Miami Beat

The Miami Heat might as well change their name to Miami Beat as everyone in the Association is just beating them this season and you can no longer blame COVID-19 for the woes of coach Erik Spoelstra’s team.

It’s as if midnight has struck for last season’s surprise Eastern Conference champions and NBA finalists and its overachieving role players have turned back into mice and pumpkins.

Yesterday’s loss against the equally inept Washington Wizards (missing Russell Westbrook) dropped the Heat to 7-14 in the season and was the team’s seventh loss in 10 games.

Well, you can blame Miami’s early losses to championship hangover and fatigue, given they were only given a couple of months to recover from a grinding schedule in the 2020 season’s Orlando bubble.

But it’s now over 20 games in the new season and Miami sits in 13th place in the East behind bonafide laughingstocks the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks.

Nothing seems to work for Spoelstra’s team this season as last season’s breakout rookies Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn are not as impactful and 2020’s super sophomore Duncan Robinson has definitely been a marked man and isn’t as effective. The loss of starting frontliners Myles Leonard (out for the season with a shoulder injury) and Jae Crowder (signed with the Phoenix Suns) have also brought down the team’s defensive intensity and one of the reasons opposing teams have been scoring at will against them.

Even Miami’s resident veteran, Goran Dragic, has been a shell of himself this season, as the 34-year-old has been blowing hot and cold the past couple of games. Perhaps, age is finally catching up on The Dragon.

Team president Pat Riley’s offseason moves also haven’t paid off yet as Maurice Harkless is an offensive liability despite some flashes of brilliance on the defensive side. Avery Bradley has been good when he’s been on the floor, but he’s also out most of the time due to a variety of injuries and COVID-19 safety protocols.

Miami’s struggles has also made Bam Adebayo sort of a scapegoat for critics of the struggling team as the fourth-year all-star out of Kentucky is fresh from signing a nearly $200-million, five-year contract extension. Except for rebounds, Adebayo’s stats are all up this season and he has even developed a reliable jumper and is shooting more than 80% from the free throw line.

And then there’s Jimmy Butler, the Heat’s heart and soul was sidelined for three weeks and that absence coincided with team’s precipitous fall in the standings. Like Bradley, Buckets is coming off a bout with COVID-19 but don’t tell that to the three-time all-star as he put up great numbers in his return despite Miami going 1-2 during that span.

Still, something appears to be off with the 31-year-old Marquette product, especially during crunch time. Against Charlotte in his second game back, Butler pulled up from the 3-point line instead of driving strong for the game-winner (so far he’s 0-13 in the season from the land of plenty). And in their game against Washington yesterday, he deferred too much to his teammates in the dying seconds, not exactly what you want from Miami’s franchise player and undisputed leader.

There’s also the Giannis Antetokounmpo factor as the two-time regular season MVP was rumored to prefer South Beach when he hits free agency after this season. Him having the same agent as Adebayo also didn’t hurt. The chance of adding the Greek Freak to Miami’s young and promising roster a couple of season removed from taking 2020 champions Los Angeles Lakers to six games in the NBA Finals was just too much to pass up for the Godfather Riley.

Alas, when that didn’t happen, plus Riley’s rumored dangling of Herro, Nunn, and Robinson in a potential trade for Houston’s James Harden, it put the team’s mental makeup off kilter (It’s also the reason why the Heat offered Crowder just a one-year deal instead of his preferred two-year deal).

It’s not too late for Butler and company to climb up the Eastern Conference standings as the Knicks, Cavaliers, Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, and Chicago Bulls are not expected to make the playoffs. But the Heat barely making the postseason dance after advancing to the NBA Finals the season before is a major letdown for Riley and Miami’s top brass. Here’s hoping Miami will still revert to the monster it was in the bubble once the playoffs come around. If not, I’m lucky I also root for the Lakers, LeBron notwithstanding.