The Miami Heat have been playing good basketball to start the season, and it's their offense that has blown many people – and teams – away. One player who has been a major contributor to that side of the ball is Norman Powell, who was traded to the Heat during the offseason.
The Heat will have their biggest test of the season tonight against the San Antonio Spurs, and they'll have to try to get a win without Powell, who is dealing with a groin issue, according to Ira Winderman.
“Norman Powell indicates he will be out tonight due to his groin issue. Nikola Jovic upgraded to probable,” Winderman wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Powell spoke about how he was feeling the morning before their matchup against the Spurs, and it seems as if he won't be out for long when asked if he would be available when they face the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I’m feeling good. Better than previous days,” Powell said. “So just taking it day by day. Excited for the trip. Excited for the game tonight, supporting and rooting the guys on. Being active, participating in the shootaround with what I see and how we can attack these guys offensively and defensively.
“I don’t want to put anything out there and put pressure on anybody. But I’ll just say that I don’t plan on being out too long.”
Heat's offense is blowing out teams
The Heat are top 10 in offensive rating so far this season, and they've been scoring at a high rate. After their first win against the Memphis Grizzlies, Bam Adebayo spoke about the new offense, saying that they hadn't run a play in the first half.
“Playing with a pace like this, you love to see everybody collectively having fun, everybody getting to touch the ball,” Adebayo said as he scored 24 points. “You can’t really scout plays for us. There are no plays. In the whole first half [Friday against the Grizzlies], I don’t think Spo ran a play. We’re trying to make it last all season.
“It's fun when we play like this. It's fun when we can get up and down, we can run with that pace. Obviously, miss or make shots dictates that, but our thing is just to keep playing this style of basketball where there's no hold. We're swinging, we're cutting.”
It will be interesting to see if the Heat can keep up this style of play, and if they can, it'll be hard to stop throughout the year.
