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Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat were the darlings of the NBA bubble, going on a Cinderella run to the NBA Finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. With most of the key players returning for 2020-21, the Heat were expected to be a Eastern Conference contender once again.
Instead, Miami is sputtering near the bottom of the East with a putrid 7-14 record after the latest disastrous defeat, a 103-100 loss to the Russell Westbrook-less Washington Wizards on Wednesday night. The Heat are only two games ahead of the last-place Detroit Pistons in the conference.
Scoring just 100 points against a Wizards team giving up over 121 points per game this season perfectly encapsulates this brutal start for Miami. The Heat managed just 35 second-half points against one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA.
Butler was frustrated after the loss:
Heat in midst of fractured reality, "We’ve got to start playing for each other more." https://t.co/9WpxK0lANY Jimmy Butler, "We haven’t been playing good basketball. When you don’t play good basketball, you lose. That's why we're 7-14."
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) February 4, 2021
Miami ranks 26th in the NBA in offensive rating in 2020-21 after boasting a top-10 unit last season, per NBA.com. The elite 3-point shooting has taken a sizable dip, and they're turning the ball over at a disturbingly high rate.
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Now, Butler appearing in only nine out of 21 games due to COVID-19 certainly hasn't helped matters. Tyler Herro has only played 14 games and hasn't taken the leap many hoped, shooting under 33% on 3-pointers. The Heat have cycled through a number of lineup combinations due to their health issues, resulting in members of the deep bench getting key minutes.
However, Butler was in the lineup for these last two losses against the Wizards and Charlotte Hornets, which both featured blown leads of the double-digit variety. Miami is a mediocre 4-5 in Butler's nine games, with the Butler-Bam Adebayo duo getting outscored by 31 points in their 207 minutes on the court together thus far. This despite Adebayo making another leap this season. For reference, they were a plus-234 together last regular season and plus-79 in the playoffs.
The good news for the Heat is there's still plenty of time to turn things around, especially in the Eastern Conference. While Miami is only two games up on the last-place Pistons, the sixth-place Atlanta Hawks are only three games out of reach. There's a large blob of mediocre teams jockeying for position, and one has to imagine the Heat will start to figure things out as long as they stay relatively healthy. There's too much talent with Butler and Bam leading the way under a terrific head coach in Erik Spoelstra to continue fumbling away games night in and night out. There could also potentially be a big trade on the horizon if Pat Riley gets aggressive.
Still, it's never ideal to fall in such a hole, especially with a long West Coast trip coming up on the docket. Miami's offense needs to find a way out of this rut, and it's not like the defense has performed much better. The Heat can start to get back on track with a win over the Wizards on Friday night.
