Bam Adebayo considers himself a positive person; an energy supplier to the Miami Heat. This was shown in two recent games against the Nets, when he lost 41 points in Saturday’s game and recorded a double-double on Monday. But even his usual optimism or the black mask he wears on Zoom’s calls failed to hide his frustration after both efforts resulted in losses.
“We are at the bottom of the East now, it doesn’t feel right to be there,” Adebayo said Monday night. “We are just bodies, man. That’s no excuse, but I think we could have won that game. ”
The Heat is currently 6-11, and although it is technically just two games out of No. 8 seeds in the East, they have the third worst record of the conference. After Wednesday’s 109-82 loss to the Nuggets, Miami dropped four consecutive games and seven in the last nine games.
As much as the famous Heat culture emphasizes a “no excuse” mentality, it is impossible to ignore the dire situation the team found itself in last month. Heat fights are not simply a symptom of bad basketball, but the fact that some of its players – including striker Jimmy Butler – have been out of court for long periods of time.
“It is very good to say: ‘We are left with [Nets], ‘but I don’t want to hear that, ”said Goran Dragic. “It’s good to have that courage … sometimes you win with that courage, but you need to perform.”
Butler and offseason addition Avery Bradley have both been out since January 9 due to the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols, although Bradley returned to the track on Wednesday night. Mo Harkless lost two games this month under the same health and safety restrictions. Adebayo himself lost two games due to contact tracking. Both were losses; and in one of those competitions, the Heat had only the minimum of eight players available to play the game. (Miami has only had one game postponed so far this season, a January 9 game against the Celtics.) This would be the worst case scenario for any team. But for a Heat group coming out of an impressive race in the finals last season, it’s the opposite of what they expected. Sure, there was a feeling that the regression could come this season, but it was beyond forecast or control and introduced a new level of concern for the players’ health as well.
“The most important thing is that we want to be safe in the first place,” said Duncan Robinson after the Heat played with just eight players against Sixers on January 12. “It is certainly frustrating, but everyone is going through this. Saying ‘Why us’ is probably not doing anyone any good either. ”
Seventeen games in the 2021 regular season, the things that drove Heat into last season’s bubble – culture, cohesion and chemistry – are exactly what they were unable to establish. And Miami is not the only team that is going through this fight.
Tim Hardaway knew that something was not right. After winning the Nuggets in overtime on January 7, the mood on the Mavericks’ flight to Dallas was not as positive as it normally would have been. The plane was without three players – Josh Richardson, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jalen Brunson – all of whom had to stay in Denver to pass the league’s health and safety protocols.
“It sucked,” said Hardaway after a January 9 victory over Magic. “But now, that is the nature of our business.”
Although the Heat’s expectations have been frozen in the East, perhaps no Western Conference team has gone through more difficult times than Dallas. The Mavericks also had just one game postponed so far this season, but they had five major players – Richardson, Finney-Smith, Brunson, Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell – out for most of the month (Richardson, Powell, and Finney-Smith returned for Wednesday night’s game). While Luka Doncic is still playing at an elite level and is likely to be an MVP candidate, the Mavs are below the average 8-10, have lost three in a row and are out of the top eight in the west.
The reality of what they are going through is taking their toll on the court – Dallas is 16th in the league’s attack after having the best last season – and this has affected the team’s overall behavior.
“I think we looked like a team without energy,” said Boban Marjanovic after the Mavs lost to a team at Harden-less Rockets last weekend. It was the third game in four days.
The league’s health protocols affected the players ‘availability for games this season, but also the teams’ routines between games. As head coach Rick Carlisle pointed out before Dallas faced Magic on January 9, the Mavs were unable to perform the shootaround, a fixture for all teams ’day-to-day lives, because of morning COVID tests and break times. wait. The teams had to make many similar adjustments on the spot – for example, Dallas spent the night in Tampa after playing against the Raptors last week to avoid flying to the location of his next game (Indiana) in the early hours of the morning.
“Schedules and schedules can shake and change dramatically in a very short period of time,” said Carlisle after the Denver game. “We all have to understand that this is part of life in the NBA this year.”
The Heat and Mavericks are even more likely to make the playoffs this year (FiveThirtyEight gives Miami a 73% chance and Dallas an 88% chance). But in a shortened season of 72 games, each game has more weight. What is happening now may be a long-forgotten story by the time the playoffs begin, but now, the struggles of the Mavericks and the Heat are real, and the losses they are accumulating can affect the chemical construction process that is essential for any team with aspirations to do a deep playoff race.
While all aspects of the NBA’s return to the game this season have been negotiated and agreed collectively between players and the league, the restrictions have tightened and the league has become more proactive as the season progressed. Teams like Wizards and Grizzlies were forced to postpone several games, either because they had too many players on the COVID protocols at the same time, or because the NBA has been trying to limit the spread of viruses within teams. And while others, like Heat and Mavs, have managed to continue, their exhausted rosters have pushed available players to the limit. This left players vulnerable not only to losses, but also to injuries, and having to adjust to changing circumstances at the time.
“I told the team that they are like a bunch of Navy SEALs,” said coach Erik Spoelstra after the Heat’s second loss to the Nets. “Just leave them in the city, whatever the circumstances, the guys go out there and do a job.”
These long player absences forced many players at the end of the bank to join the game and demanded that they take on exaggerated roles. Heat’s Gabe Vincent, an unaccompanied player with a two-way contract, averages 22 minutes per game and has managed two 20-point games against Sixers two weeks ago, after playing just one other game this season. Miami’s sophomore striker KZ Okpala had to defend James Harden and Kevin Durant in sprints. And from his hotel room in Denver, where he was quarantined for 14 days, Finney-Smith watched Josh Green take on part of his role and wished he could be there to tell the newbie how to defend a particular player or read cover.
It is not forgotten by anyone that these players are entering the game because others are being physically affected by a virus that has the potential to affect the health of players in the long run, as well as the health of their families. Finney-Smith said that his symptoms were similar to those of a very bad cold, but that the mental challenges of quarantine were even more difficult.
“Usually, when you’re hurt or something, you can be close to the team and the coach, but sitting in a hotel you feel kind of useless,” said Finney-Smith. “My girlfriend is pregnant, so knowing that I wasn’t bringing the coronavirus home was kind of my way of staying positive.”
Even after players complete their time on the league’s health and safety protocols, there is a small process of reinstatement. Brunson, who was quarantined for seven days in Denver earlier this month, returned to the Mavs’ active roster last week. And while Carlisle described him as having fresh legs, Brunson felt the shock in his system.
“I don’t recommend taking 10 days off the game,” he said after playing 27 minutes against the Raptors last week. Brunson got a bicycle in his hotel room and made a point of going straight to the gym as soon as he could, even though he still couldn’t play. “Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.”
The Heat, for its part, hopes that, despite not seeing results in the winning column, the advances they are making and the habits they are forming now will give them a boost when Butler returns.
Spoelstra says that this series of games has shown how much responsibility players like Adebayo, Dragic and Tyler Herro can take. Adebayo, in particular, proved that he has not stopped making leaps, handling most of the Heat’s production in the attack, while continuing to anchor them in defense. And before Wednesday’s game, Dragic had played more minutes per game in the previous six Heat competitions than in a season since 2017-18.
“He just wants to help our team win and is putting everything out,” said Spoelstra of Dragic. “This is where we are now. It will get better, but we don’t know when. ”
There is a cyclical nature to these fights that, given the nature of a long season, can affect all teams at one time or another. Just as the Mavs and Heat are returning in full force, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard entered health and safety protocols on Monday and did not travel with the Clippers to begin their six-game trip. Coach Ty Lue said the two players were feeling well, but the Clippers – who are 13-5 and one of the best teams in the league – immediately lost their first game without both.
When asked what lessons he felt he learned in the two quarantine weeks, if any, Finney-Smith shrugged. “The healthiest team will probably have the best advantage in the NBA right now.”