Is Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo More to Blame for Miami Heat’s 3-Game Losing Streak?

Is Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo More to Blame for Miami Heat’s 3-Game Losing Streak?

It’s a frustrating stretch for Heat fans after three straight losses but who’s to blame a lot of options to choose from as we dish out some blame Pie as Miami continues to struggle plus Wednesday night is a huge matchup as the Denver Nuggets roll into the ca Center we’ll

Preview the game and what it means for Miami season on today’s episode of Locked on heat you are locked on heat your daily Miami Heat podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day all right welcome to locked on heat your daily podcast on the Miami I’m West

Goldberg editor at all heat.com joining me as always it’s longtime NBA reporter David however you’re tuning in YouTube Odyssey or your favorite podcast app thanks for making lock on heat your first listen every day today’s episode is brought to you by Nissan are you the kind of driver that likes to push things

A little further ever wonder what Adventure could be around the next Corner take the Nissan Rogue Nissan Pathfinder or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure check them all out today at nissanusa.com we’re going to look ahead to what might be Miami’s last chance for

A statement win this season in a bit but let’s start with this three-game losing streak David we talked about the disastrous loss to the Wizards on Sunday night uh but we’re going to zoom out now I thought we could do like a little blame pie here try to figure out what’s

Going on what’s going wrong and how the heat can turn this thing around and I think we have to start with bam out of Bio uh what are you seeing from him over these last two games and are you concerned ultimately no I don’t think there’s any longlasting problems here I

Think it’s not I don’t think it’s indicative of even his past struggles I know a lot of people are making comparisons to how he’s been in the past I think bam actually himself brought up a good point in his postgame presser about the difference between this season

And last season that even he recognizes one of the things in the past was oh you’re not looking to score you’re not looking to score you’re not nearly aggressive enough on offense and in this case it’s not that he’s not aggressive it’s just that the shots aren’t falling

And it’s a slump and and and when he puts it that way players go through slumps even when they’re 45% three-point shooters or you know they’re they’re really incredible historically good scores they go through slums it happens especially as the the season piles up and and there’s fatigue and there all

The other things that bam provides on the floor so I’m not concerned it’s not great the timing of it is is pretty poor considering again that Miami has to win every game as they’re trying to move their way up the standings and that becomes more difficult when you lose an

Inexcusable game against the Washington Wizards so uh it’s not great but I’m not overly concerned and I don’t think it’s going to be something that’s going to impact him over the last month of the season and it certainly hasn’t historically in the playoffs at least

Not to the point where we see a much lesser version of bam like bam has coped the idea no the reality I should say that he was fatigued against dla yic it’s hard to guard joic even at full strength even after you know multiple

Days of rest so I don’t know how much of a difference that would have made he says it was a factor I’m sure it was at the same time he was still impactful for the most part against Denver in the NBA finals and I would expect him to be

Impactful for Miami’s playoff run however long it lasts um I think I think I agree with you that I’m not concerned like in a panicky kind of way I am taking notes here about what this looks like because uh first the the averages over the last three games and

It’s a small sample size and you try not to make too much of it but 11.7 points per game in these three losses shooting 35% overall he’s missed nine of his 18 free throws we talked about that after the Washington game he’s clearly tired okay that’s a big part of this he’s not

Getting the same uh lift he’s short breading these free throws I mean it just it’s fatigue and and they those are all strong indicators of fatigue his true shooting percentage is down to 39% which is horrific and that’s a big part of the free the the free throw misses

You know is a big part of that so those are what that that’s sort of what we’re dealing with here and so the fatigue is a part of it that that mid-range jumper that foul line jumper has not been going in he was hitting it at like a 45% clip

For most of the season when Miami won 11 of their 14 games he was shooting that at like 47 48% and that’s basically and and during the seven game losing streak in January he was making like 18% of those foul line jumpers so you like maybe more than any other stat like that

Might be the the most important stat that the Heat have going for them it’s sort of the biggest like sort of marker of is this team in the midst of a losing streak or their best streak stretch of the Season it really depends on whether or not Bam’s making those foul line

Jumpers and he hasn’t been making them over these last three games and part of it is the fatigue part of it is how they’ve been schemed against Cooper Morehead from heat.com had this great piece kind of diagramming like the defenses that they ran into in Dallas and Oklahoma City and even the Wizards

Who were playing without a center but one the thing that all three of those teams did was they loaded up up the paint more than ever they they they zoned up a lot they sent everything towards the strong side where it was either bam or Jimmy Butler who were

Going to talk about here in a minute were either going going one-on-one isolations post-ups whatever they were just loading up on those guys and forcing them to get either the ball out of their hands or make tough shots and we’ve SE basically what Miami does against her opponents as well you know

It’s kind of like a mirror of what Miami’s defense is we’ve seen this in the past and and SP talked about this about hey when we see a new coverage to Bam it’s it’s a couple of games and then he’s got to react to it you break down

The film and then he goes it’s it’s it’s respect and all this stuff and then part of that is true but Bam’s got like you just said the counter to the counter and what does bam do to respond to that and that’s why I say I’m taking notes

Because I I think the world of bam atab bio is a basketball player but I I you’d be lying if you said that there was no ceiling on him offensively I think we know what he can be offensively and I I think he’s passed the ceiling most

People already thought he had so with that in mind it’s like all right how many more counters can this guy really have like nikic is the most unsolvable player in basketball you said it’s really difficult to defend him it’s impossible to defend him we’re at that

Point right now with niika yic I don’t ever anticipate bam getting to that level all right so what is the ceiling for him offensively like I don’t I don’t really know and I don’t know and I’m not saying that this three- game sample size represents the ceiling I’m just saying

He needs to he he needs to grow from it too because if you’re another team in the east playoffs and you can watch these games and be like oh let’s just dial up that scheme because obviously that has an effect on bam so Bam’s got to figure this

Out yeah no I think that’s fair um you know also interestingly enough like Duncan struggles kind of mirror your bam struggles as well like at least in the the Washington game and and you wonder their Synergy has been the strong point of Miami and it’s such a great onew

Punch it’s like when Duncan is connecting on those shots the floor opens up for bam you can’t send that extra Defender into the painted area because you’re having somebody Chase Duncan around around or you have to close out on Duncan when he’s feeling it Etc that’s not necessarily the case so I

You know I wonder whether or not we’ll start to see if one of them improves maybe that alleviates the stress off of the other Etc it’s a it’s something to definitely monitor there the spacing could definitely help right no doubt and and obviously having Tyler hero out doesn’t help Bam’s minutes have ticked

Up a little smidge not really enough where I’m kind of worried about it but with Kevin Love out um it hasn’t been easy on him so I don’t know I I do think like The Terror at a biop pick and roll uh yeah sorry I sorry just to add there

As of Tuesday afternoon as we’re recording there’s still no update regarding Tyler and Kevin Love correct right still nothing so uh they haven’t had to submit the injury report because it’s Monday so we’ll probably know more Tuesday but uh I I I do want to see them

Lean into the Terry Rosier bam at a biop pick and roll a little bit more that’s actually I I watched the film on that this afternoon and I’m like it’s it’s even better than I thought it was was like it it seems like they’ve been playing together for like a season

Already and it’s only been a handful of games and their pick and roll chemistry is far beyond what I thought it would be and I just think it’s a natural sometimes it just clicks with basketball players you talk to basketball players all the time they’re like sometimes your

Style of play just works sometimes it just clicks Terry and Bam are clicking and I would like to see them go to more to more of that to get bam closer to the basket more of those lobs I I pulled up this stat and I want to get it right but

Um what do you think about the T Rosier bam out bio pick and roll there I think a legitimate weapon and I think it’s something that’s going to be continued like we saw it with Tyler like that development had steadily improving you know it’s one thing to work alongside

Duncan who who has had dis chemistry with bam for a number of years and now to incorporate this revitalized different version of Duncan has been a seamless one for both players at the same time with Tyler it was a little bit more of a work in progress being you

Know Tyler not necessarily a quote unquote playmaker and still kind not a natural passer at all I still go back to John caliper what he told me on the phone once he’s like he literally told tahiro not to pass the ball during the first couple months at Kentucky he was

That bad of a passer but this season has represented his best one in terms of his playmaking his passing and everything else like that and I think his relationship his connection with bam on the floor has really improved and we saw a number of plays there where I mean

Over the course of the Season those numbers have worked I don’t have the stats exactly to show what they’re like in pick and roll possessions but I’m sure it’s a lot better than it’s been in years past and it has been a work in progress and it has been the the stats

Have been better I do have the Tor Rosier stat if you want it oh let’s hear it so not this is not just a Rosier and and adabo Stat it’s more of a Rosier stat but as a team the Heat recorded 22 alleyoop dunks in the first 42 games of

The Season okay so it’s like half of an alleyoop per per game since T Rosier was acquired they have 23 alopops in just 20 games and Rosier missed a lot of those games too but those are the stats like ter Ros has come in and like reinvigorated the lob

Game for Miami and Bam anab bio has been the recipient on a lot of those I would I would just guess like probably half of them have been to Bam and so at least right Jimmy a handful Haywood a couple been part of it maybe Caleb maybe but

Maybe Hae but like bam an overwhelming amount hey like keep doing it spam it keep going there like that’s that’s where you could see maybe bam get some more easy shots get that shooting percentage to tick up get some more easy points for him um we’re not done talking

About Miami stars and we’re handing out blame P we should probably break out the percentages of this stuff too because that’s basically the idea of the segment we’re going to talk about that next here on lock down heat today’s episode of lockdown heat is brought to you by better help listen

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You’re watching on YouTube comment let us what let us know what you think who should be getting the most blame P David I’ve got blame pie handed out to just two players we already talked about one of them bam out of Bio that’s it I got

Two guys 60% of my pie is going to Bam I got 40% going to Jimmy Butler so we could take this in one of two ways we could talk about Jimmy Butler now or you could disagree with me about my piie allotment yeah that’s uh that’s an interesting allotment there I I think

You you’ve made the case before and and I I probably had I thought about it would have seen you going this direction because your idea is the team goes where your leaders go where your best players go and given that bam and Jimmy are your best players that makes a lot of sense

I’ve actually got five recipients of bla pie so it’s a little bit of a different number there so we can open it up let me give you my percentages there my slices of pie say same like you know similar allotment to yours let’s tease this let’s tease this let’s keep the

Listeners hanging on here let’s keep them do you have Jimmy getting pie oh without a doubt okay so you got J and I I I’m assuming you also have bam two of the five same R yeah same ratio as do you do in terms of like you know Jimmy

Gets a the bigger bulk of pie so how many slices do you have for bam and how many how many slice or did you do slices or did you do percentages I went percentages I don’t know why you went SLI 10 slices same thing with cookies

All right so how many slices for Jimmy and how three Jimmy gets one extra so Bam’s got three slices Jimmy’s got four four so that means that’s seven look at me doing Ma so you’ve got you’ve got three players getting three slices I didn’t say players I said three people

People oo okay feel like is one of them me I don’t know we’ll see um you’re rarely responsible for heat losses so not according to a lot of people who tell me that I no no those are warriors losses like the fact that you went over there Jinx that franchise I’m still

Getting it now if I tweet something a little too early and then they lose like Wes this is your fault even if they come back and they still get the win it’s it’s whatever I accept it though I’m the mush and I understand that and that’s

Fine I live with it and that’s my life Jimmy Butler over these last three games is averaging 19 points on 48% shooting 5.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists it’s not bad especially when you compare that to Bam it’s fine these are fine numbers here’s the difference is that when Jimmy

Butler was that’s not all NBA numbers that’s kind of what he’s been doing all year and the biggest difference for Miami this season has been and I know I just said it was Bam’s foul line jumpers but really what it’s been is when jimmmy Butler turns it up a notch into all NBA

Caliber play and then that’s why Miami won 11 out of 14 games is because Jimmy Butler was playing like that I don’t know what happened over these last three games some of it is the shading that these defenses are doing on him um and I

Think he has had to adjust to that but like Jimmy Butler’s seing every coverage at this stage of his career so I I give him less of a pass on this than I do for bam who is still young compared to to to Jimmy at this stage he needs to be

Better and you look at these three games he was outscored by Luca 34 to 14 he was outscored in Oklahoma City by SGA 37 to2 David he was outscored by Kyle kosma 32-23 in Sunday’s game and Neely got outscored by Cory kisber who had 22 points in that game they need a better

Jimmy Butler they need all NBA Jimmy Butler I know he doesn’t want to be all NBA Jimmy Butler all the time we’re not asking for all the time we’re just asking for 18 more games and the playoffs but if they are going to get out of the playing tournament and and

Get a top six seed which is all I care about I don’t care if they’re four five or six I don’t I really don’t care this team does not need home court advantage in the playoffs but they do need to be a top six seed and you can’t drop games

Like you did against Washington and I don’t know that this team can afford another three-game losing streak for the rest of the season especially considering how easy the most of the schedule is so that’s why I’ve got 40% of that blame pie of Jimmy Butler but I’m more concerned I think about Jimmy’s

Outlook than I am even Bam’s I mean they’ they’ve done things to just as you described scheming in order to minimize what bam as far as his open looks are concerned I think they’ve done a pretty good job Dallas in particular challenged him in a way I

Think Oklahoma City did a pretty good job of that to Washington yeah Washington I don’t think they really did much to limit his opportunities I just I don’t know I maybe I’d have to rewatch The Game he did get 20 shots up which was that’s a

Lot for Jimmy right and so to your point he was just missing a bunch of them and that’s why I’m like okay so is is and that’s you’re going to double them fine but like I said Jimmy’s seen these coverages before you know is it so is it

A fatigue thing for him too can he not be engaged at an all NBA level for more than 14 games in a row I I do wonder I you know I I don’t think he was as as much as Jimmy would indicate and maybe this is going out too far in terms

Of our scope here I I think despite whatever Jimmy has always said I don’t think Jimmy ever expected him to be your onea like I know he would never say this obviously and he believes it I I don’t you know given how his his upbringing and his collegiate career and his his

The start of his NBA career in Chicago and everything else like that like he has become a 1A but he doesn’t always he’s never been the typical kind of 1A we’ve made this point before for like he his game is more in the mud he’s more about the ancillary stuff the you know

The scoring has never been his primary focuses and so when a team like Miami needs it as desperately as they do and he doesn’t come up big in those situations it’s easy to say you know what you should have done more and and so I think that’s kind of where we are

Right now he’s just this is who Jimmy Butler has always been throughout his career and his heat stint has not been any different in that regard there have been moments where especially in the playoffs where we see Jimmy and we go okay this is one of the top 10 players

In the league and then there are you know a good 40 game sample over the course of the regular season where we go this is a guy who’s a really good player but doesn’t just he just doesn’t care or he just doesn’t want to do it or he’s

Just not capable of it I don’t know I don’t know and he’s pretty much I mean he basically told Chris Haynes this the other week I mean he’s like he Paces himself he really doesn’t care until the All-Star break and then it’s after the All-Star break that he kicks it into

Gear but when you’re going right right it’s like you’re going on record and saying this it’s like where’d that gear go like he just turned it but he just went back back to neutral like what’s going on here he’s idling right now in the parking lot with for 19 points a

Game it’s that’s not good enough you know and so look I I’m being a little I think factious when I say like I have bigger concerns about Jimmy Butler he’s gonna turn this around he knows what he’s doing at this stage like I trust Jimmy Butler to figure this part out but

If we’re looking again for reasons why the Heat have dropped these last three games it’s because Jimmy Butler has not been playoff Jimmy for three games he just hasn’t right and you can’t go up I know Luca is an MVP candidate and SGA is an MVP candidate I’m not asking you to

Play like them you know during a regular season when those guys have just been stacking numbers during the regular season but you can’t get outscored by 20 by Luca and outscored by Kyrie Irving in that same game I didn’t even mentioned that before and you can’t get outscored

By 17 by sgaa you got to keep it a little bit closer to give your team a chance because if that star player is outscoring your star player that much that’s why I always say your team goes as your star goes like you’re you’re getting yourself behind the eight ball

And then asking Caleb Martin to bail yourself out of it like that’s just not that’s just not how the n free throws too the free throws is such a big problem is he’s taking less attempts and he’s not hitting them as well and I think that’s just I don’t know there was

A statistic that you know that Adam Silver has made a a focus of of not calling as many fouls as as you know trying to open things up or help defensive opportunities there so I don’t know how much of that has factored in the last couple games but you know

That’s that’s a big part of what Jimmy relies on is getting those calls to help kind of build up some of those numbers offensively you know uh and so wonder if he’s going to be able to continue to get those calls moving forward so I I I

Don’t it’s that is something I I’d like to monitor it’s a good point um Ethan Sherwood Strauss wrote a piece about the free throw shooting on his substack and I I recommend people read that um but um you’ve got that’s all my blame P you still got pie for three other players

We’re going to do that on the other side of the break plus one thing that the heat absolutely have to do to beat the Nuggets on Wednesday we’ll tell you what that is after this today episode is brought to you by Nissan Motors are you the kind of driver

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Armada and go find your next big adventure go shop nissanusa.com thanks for making lock on heat your first listen every day make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and on your favorite podcast app if you’d be interested in joining us for a watch party for a game in April please let us

Know in the comments we are not even yet at the point of organizing it we are more just trying to to gather information and determine whether or not y’all would even be interested in doing a watch party we did we’ve gotten a lot of yeses already if you’re if you’re in

The south Florida area and you’re willing to stop by a bar at some point in April probably to watch a road game with us let us know in the comments we need to know if you’re interested before we put the work in to organiz if you own

A bar we’d love to if you own or manage a bar you know you want you want to get some uh locked on heat participation bring a large yeah amazing fan base of of really passionate F and and reach out we we’d love to be able to have an event

At your little place David drinks a lot of beer so they’ll keep you open eat food got nice got a nice Stout no that’s that’s the only thing it’s got to be it’s got to be a stout sorry I’m the opposite I’m a logger I like light beer that tastes like water’s

Fine you like dark beer don’t give me ipas yeah don’t give me any IPA though that’s that’s an insult no God no I’m not like a malty guy that’s why I don’t do the Stouts I like the The Malt I try to to to it doesn’t matter all right friend of

Mine says a friend of mine says that you only have one who can you know a beer I have to chew that’s what it is basically I agree with that that’s called the back um before we get to the Nuggets preview uh you have three slices of

Blame pie you have three players I I venture to guess but I think it’s people people all right go ahead let’s go Bernie the Heat mascot deserves one no um I’ve got I’ve got one for Duncan Rob I mentioned before I think yeah shooting numbers are a little again not

Concerning I think it’s just been a little problematic maybe he’s going through a slump too I can’t be too hard on him because again he’s not expected to carry the bulk of the offense but as the pressure release for Miami’s offense at times I just haven’t seen what we’ve

Seen from him in the the you know win streak prior to that so we’d like those numbers to get Juiced up a little bit 38% from three over the last five games I just think that the misses are so loud especially at the end of these

Games this would not be a three game losing streak had he hit a couple of those threes at the end of the or even one of those threes at the end of the Washington would we talking be talking about the team had he hit one of those three

Los I you know where I am I got bam and Jimmy and that’s all the blame P I’m handing out but I can I could see your argument on Duncan who’s the next one he gets one slice you know I I know I’m gonna get crap for it uh but as our good

Friend uh Ben goer says availability is the best ability and I’m gonna give one slice of BL pip to Tyler like I playing he’s not playing and that’s the he’s not playing and I I don’t I again he’s too many instances of not playing and I know

The growing concern on the Fran Bas that has turned on him is is the injury prone and I don’t think I’m quite there yet but it’s starting to be a concern and I know a lot of these things have freak injury kind of things wrapped up into

The course blame the the the towel guys in New Orleans who didn’t wipe that part of the floor where he hyperextended his knee and then that turned into a right foot thing that’s yanky movement that it really is that’s just that’s the way he you are blaming plants his foot yeah I

Mean well I mean you’re blaming his can’t blame a guy for getting hurt strategy just I don’t know I maybe blaming him that’s the whole point of blame pie is that you’re blaming him so all right so T hero not playing all right who’s the last one SPO SPO gets a slice I’m

Interested to hear your reasoning on this I thought about SPO but I didn’t just because I thought about everybody and I was like I don’t I don’t know that I would have made any changes to what he did you know but I’m also not a b uh

Yeah I don’t know trying trying trying Nico at Center uh too many minutes for Thomas Bryant not enough minutes for Thomas Bryant I mean Orlando Robinson I think was solid in his brief showing against the Washington Wizards and yet didn’t get more opportunity I mean you’ve got look the two-way guys never

Want to be your answer but this happened last year like when Jamal Kane had his few brief flashes and why everybody was so hyped up about what his potential was is that you know sometimes you throw things out there and hope that it sticks and hope that it pops and I don’t know

That he’s done that as much you know and and certainly I I think that’s uh he’s throwing Patty Mills in there he’s throwing him in the mix yeah well and then that’s another point that that that’s the thing is like again you rewatch The Game you saw how bad Miami

Was defensively as much as they needed Mills offense they probably could have used Del Wright’s defense out there you know at least in containing drives and stopping maybe forcing a turnover that leads to another opportunity at the other end and you know that’s why he had

Qu go out there right but that’s not that’s not good enough rationale for keeping dlon right you know you sign him you hope he plays you saw what he could do and his limited opportunities and then it’s like well now we’re just gonna banish you and I don’t know why that is

And like I told you I hav they haven’t said it they haven’t provided any clarification and you know he he kind of he did talk about it before yesterday’s game and then we go to another game where you’re signing 35 year old V Patty Mills and and he gets he’s

Ignitable you know he had good stretches like not blaming not at all he’s been a microwave score Off the Bench I think he’s been really valuable in terms of the two-way guys I you don’t play those guys at this point in the year like you got to start ramping like those guys

Can’t be in the play they can’t play in the playoffs you got to figure out your playoff rotations you got to figure out your playoff minutes patterns and your combinations and all these things but the Delon wght thing is curious like I I I’ll hear you on that and maybe Eric

Sper could have found a counter to all the the the strong side zoning and and shading and the doubles on Jimmy Butler maybe a little bit earlier I also don’t think that they walked into Washington thinking that that was going to be a problem and maybe that’s part on maybe

That’s on SPO to that they may have overlooked the Wizards a little bit there was some quotes after the game kind of suggesting that maybe they did Overlook them a little bit he said he specifically said that it wasn’t when he wasn’t asked about it so you wonder

Whether or not that might have been kind of buing in the back of his head somewhere where it was like we were looking ate we just kind of took right right it’s like it’s like lying before you have to lie it’s like totally wer doing what I was just thinking

Yeah I was at work I wasn’t at the bar what are you talking about like what I just asked you if you needed anything from the the store um all right let’s look ahead to uh Wednesday nights against uh game against Denver uh we’re doing that now because we have our

Interview coming up with a Heat fan favorite on Tuesday so we won’t have a chance to talk about this game in depth until then but um look I I’m looking at the the last box score I think that uh for the Heat and the Nuggets game uh the

Heat it was a narrow loss to Denver we kind of walked away from that thinking okay feeling a little bit better about where Miami is yep maybe a little bit of a moral Victory whatever here’s the thing there’s no more chances for moral victories for the rest of the season

Because Miami fortunately has one of the easiest schedules left in the season the other part about that is you look at this schedule and there are is maybe one opportunity to make a statement win the rest of this season and it’s not college football the statement wins don’t matter

It doesn’t get you into the college football play like it doesn’t really matter in that way but I do think it matters for Miami in terms of proof of concept gaining steam gaining confidence getting that momentum that you want to be riding into the playoffs with and

This game against Denver like you look at the schedule it’s the only top-notch game left I mean you’ve got games against Philadelphia coming up but we have no idea when jolen be’s going to come back and if those games are even going to matter um and that’s really it

Like that’s all that’s left and so you look Wednesday night at home against the Nuggets NBA Finals rematch I think the heat are going to want to make a statement I think they’re going to come out very motivated obviously the nuggets are probably the best team in the league

Right now they’re playing out of their minds right now huge win against Boston the other night but uh if you could get a win on your home court against Denver something you couldn’t do in the NBA finals last year I think that would be huge for Miami’s confidence going into

The playoffs what do you think oh huge um I think it kind of erases what’s happened over the last three games and maybe that’s just more of the pickle nature of fandom even ourselves as media members you kind of what’s what what have you done for me lately I think they

Would think the same thing though yeah I exactly that’s the whole point and I I think it would go a long way towards helping bam shake off whatever funky’s got if Jimmy could have a strong showing like if you get these kind of performances for these players that

We’ve talked about then all of a sudden the ship feels red you can go into a two game trip against Detroit and feel much better about that opportunity doesn’t mean that you can take those games for granted you can’t take any game for granted but if you can have a strong

Showing and one that results in a win like honestly I we’re at a point and I think you kind of said it best if moral victories won’t be enough like you have to come out with a victory yeah you have to be able to beat Denver uh and if you

Can do what you did against him against Nia yic specifically defensively I I think you know he had a a subpar game in Denver you know and that was a little unexpected in Miami still lost by six I will say this and I texted you this I

Don’t know how much it matters for all of Boston’s quot unquote superiority they still lost by six against Denver too so I I you know this is I think this is more indicative of how good Denver is whether you know whether Boston is much better than Miami or anything else and

Maybe this is the wrong time after the heat just lost to the wizards but either way if if the heat want to control their Destiny and want to be able to show everybody that they’re capable and that they should be considered a team that is capable of beating anybody else in the

NBA it starts at home it starts at Denver get over the mountain top and then you’ve got momentum going down the other side of the mountain and going into the playoffs you could really build some steam going in here the one thing I think they do have to do that they did

Not do in Denver in this last matchup they have to get up more threes they AB abolutely have to get up more threes they went seven of 26 from three-point range in that game against the nuggets and so that’s 27% and that was the number most people focused on is oh my

God they only shot 27% from three my thing is they only got up 26 of them and Denver who takes fewer threes than even Miami got up 34 three-point attempts and Miami’s defense does allow for a certain amount of three-pointers they try to take the ones away from the corner

You’ll get them away from the break but that math does not work when the nuggets are so dominant in the paint yic is not going to just he’s not going to going to go go six for 15 for 18 points he’s not he’s not going to do that twice against

The same team that’s not how he rolls so you we’re expecting the Nuggets to outscore Miami and the paint because that’s what they do to every team in the league okay well then where are you going to get these points back you can’t really get them back in the mid-range

Right because if Denver’s going to shoot 60% at The Rim then that means you got to shoot 60% from the mid-range to keep up and that’s just not going to happen right they’re probably like leag like the best team in the league shoots like 46% from mid-range so it’s just not

Going to work so you got to make it up from the three-point line that’s where Boston made up that that’s where they kept that game close against the nuggets the other night and it’s what the Heat have to do the problem is that for the Celtics that’s part of their profile

Where the heat that’s not part of their profile but in this game it’s going to have to be right and that means big games for Duncan probably some Patty Mills minutes Jimmy Butler’s got to get that three-point shot going again like it’s it’s gonna come from everywhere

Though the return to Kevin Love if he does come back I think certainly would help too like I mean I know that’s expecting a lot you know you just come back after missing a handful of games and it’s like well let’s hope you can knock down at least three or four three

Pointers you know but they also can’t give up 70% shooting to Michael Porter Jr and kavus cwell pop like those guys just have like so many wide openen looks from three and they were drilling those with ease so you wonder how much uh how how much they might be able to replicate

What they the success they had in Denver so we have our interview with a Miami Heat fan favorite on uh we’re doing that Tuesday come out Wednesday with Kyle Lowry our old friend uh we’re doing that Tuesday afternoon that’ll come out Wednesday morning and then we’ll have

Our recap from CA Center I am so excited to watch this game heat nuggets we’ll be recapping it from the arena on Wednesday night that’s for you every dayers out there thanks for making lockdown heat your first listen every day hit that subscribe button on YouTube and follow us on your podcast app

The Miami Heat have lost three games in a row for the first time since their January swoon. What’s going on, and who is to blame?

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil drill down into Miami’s issues and discuss what is fixable and what should be a big concern. Then they preview Wednesday night’s matchup against the Denver Nuggets.

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