone defense.
– “It’s part of our defensive system, for sure,” Spoelstra said. “The thing that I always tell our team, it’s about committing to doing ridiculously tough things in this league. It doesn’t matter whether we’re in our man or our zone. Our man is basically our fastball.”
– He added, “There are some games where we can play the whole game man. There are some games where we can play a lot of possessions of zone. The game will let us know.”