Have the Miami Heat finally lost their team identity?
By Ivan Mora
The Miami Heat have dropped yet another game and with this loss, they might’ve dropped their identity. Can they recover it?
Call it desperation. Call it frustration. Honestly, you can pretty much sum it up and call it whatever you want, but the harsh reality is that this Miami Heat team has lost its identity.
Yes, it’s only one game and yes they are still in the hunt for a playoff spot, but at this point, is it even worth a shot even if it’s the eighth seed?
Judging by their recent struggles, can they even win a game in the playoffs? At the moment, they’re looking like a one-and-done team, especially with their injury woes and confusing lineup rotations. They are constantly changing their closing lineups and despite their recent win on Tuesday, they completely fell apart to an NBA lottery team just one night later.
They allowed 131 points to a Los Angeles Lakers team ranked 11th in the West with a record of 27-34 and an offensive rating of 106.2. That stat ranks the Lakers 24th of 30 teams in the NBA, per Basketball-Reference. Two of the teams with a worse offensive rating than the Lakers, the Sacramento Kings and the Chicago Bulls, both got the best of the Heat in their last two matchups. They rank 29th and 30th in the league in offensive rating. Dead last. That’s horrible.
The NBA season is a long and exhausting one with 82 games. Eventually, this Heat team will lose to sub-.500 teams, but certainly not on a regular basis. In their last 11 losses, they have endured heartbreaks at the hands of four teams with worse records.
The Orlando Magic, a team that’s ranked last in the East with a record of 18-43, squeezed a win in their last meeting, 111-109.
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The Sacramento Kings, a team that ranked last in the West before getting a win over the lowly Nets Thursday night, also squeezed in a win against the Heat, 89-88.
The Detroit Pistons and now last night’s Los Angeles Lakers were the latest teams to also upset the Heat, scoring more than 110 points in the process. Really Miami, what gives?
This Heat team on paper, especially with Dwyane Wade coming back, shines individually. As a collective group though? Well, that’s another story.
It all comes back to who the Heat are and that’s lost even on them. Are they a run-and-gun team? Are they a defensive-minded team? Are they a 3-point threat? Are they a centered post presence team?
Who knows at this point? They try a little bit of everything, but always come up short. In this last game, they had a total of eight players slipping in the negative numbers in the plus/minus category. Josh Richardson was a -30 overall. Ouch.
Kelly Olynyk and Hassan Whiteside were both a -19, with Wade coming right behind with a -18. The only effective player statistically that worked well on both ends of the floor was rookie Bam Adebayo, who was a +5. The Heat can’t genuinely think this desperate act will continue to work, especially if they want to squeeze out wins.
Are they ready to rely on a rookie to continue working both ends of the floor effectively while the rest struggle to complement each other’s strengths?
Yeah, I’m not sure about that.
One thing I know is Heat fans are still, of course, optimistic about the rest of the season, especially with Wade leading the way. That’s good, they should be. But if that fails, who are they going to fall back on?
Like I previously mentioned, they are coping to bring back this team’s identity. This late into the season though, it might not be a matter of when they do it, but more of a question of if they do it. It might be time to accept the hard truth that it’s completely lost.
Next: 2017-18 Week 20 NBA Power Rankings
Heat fans will be hoping to be proven wrong, but this team needs to find its identity before it’s too late.