The Miami Heat are coming off of a loss to the Phoenix Suns Friday night, 113-97, putting a cap to their most recent five-game road trip where they traveled to the West Coast. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game that despite the loss, he “really liked” the way that the team was playing even if the shots were not falling according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“I really liked the way we were playing,” Spoelstra said. “In all the huddles, I was just reiterating: ‘Play the right way offensively. Just trust it.’ If guys are open and you’re getting to your aggressive attack paint touches, we were making the right plays. A lot of those were wide open threes. It’s the right play. And I’m encouraged that we continued to do that even throughout the misses.”
The contest against the Suns was a bit different than how it was when the Heat faced the Los Angeles Lakers where the opponent was sloppy in committing turnovers and missing shots from three-point range. Phoenix was hitting a good portion of their shots Friday night whereas Miami was not with some great looks at basket.
Spoelstra talks about the Heat not controlling the game defensively
For Spoelstra though, he feels like they never controlled the game on the defensive end of the ball. The Suns got it done in a bunch of different ways as they were led by Grayson Allen who scored 31 points as he made nine of his 14 shots from deep. Stars Devin Booker and Bradley Beal would contribute 20 and 25 points respectively as they were missing their third main component in Kevin Durant.
“We were just never able to really control the game defensively and get it in the mud,” Spoelstra said, “which that’s what would have been required to get this game.”
Heat's Bam Adebayo feels the game “slipped away” vs. Suns
A couple of bright sides for Miami were the team's front-court including Kevin Love who had 20 points and seven rebounds. However, it was big-man Bam Adebayo that stepped up after a brutal first quarter where he laid a goose egg, missing his first five shots. He would then score 17 points, just in the second quarter before finishing with 28 and 11 rebounds.
“I feel like it slipped away because we didn’t make shots,” Adebayo said. “I feel like we were getting great shots, getting great looks. They just weren’t going in.”
It was an uncharacteristic night for the Heat as players such as Tyler Herro who is used to scoring over 20 points per game only finished with nine points, only making four of his 17 shot attempts. Heat's rookie sensation Jaime Jaquez Jr. once again filled in for the injured Jimmy Butler, but only scored 10 points.
After the frustrating loss to the Suns, the Heat now travel back to Miami after a long road trip and enjoy four straight home games. The plan is simple for Adebayo, “protect home court.”
“We’ve been on this road for a long time,” Adebayo said. “Going home, it’s time to protect home court. We need to do that.”
Miami is currently 9-6 inside the Kaseya Center which is far from the best home record. In fact, compared to the rest of the top 10 teams in the Eastern Conference, the nine wins is the least amount of home victories.
Their home-stand starts Tuesday as they face the 17-16 Houston Rockets. The Heat are currently 20-15 on the season, which puts them fifth in the Eastern Conference, though they have the same record as the Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Follow Us
Subscribe