At the start of the week, the Miami Heat’s offense was at the center of the team’s problems. By the end of the week, the Heat’s defense was the team’s biggest issue.
With the Heat (24-22) struggling on both ends of the court, coaches and players are searching for answers after dropping their sixth straight game in a 125-109 loss to the New York Knicks on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. This is the Heat’s first six-game skid since losing six straight games in March 2021.
“We have to take control of our identity and getting back to competing at a level to our standards and our DNA of our organization, and we simply have not been doing that of late,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But we certainly have at different stages of the season and we have to get back to it collectively.”
The Heat needs to get back to it fast, already dropping in the standings from fifth place in the Eastern Conference at the start of the six-game losing streak to seventh place after Saturday’s loss to the Knicks.
The Heat is now one loss away from its first seven-game skid since late in the 2007-08 season — a season that Miami won just 15 games in. The Heat will look to avoid a seventh straight defeat when it hosts a hot Phoenix Suns team on Monday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and NBA TV).
“We all just want to win,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “So I don’t know, we just got to figure that part out.”
The problem is the Heat has a lot to figure out in order to get back to winning games consistently.
The Heat has posted the NBA’s worst offensive rating during this six-game slide, scoring just 106.5 points per 100 possessions. For the season, the Heat entered Sunday with the 22nd-ranked offensive rating.
The Heat has also recorded the NBA’s second-worst defensive rating during this six-game skid, allowing 124.4 points per 100 possessions. For the season, the Heat entered Sunday with the 13th-ranked defensive rating.
All the while, the Heat continues to try to integrate guard Terry Rozier after trading Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick to acquire him on Tuesday. Rozier has started in each of the last two games, but is shooting just 10 of 33 (30.3 percent) from the field and 2 of 11 (18.2 percent) from three-point range in three games since being dealt to the Heat.
“There’s a feeling of discouragement when we miss an open look or a shot in our wheelhouse,” Spoelstra said. “... We didn’t knock down those shots and it affects us on the other end. This is not exclusive to us, this is a league-wide problem and this is something that we’re going to correct to be able to defend and do what we’re supposed to do with physicality, force and discipline on the defensive end of the court, regardless of what happens on the other end. That’s the definition of mental toughness.”
The Heat’s defense has been bad in the last two losses, allowing the Boston Celtics to total 143 points on 63.8 percent shooting from the field on Thursday and the Knicks to score 125 points on 51.7 percent shooting from the field on Saturday.
A top-10 defense has become almost expected from the Heat under Spoelstra, as Miami has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in seven of the last eight seasons. But the Heat has been closer to average in that area than elite so far this season.
“We ain’t making nobody miss, we’re fouling, it’s a lot of bad, not containing the ball, our close outs,” Butler said. “It’s all stuff that we know that we’re not supposed to be doing. It’s everybody. It’s myself, all the way down to line.”
Spoelstra added following Saturday’s loss to the Knicks: “Our defense, that’s the biggest takeaway right now that we’re not defending with the Miami Heat level of toughness, physicality, force and discipline to be able to win games while we’re figuring out all the rest of the stuff.”
How concerned is Heat center Bam Adebayo about the team’s defense?
“A lot,” Adebayo said. “Just because it’s all effort. If we don’t show enough effort on the defensive end, games like that are going to keep happening.”
On offense, the Heat continues to have trouble maximizing each of its top three players — Adebayo, Butler and Tyler Herro — on the same night. The Heat is now just 5-10 in the 15 games that Adebayo, Butler and Herro have played together this season.
In Saturday’s loss to the Knicks, Butler finished with a usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) of 28.6 percent to score 28 points on 20 field-goal attempts. That’s the highest usage rate Butler has finished a game with since a Dec. 16 win over the Chicago Bulls.
Meanwhile, Adebayo finished Saturday’s loss with a season-low usage rate of 16.7 percent to score just 12 points on 10 field-goal attempts.
“Every game there’s going to be somebody who’s not fully in rhythm,” Spoelstra said when asked about Adebayo’s quiet offensive performance against the Knicks. “Right now, it’s not about rhythm, it’s not about touches, it’s not about points that guys are getting. At some point, we just have to do what is needed to get the win.
“I’m not even playing that game with our locker room because right now, if I’m just focused on getting everybody happy and getting everybody their touches — the last six games, somebody or multiple guys have been whatever, feel whatever. The offense will go different directions.”
Last season, the Heat overcame an underwhelming regular season to make an improbable run to the NBA Finals as the East’s No. 8 seed before falling to the Denver Nuggets in the championship series.
This season, the Heat is trying to avoid its longest losing skid in more than 15 years with hopes of again finding solutions in time for the playoffs.
“Right now we’re going to rally around each other, rally around our identity,” Spoelstra said. “It’s a tough time right now. If we treat this the right way, this can be a great opportunity for our team to be able to respond to adversity, things that are making us angry. If you respond to it appropriately, you start to correct some things. That’s what we’ll focus on.”
▪ The only players on the Heat’s injury report for Monday’s game against the Suns are Orlando Robinson (G League), RJ Hampton (G League), Cole Swider (G League) and Dru Smith (knee surgery).
The rest of the Heat’s roster is expected to be available.
This story was originally published January 28, 2024 9:30 AM.
