The number of Heat puns I could use in this post is astounding. I will try to refrain from falling into the trap many reporters do whenever they cover the Miami Heat in any situation. I am a little fired up about it, actually.
The Portland Trail Blazers, playing on national TV, used a strong third quarter and better defensive intensity to secure a victory over the hobbling Heat. The Blazers beat the Heat 99-83 Thursday night at the Moda Center. The Blazers improve to 28-8 on the season, 17-3 at home and are currently the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. The Heat, however, are going in the opposite direction. They fall to 15-21 and 8-9 on the road, but still hold the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat are continuing to discover themselves in the post-LeBron era. After four straight trips to the Finals, this Heat team looks absolutely depleted and exhausted. Besides the cornerstones in Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, a lot of the players on this roster are either leftover from the LeBron James era (old, tired) or mediocre to good role players who are attempting to fill bigger roles than they are used to. Danny Granger, once the pride of the Indiana Pacers, has now fallen into a sixth man-type role with Heat. However, he is just averaging 7.1 points and 2.8 rebounds a game. He played 22 minutes in the contest against Portland and finished with just three points and was generally a non-factor. Granger is the example of multiple players on this Heat roster. Playing roles they are not used to, or are too injured or old to produce anything of value on a nightly basis.
Furthermore, this Heat team is now stuck with a point guard by the name of Shabazz Napier, who proves to be a good player, but Miami, most likely, only drafted him to try to keep LeBron in Miami. Do they have any use for Napier other than a bargaining chip? Napier has only played five minutes in his last ten games. The point guard situation in Miami is disheartening. The starting point guard in Mario Chalmers was always the weak link in the teams prior to this season. Heck, Wade or LeBron seemed to bring the ball up more times than Chalmers. Mario also seemed to be the punching bag for a lot of the Heat’s problems with fans. Mario has brought his scoring average up to 10.9 points per game while dishing out 4.2 assists, but is that just a case of LeBron not being there and Chalmers having more of an opportunity to score? Two seasons ago Chalmers shot 41% from three all season, now, he is shooting just 29% after 36 games.
All this to say that Miami feels old, slow and slightly confused, which made it all that more surprising that Miami actually had a five-point lead going into halftime against the Blazers. In Portland. In the first half, Miami shot 43% from the field with Bosh and Wade combining for 27 of their 48 points scored. The biggest issues came in two areas. Miami attempted nine more shots at the FT line and scored eight more points than the Blazers. In the entirety of the first half, Portland only attempted five shots from line. Secondly, Miami defended the perimeter well. Portland was forced to swing the ball around in unusual fashions or were just closed out quickly. Multiple times, the ball would swing around to the open man, but no Blazer could get a shot off quickly enough. Part of this was the fact that Portland seemed slow in the first half, but part of it was because Miami was playing fantastic defense, particularly on the perimeter. As such, Portland finished going just 2-for-14 from three. The good statistic for Portland was that they only had two turnovers in the entire first half, which is more like it.
The third quarter was where this game was decided. Portland outscored the Heat 33-16 and looked like an entirely different team than the sluggish and lethargic team of the first half. Portland shot 59% from the field and 75% from three (3-for-4). The Heat, on the other hand, shot 33% from the field and only had eight attempts at the line. Believe it or not, this is not the only third quarter that the Heat have struggled in. They average 20.9 in the third quarter this season, which is last in the NBA. Opponents score 25.5 points on them. While the Heat played hard-nosed basketball in the first half, it was all undone by a Blazer team that adjusted, started hitting shots from the perimeter and made it tough for the Heat on the defensive end. The Heat, back to the old and exhausted theme, looked dead tired in the third quarter. Wade, dealing with bad knees for the past few seasons, looked slow and disinterested on the defensive side and forced up too many shots on the offensive side. It looked as if the mental game was in full effect for Miami. A fan could tell that this Heat team looked done. Gone were the energy and hustle plays, gone were the Wade drives. The Heat got punched and looked done before they fell over. The Blazers took full advantage and never looked back.
There was a questionable coaching decision made by Erik Spolestra in the third quarter. The Heat have recently acquired center Hassan Whiteside, who “played” a couple of seasons in Sacramento before finding a home in Miami. In 12 games, he is averaging 5.3 points on 4.9 rebounds a game. That may not seem like a lot, but Whiteside provides something the Heat never had even the Finals era: a legitimate big man presence in the paint. The Heat had to get by with patchwork. Signing Chris Andersen and using Bosh at the five, the Heat were able to cover up the hole with duct tape and get by. However, the Heat were so smart in how they played basketball that the size did not really matter, at least for a couple of seasons. With Whiteside, the Heat have a 7’0” 265 Ib center who blocks shots and gives them something they have not had since Shaquille O’ Neal.
In his past three games (including this one), he has combined to score 35 points, block 11 shots and grab 24 rebounds. In the game last night, he played almost seven minutes in the second quarter and had six points and four rebounds on 3-for-3 shooting. The Blazers had an issue dealing with him. With Joel Freeland and Robin Lopez out, the rebounding game has been an adventure. Chris Kaman once again got the start, but without LaMarcus Aldridge or even Meyers Leonard in the game alongside Kaman, the rebounding seemed hard to come by. However, Portland and Miami both had 13 rebounds in the second quarter. But, it was the way that Portland struggled for those rebounds that was concerning. Regardless, Whiteside was a weapon and was giving Portland a lot of issues. So, any coach would want to send him back out in the third, right? No, Whiteside did not play at all in the third quarter. It is time to change the strategy for third quarters at this point. The rebounding numbers were one-sided. Portland out-rebounded the Heat 13-2 in the third quarter. A potential substitution could have stopped the bleeding and Spolestra had opportunities to do so.
The Blazers stepped on the Heat’s neck in the third and took care of business in the fourth as the Heat never looked like they were even attempting a comeback.
Portland’s highest scorer was LA who finished with 24 points on 11-for-20 shooting and 12 rebounds. LA got a couple of mismatches against Granger and Deng down on the block that made for easy buckets. Once Whiteside went out of the game, especially, LA went to work underneath the basket and Andersen had no answer.
Damian Lillard had an off shooting night, but finished with 16 points on 6-for-17 shooting, 2-for-8 from three with three assists and two blocks. He sustained what looked to be a tailbone injury at the end of the second quarter that hobbled him a good amount. He came out in the third quarter, promptly earned a jump ball, won the tip and then hit a three-pointer on the other end to give Portland their first lead. While he was not one-hundred percent, it does not look like the injury will be a problem going forward.
Wesley Matthews, wearing a brace on his leg after hyperextending it in the Lakers game, finished with 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting, 3-for-5 from three.
Leonard has graduated into a player head coach Terry Stotts can bring in and not have the game go sideways. He finished with four points on 2-for-7 shooting, 0-for-2 from three with nine rebounds and one steal. He registered a +14, the most of any bench player in this game. Leonard seems to be slowly getting better. While he has played against a couple of teams that do not have tons of size (or the coach decides not to play them), Leonard has looked more aggressive on the boards and does not look to be thinking as hard. I am interested to see how he plays against teams with true centers.
The Blazers flipped the switch so-to-speak and got themselves a victory. Next up, the Orlando Magic on Saturday night. The Blazers wrap up this seven-game homestand with their first meeting with the Magic at the Moda Center at 7:00 p.m. PST. I thought the Magic would be one of the recent cellar dwellers to make a push, but it might come down to a coaching issue. This team is on the rise with players like Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic. However, this matchup may prove more difficult that in the past as Orlando now has Channing Frye, the only guy I have seen who can defend LA well. Do not let up. Stay tuned!