REACTION: Heat Lose Bam Adebayo — Impact REVEALED in Crushing Loss to Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

REACTION: Heat Lose Bam Adebayo — Impact REVEALED in Crushing Loss to Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

Miami wrapped up their road trip going 1 and three after a loss to the Nuggets. Did the Denver game show exactly how valuable Bam Deio is to the team success? What does it matter? Some Heat fans don’t even believe Bam’s valuable at all? [Music] 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 Heat. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app, thanks so much for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. Join the cookie gang and become an everydayer by hitting that subscribe button. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com today to get started. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real GM Radio. I’m here with David Rmill. Both of us are Credential Te Media members who cover this team every day. Jam-packed show for you today. Uh we are going to talk about some players who played well in this game. Uh we’re going to zoom out and get to our overall lessons from this 1 and4 road trip, but we are recording this Wednesday night after the Heats 122 to 112 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Denver. They go 1 and3 on this trip. There’s a bunch that we can and will get into about this game, but David, truth is this thing was over as soon as Bam left the game. He let he exits early about 6 minutes into the game with a left foot injury. Looked like he stepped on it weird. Was a non-cont thing. Took this weird step kind of looked like he might have rolled it or sprained it. He leaves the game, goes straight to the locker room, does not return. The Heat announced that he’s questionable, but you know that he’s basically he’s not coming back to this one. We’re not going to know exactly what happened until tomorrow, probably after he kind of under goes some tests and sleeps on it and kind of sees how it responds. But immediately you’re hoping that this doesn’t mean that he has to miss a lot of time. Absolutely. Uh I think that the game really did show exactly how valuable Bam is. Uh just their complete identity seemed to fall apart defensively once he was out there. He provides so much effort and does so many little things well. I find it so startling to see that he his plus minus was a plus four on the night and eight minutes of play. Just over eight minutes of play. The only starter and plus minutes with a positive plus minus. Uh you know not an impressive statline. One of five, just a total of two points, only one rebound, one foul. So, it wasn’t like he had a monster game either, but he’s just so impactful because because of his size, because of his strength, because of his versatility, there’s so much that you can count on with Bam out there. And he makes up for such a a variety of deficiencies on the defensive end particularly. And he does a lot offensively, too, even if he’s not producing to the level. And we’ve seen an uptick in his production overall this season. So, I think that the Heat were desperately needing him and just being able to impede the best player on the planet who certainly showed that he still is the best player in the planet in tonight’s game. Yeah. Uh you saw Miamiy’s game plan to guard that best player on the planet, Nicola Joic from the jump, right? They were said they just they said, “Bam, you do it.” That was it. That was the game plan. They were going to let Bam uh go one-on-one with Jokic. And that’s basically been Spose Mo really during this trip in general. It’s like we’re not going to double Luca. We’re not going to double Victor Webbyama. And we’re not going to double Nicolic. And when you have somebody like Bam, you could do that. Bam on this trip has guarded Victor Webbyama. He’s guarded on switches James Harden in key moments. Like this trip has really shown how great of a defensive player Bam Adabio. He is at where you and I agreed maybe he took a little bit of a step back last year in terms of def. He is right back in defensive player of the year conversation right now. the way that he’s been playing defensively to start the year prior to this injury obviously. So to not have him and to make that the fundamental part of your game plan going into this game, which was basically we have Bam and we’re going to just trust that he can limit Joic a little bit and then hopefully we can make up for the rest of it everywhere else. Once he leaves after eight minutes, your whole game plan just goes kaput. Like that’s it, right? Like KL Wear ain’t doing what Bam does defensively. Uh Kashad Johnson who played key minutes at center in this game ain’t doing what Bam’s doing defensively when they play Nikico Yoic as a small ball five. He’s obviously not doing there’s not a lot of players that could do what Bam does defensively but certainly nobody else on this roster who could do what he does defensively and so yeah once he went down I kind of just stopped taking notes honestly David I you know there’s things again that we can get into some positives some more negatives but um the game was as soon as that happened the game was over. Yeah, it’s just Jokic in particular is the and the reason why you and I think he’s still the best player in the planet despite what Sha Yel just Alexander does or what Luca or Giannis have been able to do or even what Victor Webbyama does. It’s how completely he controls a game like he he’s just so effortless or at least it makes it seem effortless the way he just controls everything and it’s like LeBron. It’s like peak LeBron. It’s like you just look up and you’re like, “Oh, 277 and seven. Didn’t even notice.” Okay. Yeah. Another triple double for him. a monster stat line. Just these crazy passes that you don’t even see it. He just he sees the game so completely. I our conversation with Nico Yoic of the Heat on media day. Uh and the way he talks about it. This is the way that NBA players understand Joic’s impact is that he’s just so great. This is not just his countryman. This is also as an NBA player with Nico Joic, uh Nicola Joic, I should say. you you understand how great he is because he just sees things differently. He’s able to do so much. He just bullied his way. The Kashaw Johnson lineup that was just like he had one possession where he was able to like bat the ball away I think or intercepted as an entry pass. Other than that on the next ensuing possession he backed him down as easily as I could. My six-year-old son like it was not even a contest. Like it’s you know you’re not going to stop him. He was just like, “Okay, I’ll kind of just shuffle back.” And then, “You know what? Oh, there’s the basket.” Three feet away from me. And at seven feet, he was so much taller than everybody else. It really looked like an unfair lineup. Even where with his 12 rebounds in the night, uh, Joic wound up eclipsing him and just making it look easy. And these were pivotal rebounds to keep the game going. But Denver did a fantastic job overall and just outrebounding Miami. It was just a really tough game for them because they can’t rebound the ball without bamo in the lineup. They can’t stop anybody without baming a buy on the lineup and next thing you know they’re not able to ignite their offense, especially when they’re not able to defend or rebound as effectively as they do. Yeah. I mean, Bam isn’t a raw rebounding numbers guy, right? You have to dive into the advanced stats a little bit more, but Miami’s defensive rebounding rate with Bam on the court is always elite. Always elite. like they do not give up offensive boards when Bam is on the court because Bam, the multipletime all-star that he is, still leads the league pretty much every year in box outs. Like they track this stuff and across the board he’s always boxing out. Like that’s part of the reason this heat coaching staff loves Bam and it’s one of the reasons why BAM is so good is he does those little things despite the fact that he’s a star player. And when you don’t have him out there, you just see the difference. 21 offensive rebounds for Denver in this game. That’s the game. That’s it. Right. You could talk about Joic 33 points, 16 assists, 15 rebounds, five offensive rebounds for N uh for Joic. Obviously, that’s great. But to have that to give up that many extra possessions when you all you have is, by the way, is five offensive rebounds. And you’re not making it up anywhere. Like, you’re not making up 21 offensive rebounds. Like, you’re just not. Like, you can make more threes. The Heat did. You can get to the you can get to the free throw line just as much. They basically did. It’s ba uh you can force some turnovers. They forced more turnovers. They scored 22 points off of turnovers. You’re not making up 21 offensive rebounds. Uh Denver had 22 second chance points in this game. Miami had eight. There it is. And there it is. And and with without Bam in there, I just the Heat were ignoring the yard work, right? They just like they they just let it go. And that was killer for them. And there’s just nobody on this team that that plugs as many holes as Bam does. He feels so essential to what this team does. Even though his usage rate is down and his shot attempts are down, all these things are down. What he does on a possession possession basis in terms of plugging holes and taking care of all these little things is so essential. And without him, it all just sort of falls apart. Denver’s a good team. They deserve to win this game. Not taking anything away from them, but he didn’t have a chance. No, I I think that it really does show uh the impact that he has. And it’s great that you bring up the fact that the statistically uh you don’t as a fan, you’re not watching box outs. You’re looking at this the the box score and you’re saying, you know what, this person has x number of rebounds. Uh but with Bam there, he just allows everybody else to flourish because he does so many little things that puts them in a position to produce, to succeed, etc. And uh it was a tough break for Miami. I like they they battled. I think they did a really good job. I think even for the the entirety of the game, but at one point it just seemed like Denver was kind of toying with their food a little bit. They really didn’t seem like they were turning it on or like any sense of desperation from them. It’s like, “Okay, we know we’re going to win.” It was fool’s gold, right? Like the Heat were down 17 at the start of the fourth quarter. They cut it to 10. Then Jokic checks back in. Game over. Like they just they go on another run and then the game’s over. Like that’s it. And and so you can kind of lull yourself into a false sense of security. Hey, make maybe make a few more threes and we’re right back in this thing and then Joic gets to the scorers table and you’re like, “Oh, that’s right. He wasn’t in the game for the last four minutes.” That’s why we were able to claw back into it and then he checks back in and the game is over. That said, there were some bright spots that we want to get to and they these players deserve some shout outs. Specifically, Andrew Wiggins. What a game from him. We’ll talk about him and some of the other guys that had good games and some of the guys that had not such good games after this here on Locked on Heat. Today’s episode is brought to you by Gusto. Let’s be real. No one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. Well, that’s where Gusto comes in to take the stress out of payroll, benefits, and HR so you can focus on running your business and supporting your team. Gusto is the all-in-one remote friendly payroll and HR platform that makes managing your team simple, transparent, and fast. Whether you’re hiring, onboarding, or paying employees, Gusto helps you do it all from one place without the hassle or hidden fees. Unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price, which means no surprise charges at the end of the month. Gusto’s automated tools like offer letters, onboarding materials, and direct deposits save you hours every week. And knowing you can reach certified HR experts anytime gives you the real peace of mind that you’re looking for. So try Gusto today at gusto.com/lockedonba and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That’s right, three months of free payroll at gusto. That’s gustto.com/lockdon NBA. One more time, that’s gusto.com/lockdon NBA. We’ll be right back. [Music] And for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day, let’s talk about Andrew Wiggins. Um, one of the few bright spots in this game for the Heat. He really brought it. 22 points on nine of 13 shooting. Went three of four uh from three-point range. Did do a little bit of rebounding. Had five assists in this game. had a couple of steals uh and some really I thought he did a really nice job defending the passing lanes especially early in this game where his his arms were just always up even when his back was to Joic he just knew like hey that guy’s got the ball like that pass could be whipped over my head at any moment now and he actually got a deflection and a steal uh off of one of those moves but uh I thought what we saw from Wiggins was a level of aggression offensively that this team really needed and kind of kept them hanging in there for a lot of this game. Yeah, 13 field goal attempts. I mean, that’s pretty impressive for him to be able to knock down nine of those. That’s really good. But just a variety of different things, whether it was diving to the basket, attacking the rim, the turnaround jumper was nice. Uh, you know, he still has that ability to post up smaller players and and he’s very, very effective in all these little things. He had a really nice turnaround jumper. I can’t recall over whom now, but it was uh Bruce Brown. Yeah, you’re right. It was over Brown. And, uh, just really solid overall game. And you know, I think back to the start of the season, we were talking about potential X-factors, and I really think that uh Wiggins just has the ability to raise Miami’s floor so considerably because he just does a lot of these little things as well, and he’s able to provide that boost, you know, what you’re going to get is is pretty solid production from him. But if he’s if he’s effective and aggressive the way he is tonight, it’s a complete game changer. Unfortunately, you just you’re making up for too much. He’s never going to be that kind of player that can take over a game with a monster outing. That’s not who he is. It’s never been who he really has been expected to be either. He’s more of a secondary complimentary type player. And in such, tonight’s game kind of really shows that he’s capable of being really, really good in that specific role and really helping a team succeed. Unfortunately, again, it was just too uh too much to make up for without Bam in and the lineup. He’s been really good for the Heat lately. Um he has the game tonight. Uh against the Clippers, 17 points on 12 shots. Against the Lakers, 15 points on 16 shots. Against the Spurs, 24 points on 18 shots. And then against Charlotte, 21 points on 15 shots. That those are his last five. That’s his last five games. Yep. I’m glad you pointed out the his his ability to get to get into the post on small players when with with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with when with with the Heat running this uptempo style of offense and getting those mismatches kind of jumbled every once in a while, Wiggins just ends up on a guard. And what I’ve loved about Wiggins offensively so far this season is when he sees that guard on him, there’s no hesitation, there’s no thinking. It’s it’s almost I think the coaching staff has basically told them because it’s so direct. Hey, if a small iss on you, don’t do anything else other than post that guy up. Wiggins is a good post player. He’s not Jimmy Butler, but he’s a very good post up player. Uh and has been for years. And and for the coaching staff to basically tell him and for Wiggins maybe just to decide, hey, in this offense, if there’s a small on me, that’s the only decision. Take that guy into the post, put him under the basket, and go get your go get a bucket. And I love it. He is, like you said, he’s not the most aggressive guy when you talk to him. He’s doesn’t come off that way, obviously, but that is a level of like microaggression that I really, really like from Andrew Wiggins and and I think it’s a huge part of Miami’s offense so far. The other guy that we need to talk about though is uh DaVon Mitchell. Have I can’t decide if we’ve talked about him enough or if we’ve talked about him too much so far this season, but I love everything about this guy. 10 points on nine assists. That’s okay, right? Doesn’t jump out to you. only had three turnovers though, so it’s a three to one assist to turnover ratio. He’s among the lead leaders, league leaders uh in assist to turnover ratio. Took six shots, made four of them, made one one for two from beyond the arc. I mean, again, not a super loud game from DaVon Mitchell, but it never is. But when you watch the game, you can’t help but feel his impact. Is he a point guard now? Because I think that’s always been the knock on him, right? is that he’s he’s not really ever been he’s been more of a tweener, an undersized tweener at that and uh you know more known for his defensive tenacity, but Miami has been one of those teams that uh a lot of people especially when Kyle Lowry was starting to struggle towards the tail end of his stint here that a lot of people suggested, well, you know, Miami just needs one of those floor generals, somebody who can really help facilitate and make plays happen. But you look at Mitchell’s assist numbers, they’re really, really solid. He’s got great chemistry with Bam. He seems like he’s finding spots for these guys to to flourish and he’s opportunistic in his own scoring. That’s all you really need from the point guard position, especially when you have somebody as productive as Powell and you expect that at some point Hero will come back and be able to contribute something too. So, is he a point guard now where you can kind of count him to be the that floor general type? Yes, I think he is. And I think we saw that at Baylor and it’s one of the reasons I liked him so much during the scouting process of that draft is like this guy does have that old school point guard mentality. You don’t see a lot of those guys anymore. You ask point guards across the league or maybe whatever combo guards ac guards across the league. Guys Davon Mitchell’s size, hey, who is it that you loved watching growing up and all of them because every player including centers be like, I loved Kobe Bryant highlights. It’s like, okay, after that, after the Kobe YouTube deep dives, a lot of them say Steph, obviously, right? And and no knock against Steph. Obviously, you can’t knock him, but you just see a lot of guys trying to do a Steph impression these days. And I asked DaVon Mitchell like who his guy is, and he said Chris Paul. And it sounds like more guys should say that because Chris Paul’s a freaking legend. But surprisingly, a lot of guys don’t say Chris Paul. Yeah. And Da’Von Mitchell was like, “Chris Paul’s my guy. That’s the guy.” And he had an opportunity to go get dinner with him. I think his first year, first or two, first or second year in the league, he had dinner with Chris Paul and he’s like, “What I learned from one meal with Chris Paul just like just outpaces everything I’ve ever learned from anybody else.” And he reverses that guy. And you can kind of see a little bit of that in his game. I think a little bit of that, hey, let me just let me take care of everybody and I’ll go get mine when the opportunity is there, but let me make sure I’m taking care of everybody. And to have that unselfish attitude to to be out there in order to make your teammates better. Yeah. You just don’t see a lot of guards like that. Like LaMelo Ball ain’t thinking that way. No, it’s a inherent kind of sacrifice where you’re trying to do what’s good for the benefit of the team, not just for yourself. you’re not putting up numbers that that inflate your stat line. Uh you’re just trying to make plays for everybody else to find ways to score, especially in this type of offense where everybody’s kind of rolling at this quick pace and and you know, totally, you know, fully functional on all cylinders, etc. And and Mitchell just flourishes in that role. And I’m I’m glad that he he talked about Paul uh who I think has become somehow somewhat o underrated at this point in his career. Yep. Yeah. uh you know the knock of course is he he’s never won the big one etc but you know there’s been so many different factors that contribute to that unfortunate well he did make it to the finals with Phoenix eventually but still um not something that a lot of people consider in terms of how he’s viewed in today’s game and uh he’s still a really solid perhaps one of the top three point guards of all time like I mean three four point he’s certainly up there he should be in that conversation along with staff Magic Johnson John Stockton etc. So, no question. Um I I I think uh I think Mitchell’s been fantastic. Uh he really sets the table and it’s going to be an interesting question once Hero does return whether or not Mitchell gets taken out of the starting lineup. Yeah, let’s put it I that I want to get into that in the next segment. But, uh last thing on player spotlights, uh in terms of negatives, I would have liked to see more from Nikolovic in this game. We know what his relationship with Nikolic is. we know how important that guy is to him and the fact that they played together on that Serbian national team that went as far as it did in Euro Basket. Um I just I thought this was going to be one of those games where uh Nico took it personally. He ends up with five points on one of six shooting, three assists, four turnovers. It was a messy kind of sloppy game from him. No real tangible impact on it. And um that was a little upsetting I think for Nico to to not be able to make that impact against basically his hero, right? And you always want if if you’re a player, you always want to get up for these games. And uh unfortunately for Yovic, it just didn’t work out for him in this one. It just he hasn’t been much of a factor all season. Like he’s had very very few spurts where you kind of see it and it kind of all ties together. But, uh, I’m not sure, you know, we we saw something similar to this with Duncan and his contract. And you wonder, it’s hard not to make that kind of comparison because it seemed like Duncan just got progressively worse immediately after having signed that contract. And he has spoken about the the pressure of living up to that deal with Nico. The extension is hasn’t even kicked in yet. So, it’s not like it’s something that should be weighing on him to the same degree, but uh he just doesn’t seem quite comfortable and he just he hasn’t been the player that we saw in the summer. He hasn’t been the kind of player that we saw in the preseason. We expected more from him going into the regular season that just hasn’t kicked. Uh Hak is junior off the bench, 21 points, nine of 14 shooting. He was just great. Kept doing the thing that he keeps doing. Uh his six man of the year odds are going up. We might talk about that here in a second. Plus, uh, some more, uh, we got quotes from BAM Adabio and Eric Spolstar about the BAM injury. We’ll fill you in on what’s going on over there after the break. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA’s back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a save game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. Unfortunately, no late push for Miami, but as you hinted, Wes, it seems like Haimeh Hak is now fourth best odds at plus400 uh for him to be the sixth man of the year right now behind AJ Mitchell, J. Mitchell, sorry, Jeremy Grant and Quenton Grimes. So, uh, he’s got as good a case as any. And I I don’t know. That went up from plus 2,000 when he was down there like in the teens. Like he was like barely on the You had to scroll and scroll and scroll to go find him hackers Jr. at the beginning of the year. He has jumped up, which is typical for six. So did AJ Mitchell, right? Like he wasn’t on the board either. Like a lot of these guys have jumped up near the top. But to go from plus 2,000 to plus,400 in two weeks and like you said, fourth best odds to win six grand a year, that’s huge. I I said it before like at when he was at plus 2,000. Hey, it might be time to sprinkle some some cash on it then, but still plus,400. That’s still really good. That’s still really good odds. Absolutely. So, if you want to keep the winning going, go over to FanDuel because it’s giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. We’ll be right back. [Music] So they go one and three on this trip. They missed Pal for the first two games. Bam played only eight minutes in Denver. I want to zoom out here. Takeaways from the trip. What did we learn about this team from the trip? Understanding that they were at they were never really at full strength obviously because Tyler Hero is out. But even if you cons consider no understanding that hero is going to be out before the season, what full strength was to open the season, only for one game were they at that kind of full strength against the Clippers and that was their one win, right? So, uh, what were we able to learn about this team during this four-game trip? David, it’s an interesting question because it is hard to kind of parse anything given that the the roster remains incomplete, but I I think the Clippers game was impressive for me. You know, you know, we talked before the schedule was released about how bad the start of Miami season was. Like potentially like there real challenges there for them to kind of figure out their identity on the fly, but they’ve managed to do pretty well overall. Uh an extra win here and there during the the road trip I think would have been a little bit better. But you finish it off, you’re still at four and four. You’re not in such a major deficit that you have to claw your way back through all season. So, when I look at this road trip, the the big takeaway for me is they’re better than a lot of people thought they would be, and I think they’re legitimately good, but they also need everything to break perfectly in order for them to find a way to win. Uh they just they don’t have much of a margin of error, whether it’s an injury here or there. We saw it with Ban, we saw it with Powell. Without those two players, uh Miami is just they’re not good enough. Uh they’re better than they were last season for sure. I think they’re better than again a lot of people expected them to be and yet somehow they just they’re going to rely on everybody to step up and have these big games whether it’s a Hime Hake or a Bam Deio like we said or anybody else in this roster that they just need to all play at a high level for in order for this team to really have any chance of comfortably winning. I don’t know if I agree with that. I I think um I think they’re already starting behind the eightball understanding that Tyler Herro is just out. Yeah. And then Okay. Like you’re say, okay, Hero’s out, Bam’s out, Powell’s out. Like I don’t know that that’s necessarily everything needing to break, right? Or more of just like, hey, you’re down two to three of your top your best three players on any given night. It’s going to be really hard to win in this league, especially on the road. And so, um, I don’t I don’t know that we really we well, first of all, we don’t know what this team is at full strength. Uh, and that’s unfortunate to be this far into the season and not really get it. But I think even just with Norm Powell and Bam at a bio available, we have seen how good this team can be. And I actually think that version of the team does have a margin of error, right? We’ve seen this team not shoot that well from three and win games. We’ve seen this team maybe give up too many rebounds than you’re comfortable with and hang in games or even defensively not be where they wanted to be and still win games because this offense just is overwhelming when you have these guys out there on the court. In terms of other takeaways uh about this team, you kind of hinted at it before with DaVon Mitchell in that lineup and what happens with Hero when he comes back and does DaVon stay right now. Now Eric Spolster is deciding that he’s going to go small to start games and I think that’s the right call right now. I don’t think Khloe or Nicola Yovic have done anything to earn that fifth starting spot. And so if you want to just kind of go to basics here and just be like who are your best five players right now? He’s starting them right. Uh well not nec I think Hameh Hakas Jr. is one of their best five players. He’s still coming off the bench but you got to get those six man of the year odds up. So there there’s that. But um like when hero comes back to me, I think it’s pretty clear right now that you would go Da’Von, Tyler Hero, Norm Pal, Wiggins, and Bam. And just it’s pretty small. But I I think offensively that gives you a good chance. And the other thing here is I think people think that Spo is going to match up with his opponents in terms of do you start Kell or do you not or do you go with Nico or do you not whatever. And maybe there’s going to be a little I’m sure there will be a little bit of that here and there, but you also hear Spo talk at the end of these games and before these games and say like it’s not really about matching them. It’s about setting the tone. And with them going small with this speed lineup with Pel Larson in there right now. That’s them trying to set the tone and play up tempo and try to get to their style. And I think when Tyler Herro comes back, they will probably try to stick to it unless one of Kell or Nico step up in a way where they kind of earn back a spot in that starting lineup. It’s an interesting um suggestion there. I I’m not sure how it’ll play out. There’s a lot of uh to me uh the Tyler question is worth monitoring and and I I just think that without him right now you’re you’re not quite sure what he’s going to be able to contribute or how he’s going to fit in. I I again I think it’s going to be a positive thing overall. But there there are you look at what they were able to do on the road trip and and you assume that with him and his scoring punch that he’s going to be fine. he’s going to be able to give Miami that extra boost, but you know, there’s also the concern that maybe what he does give up defensively is going to hurt this team as well. So, there’s a lot of different things there. So, I I think I think welcoming him back is still be an overall positive. I’m still choosing to see it that way. Uh, and and I think it’s going to be a fine reintegration of his skill set. But, um, you know, how you juggle the starting lineup and how you kind of get your best players out there and key situations, I think, is going to be a good test for Eric Spolstra. My last takeaway, and it’s a small one here, but um, we were wondering how teams are going to try to defend this flow, no ball screen offense, and I think over the last three games, the two LA games and then this one against Denver. Denver opened up in zone y in this game. I think it’s pretty clear that right now teams think that the zone defense is giving them the best shot. And that makes sense, right? Because with the zone a two-3 zone specifically, like you’re going to have two guys, you’re going have one guy on the under the rim and then you’re going to have two guys kind of in planted in those corners. And that’s where a lot of Miami’s actions start, right? Like you you saw BAM out of Bioormal diagram it on Amazon TV the other day where it’s a circle, right? They’re going to kind of loop around and everybody’s just going to kind of go into that rotation when they’re in that half court set. And if you can defend the corners and block the corners a little bit, you kind of throw a wrench into the gears of Miami’s kind of everybody kind of move in a circle offense. So, I think you’re seeing that right now as the answer. You you there I think defenses think, let’s get into zone, keep everything in front of us, and we’re going to try to stop and we’re going to try to slow them down there. But then you also saw right from the get-go in this game, Norm Pal made two jumpers right away. Bam made a free throw line jumper before he left with his injury right in the soft spot of the middle of that zone. So there’s obviously ways that they can attack it. It’ll be interesting to see how defenses evolve and and keep trying to uh to counter this this uptempo system that Miami has devised here. Yeah. And to tie it together to our previous point, like once Tyler’s back out there, he’s a guy who can bust the zone up, too. So he’s he’s going to have different options and who knows that the defenses that we’re seeing now maybe other teams will be more reluctant to do so knowing that Tyler’s going to be out in that lineup and what he’s able to contribute. So um it is a concern I think they have looked a little bit slower over the four game road trip. They’ve had their moments but they still out uh outperform Denver competition. They did. They did. Maybe that’s altitude. I don’t know. tired because of the trip or whatever it is. Like they’re going to have games like this, but they looked noticeably slower in this one. But they had a they had a pretty big gap in between the Clippers game and this one. So it shouldn’t have been that. But again, crazy. They had 104 possessions. They were averaging a little bit more than 106. So it wasn’t like a crazy drop off. Right. Right. Maybe it was just the pace. Watching uh Joic kind of lumber his way effectively towards the rim kind of slows things down. And all the offensive rebounds obviously for Denver slows them down a little bit. takes away their opportunities. But um well that’s it. The trip is over. The other thing I learned on this uh trip, David, really hard to stay up for these uh West Coast games when you have a baby. Uh I haven’t slept at all this week, so I’m glad this is over. Let us know what you think in the comments section about this trip. What was your big takeaway? Uh thank you for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day.

Miami Heat exposed without Bam Adebayo in lopsided loss to Denver Nuggets. Can Miami compete against the NBA’s elite if their All-Star center is sidelined?

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down how Bam’s early exit unraveled the Heat’s defense and rebounding, fueling a dominant Nikola Jokic triple-double and Denver’s 21 offensive rebounds. The hosts highlight standout performances from Andrew Wiggins and Jaime Jaquez Jr., debate Davion Mitchell’s emergence as Miami’s floor general, and evaluate key takeaways from the 1-3 West Coast road trip. Key topics include Miami’s vulnerability on the boards, the impact of zone defenses on their new up-tempo offense, and looming questions about the starting lineup once Tyler Herro returns.

Will Erik Spoelstra’s adjustments be enough with injuries mounting, or does Miami need a shakeup to stay in playoff contention?

00:00 Intro
03:36 Bam Adebayo’s Impact
11:41 Andrew Wiggins Shines for Heat
16:37 Old-School Point Guard Mentality
25:55 Lesson From Road Trip

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