Miami Heat: Furious comeback falls short vs. Detroit Pistons | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Furious comeback falls short vs. Detroit Pistons | Five on the Floor

[Music] [Music] Uh-oh. Yeah, it’s mercy music by mercy again. Keep nation the culture. Yo, I need you to call time out radio blanket open for the shot. Still five on the floor. Still ride for my dog on the court. Still survive in the wall. Keep your eye on the ball or get burned from the heat. This mic off the wall without turning the cheek from night to day. No sleeping pad so allowed to mourn us. The nut is sleeping us. Never catch us. Live from Miami before any heat with five reason sports from the court to the streets. [Music] Damn car. Be patient. I’m so proud. [Applause] Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sander, Alex Toledo, Brady Hawk, and others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Also, make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere. All right, welcome in to Five on the Floor Live. I’m Ethan Skick and follow me in five versus Sports. I got Greg Savander. Two of us haven’t done one of these in a while. You can follow them at Greg Savander. Brady and Alex are at the game. I actually just put Brady’s takeaways up. Catch them up. Catch up with them on the onsi page. The Miami Heat lose 138 to 135 at home to Detroit. And this is a strange game to analyze and I’m going to get into why. They were down 20 points in the fourth, I guess, right? Or late in the third. In the fourth. Yeah. And they made it a game at the end. There were some calls that went against him. I thought Norm was fouled on that one play. Hero could have had three free throw attempts. He had two. Uh but here’s the big thing. Detroit shot 59% from the floor. There’s going to be a lot of conversation here about Yoic. There’s going to be conversation about the hero Powell Fit and all of that and the fact that the Heat offense hasn’t looked quite the same since Tyler came back. But they scored 135. They shot 50% from the floor. where they shot 48% from three. We’re going to talk about offense tonight. I I mean, they gave up 59% shooting. Um Dannis Jenkins walts through the lane. They had a chance. They were down, Greg. They cut it to two and everybody blew up on that possession. Okay. Everybody from Tyler to to Bam. Nobody provided any resistance to a guy who’s basically a G-League callup. I mean, he’s played well for them this year. Yeah. So, I I just I’m I know we we have to get to the hero Powell stuff. I understand it. Particularly that Tyler two 52 points. Tyler was six of 17 from the floor. He was six of 11 from three though. He was 0 of six from two. He just couldn’t get anything to go down early. He only had two assists. I understand that that’s a concern. He’s only had two assists over the last couple games. Um and Nicole had five turnovers in 10 minutes. I I know we will we will get to that cuz that was rough and I’m not sure he’s playable right now and I hate to say that cuz I’ve been one of his biggest backers but he does not look like he has any confidence. He just he looks like he forgot how to play and I that’s unfortunate because we went through this confidence. Yeah. And we went through this with Rosier last year. Uh what is what is your biggest takeaway tonight? Because again it’s a strange game. They lost by three to a very good team at home. Although that team didn’t have Jaylen Duran. that team was coming in on the second night of a back-to-back. I I don’t know if we should be positive about this or not. I’m not sure. That That’s the tough question because in the fourth quarter, particularly late when they made that run, uh it looked like that they were coming together in ways that uh resembled, you know, some of the best offensive stretches that we’ve seen them play. They, you know, obviously scored a ton tonight. Uh Eric Reid flashed a stat at the end of the broadcast something like if the Heat score more than 130, they’re like 33 and three all time before tonight. So it’s like they they very rarely lose a game where you score this much. But the key here, Ethan, is that it didn’t look the way during the comeback it looked great, but the rest of the game looked really bad. And so what do we take from that? It’s I guess they can build on what they did at the end of this game to get back in it. That’s the positive viewpoint of it, but the question marks still are there. I mean, Nico was a big one. I thought Fonteio was a no-brainer play tonight when you couldn’t hit threes earlier in the game, but also um we’re seeing how much Hakez uh is important to this. And then the other thing, Norm and Tyler need to play well together. The box score watchers will tell you they played well together and during the run towards the end of the game they played fine together, but it wasn’t necessarily that they were in tandem all night. Yeah, and they did miss Hawkins tonight. There’s no question. U although I still have my concerns about how it looks with Hakez with Tyler back that that he’s the single he’s the guy I thought was going to be most affected. He only played 17 minutes the other night. Then he didn’t play tonight. Of course, the the injury plays into that, but yeah, the box score is is confusing tonight. Uh let’s go to the player of the night because I do want to give someone their props who we haven’t even discussed yet. Uh who kept them in this thing and he’s a guy that a lot of Heat fans have wanted to push to the side, but they wouldn’t have they wouldn’t have had a chance to come back and yet he wasn’t in the game when they came back. So, it’s it’s again weird night. Uh let’s get to the player of the night. And now it’s time for the Aggressive Insurance player of the night sponsored by our friend Lynette. You can find her at insurancebylanette.com. That’s with two N’s and two T’s. insurancebylanette.com. If you need car insurance, renters insurance, homeowners insurance, or any other type of insurance, she’s the person to go to. Based in Lauder Hill, she services the entire Tri County area here in South Florida. And she will make sure to get you the best deal. She probably talk to you about the heat while you’re at it. reach out to her. Insurancebylanet.com and now the player of the game. Couple things. First, uh we appreciate people supporting Lynette. Uh she’s got a whole bunch of new clients lately, so we appreciate everybody who’s reached out to her and I know everybody who does has had a good experience there. Uh look, Kade Cunningham was the best player on the floor. I’m not going to argue otherwise. Um although he did have eight turnovers tonight, but he was 20 he had 29 points, 14 of 25. He’s just a lot to for anybody to handle. They had no answers. They They had no answers. And this is one of the problems. If If you’ve got a guy who’s that good as a number one on the other side, do the Heat have a number one to match that player? And that’s one of the things we talked about on the podcast this week. Uh but for the Heat, it was clearly Wiggins tonight. 37 minutes. Uh led the team 31 points, 10 of 15 from the floor, made two of his four threes, made all nine of his free throws, six rebounds, four assists, three steals. I mean, they really wasted this honestly. Uh plus 12 on the game. I He’s capable of this at times and that’s why Spo is not going to pull him from the starting lineup. I This is not going to happen. He’s not going to pull Hero either. This is basically a a twoplayer choice, right? It’s it’s DaVon or it’s wear. For those who want wear to start, and I understand the rationale behind that because I thought where kept them in the game in the first half. I he his minutes were their best minutes, although then he ended up minus 12, which again I weird game. Okay. Um it’s where DaVon, right? Like he’s not he’s not taking Wiggins out of the lineup. Wiggins is either going to play the four, he’s going to play the three. Yeah, that that’s not happening. It’s he views Wiggins, Adabio, and Hero and Norm as starters and that’s that. So, it’s about DaVon and and where and if they lose more games, this is just one loss, mind you, like uh I know that the offense hasn’t looked as good in the last three, but uh and there was players missing from some of those games, but they lost tonight against a good Detroit team who had lost two in a row. Uh, so with that perspective in mind, um, if DaVon continues to get 10 assists and no turnovers, like I’m just letting y’all know I don’t care what is happening otherwise, he’s going to play a ton because he’s eighth in the league in in assists last time I checked. And the lack of turnovers is zero tonight. I mean, it’s real hard. It’s really hard to justify taking Davian out of the starting lineup. And yet, here’s the justification for it, okay? Cuz I I he does not deserve to lose his starting job. And it also screws up their rotations cuz then I don’t know what they do with Drew. And you know, Spo is going to want to play Drew. But if the idea here is to is to fasttrack the Powell hero thing, I can see Spo just doing it right and and bringing DaVon off the bench at the six-minute mark and working him in and giving wear the starts. I that but that’s the See, that’s the only option here. The option is not to put Wiggins on the bench. He’s not going to do that. He’s just not going to do that. There may be and I don’t think he’s jumping to do that. Like I tonight is not a game that I think will make Spolstra make that type of an adjustment to the lineup against the Clippers on Monday. No, I that’s the thing. I mean and and again I can’t this comment comes obviously this point sit Dave let this thing collapse without him. We’ll start appreciating him. That doesn’t sound too bad. I I don’t I’m going to make it very clear. DaVon does not deserve to lose his starting job and I do think certain things would collapse without him but I don’t know what the solution is. They have basically six starters. Okay. Mhm. And that’s not including Larson who was critical as a connector during that period of time tonight and tends to be whenever they start to make these runs. He’s on the floor like this has happened a lot. Him or Hawz. And without Hawkins tonight, it was him. So Spo has a decision to make. Um I don’t think it’s it’s based as much on where and where’s confidence at this stage. I think they feel fairly comfortable with that. Agreed. It’s just like are you going to see if this hero power thing works? And I’m with you in in this in this at this point. Okay. The numbers for Hero and Powell looked fine tonight. The eye test didn’t to me still. Yeah. Okay. This is they they they scored again. Look, Norm finished nine of 16, seven of eight from the line, three of six and three. He had another of those where he got the three free throws. He was plus 15, 28 points. Like that looks like a Norm Powell game from the rest of this season. It still looks like though he’s not warming up as quick. Yeah. And it’s been different since Tyler’s come back. And I I can’t dispute that. And he was one of the fastest starting guys in the league this year. Yeah. The early shot clock stuff has changed. That that’s what’s changed a ton. And it’s h it’s not just him, but that’s what’s deceiving about the box score. Also, with the inflated scoring throughout the league, you also have to take into account that, you know, if you adjust for that kind of stuff, uh it, you know, it a lot of guys are going to score a ton when you’re when you’re up in 30s, right? It it’s just a situation where for me, um Norm and Tyler need to continue to look good on the court together. We saw glimpses of it late. that’s maybe something they can build on, but until we see that night in and night out, that’s the big question mark. And it’s why people, I think, are pushing for the starting lineup changes, which really kind of uh deviating from the real issue at hand, and that is can these two guys really uh uh have that high octane offense work with both of them uh as the primary elements essentially. I I’m going to keep coming back to this number, though. And now I want to talk about Yoic. They shot 50% on 88 attempts. That included 48% on 29 three-point attempts. Yeah. And 85% on 39 free throw attempts. They shot 50485 tonight on a high number of attempts. They didn’t get bludgeoned on the boards. They gave up five more rebounds. That’s for them. It’s not awful. And the assists they they gave up uh they had two few well I’m sorry actually that no that’s right two fewer assists than Detroit. Okay. They had 12 steals. Detroit committed 22 turnovers. All of that should be enough to win. I forget the ups and downs of falling behind by 20. The defense was brutal. Okay. Now that gets back to this. Okay. That’s where my concern was with Tyler. It’s not as much the offensive stuff, it’s the defensive stuff. He’s getting hunted. I There’s no question. I can’t deny what my eyes are seeing. Okay, they’re they’re going after him. Um I thought there were possessions late in the game where Spo should have subbed him out on defense. Uh that I’m not going to I’m not going to give him total blame for that layup that I have to watch it again, but that layup that that uh that Jenkins had late in the game, but he’s in the the frame there. There were a couple times on switches he got screened out. They’re going after him late in games. And that’s that’s the other thing though. That’s why the late game stuff to me is even more concerning the starting stuff. The starting look, they fall behind 20. They they have so many possessions. They find ways to come back. Okay. They overcame the Yoic disaster minutes tonight to come back. The the the thing is once they get to the end of the game though, they’ve got to be able to close with a group that can defend. Yeah. And they couldn’t get a stop. They they they got scores late in the game. They could not get a stop. Okay. Unless it was DaVon stealing the ball from Cade. But how how are you going to rely on that every possession? But but that but that’s the thing. Like we can talk about DaVon starting or not starting, but Da’Von, whatever it is, needs to close. I I I I’m more adamant about DaVon closing than starting. I don’t care that much about the starting part. We talk about it a lot. It’s It gets a lot of downloads. It gets a lot of traffic on the website. It’s it’s the closing. DaVon needs to close. Okay. So, if you’re going to close with DaVon, then you are closing small. You’re closing with DaVon Hero Powell because he’s going to keep them out there offense unless he’s going to offense defense sub Tyler. And I don’t have a problem with that. But the issue for Tyler is rhythm, right? If he’s being subbed in and out, in and out, in and out. But if he’s going to close with Wiggins and he’s going to close with Bam, if you want to go bigger at the end of games, then he plays where and he’s basically defense offensive subbing where and Tyler, right? And then we don’t know where Hawkins fits into this. But see, and Norm, you know, has to be accounted for. And you know, Wiggins played well tonight and was a guy who, if we, you know, look at the game start to finish, was the most consistent best player for the Heat. Obviously, Cade was the best player overall. um as we wrap the segment for a aggressive insurance. But yes, uh it it’s a weird position because they they are really deep, but um you have to make sure that everybody’s roles are not colliding with one another and that’s what they’re figuring out right now. And um you know, when Detroit comes to town on a two-game losing streak, I think a lot of people maybe thought without Duran that that the Heat had the upper hand. You have to remember that this group, the Pistons, they are um not a team that is going to sick guys out and take the regular season off. They’re one of those young teams that’s still trying to make a name for themselves. So, they they came to play tonight. So, credit them, too, even though the Heat did come back late. But you see, they know they know where the ball’s got to go. Yeah. Like sometimes when you only have one guy, like one guy, like they have a lot of good young players that they’ve drafted, but they have one guy. Like there’s no there’s no equivocation at the end of games, right? They’re going to Cade, okay? He’s going to shoot it as many times as he can. He and he’s going to make the play for them or they’re going to play off of him, right? The Heat are not there, but again, and I don’t know that they’ll get there, but again, that’s not the problem. The problem is they gave up 138 tonight and this was a real 138. This wasn’t a pace adjusted 138. No, they allowed Detroit to shoot 59% from the field. You are not winning games like that. I want to read this comment from Stevie Williams because we appreciate everybody with the uh the power chats here. Send Norman Powell to the bench. Mitchell hero Wiggins spam and wear the small ball is killing us. Goodness gracious spoke. He ain’t sending they they’re not I’ll say we appreciate the donation. They’re not sending Norm to the bench. That’s not that that I to me that’s not the answer. Um, no. And Spo’s not going to find that to be the answer. These two teams scored the most points in the paint on the season. I think they were tied for tops in the league tonight. And I don’t have the number in front of me and I’m not even going to go hunt it down because I don’t want to depress Heat fans. Um, but Detroit held up their end of the bargain in terms of ranking and showing that on the court tonight. The Heat obviously late figured some things out that could maybe change some of what the final results looked like. But throughout this game, Detroit was getting in the paint and there’s this consistent theme now where the the teams are basically packing the paint on the Heat and saying, “Let’s see you shoot and let’s see if this team can really be that high octane shooting offense game over game over game.” They got to good percentages tonight. There were a couple games prior to this that they didn’t. And we thought that that might be the theme tonight. It’s not. It’s the defense and that’s gonna make Spolster have really interesting decisions to make late because like you said, you would think Tyler up for an extension hoping for a big extension that could cost Riley even more than it would have had he got it done already. Is he really going to be a sub inn-out possession guy at the end of games? Is that what we’re doing there? I think that that begs it conversation. He’s not going to get bigger, stronger, and quicker. And and look, people say that I’m an apologist for Tyler on this stuff, but at the end of games, like I just he’s going to get hunted. I there’s just no way around it. You look at who who they’re looking at on the Heats roster and he’s the guy that they’re going to go after and he competes. Okay. So, it’s not a competition issue. It’s just the reality of it and and that creates uh problems for them. Um, all right. Let’s get to uh let’s get to the the play of the night. And that’ll give us an opportunity to talk about someone who I I can’t really defend right now. And now it’s time for the X-ray of the play of the day brought to us by our friends over at Mobile Carm and Staffing Services. Nelson and his team will bring the X-ray equipment and the staffing to you. If you work in a hospital or a medical office, get a consultation today at c-armmanstaffing.com or give them a call at 561-891-9620. Their fleet of trucks at your service. Again, it’s mobile CRA and staffing services. 561-891-9620. And now, the X-ray of the play of the day. [Music] Why did Nico keep throwing it to the other team? Oh my gosh. Why did a chicken cross the road? I I don’t know what to say at this point because tonight was an opportunity with no haime. No Simone either. Yeah, he didn’t play Fonteio against his old team, which typically he’ll do that. He’ll he’ll play the guy against his and I know Fontekio has not shot the ball well lately, but and I look, we we called it before the game. and we said this is the opportunity for Yoic but fumbled. It’s tough cuz it’s it’s more than just confidence right now. He’s struggling with what his role is and he’s struggling to just be functional. And when you see a player making repeated mistakes, that means they’re thinking too much and that’s just that. Yeah. And look, you saw in the game that he scored 29, six rebounds, five assists, whatever he had that one game. He had six turnovers. He was able to play through it. He’s not going to be able to play through this stuff now. There’s too many bodies in front of him and there’s too much damage that’s been done with some of his play that Spo’s not going to stick with him. So, he has to make the most of these limited opportunities. And again, I I I’m accused of making excuses for him all the time about role and all that, but they cleared the runway for him this year and they paid him and people are asking what you can get for him. I mean, you can’t he’s not movable right now because the his contract is not the extension hasn’t kicked in. So, yeah, the the money tradeable the deadline will have passed, y’all. Correct. And and even if he wasn’t, the money, right, the money is not there yet. You can’t he’s not going to match salaries of anybody. So, this is a next year decision now. And the question is without somebody getting hurt which nobody’s rooting for and by that I mean a wear a bam again um I I don’t I don’t or haime I don’t know what the role is and the problem is that he can’t replicate the things that Hakez has done so well for them this year right the downhill stuff he can’t replicate that so so then you’re asking him to kind of make plays in transition But they don’t really trust him in transition right now either. And he can’t score like Hakez. You can’t expect that from him. And and that second unit has been built upon them feasting on Hakez just basically annihilating second units uh because they can’t defend him one-on-one. Um and I mean we’ve seen Hawz get doubled this season. Nico had a huge opportunity tonight to at least just even be a connective player amongst other guys maybe being the scorers and instead it was just a lot of mistakes and I think that it’s going to end up in him likely sitting. Um and it’s just crazy when he got that extension cuz they’re waiting with Tyler and they’ve also like frankly they’re waiting with Norm right now although that’s I think you know less of a development. uh and they didn’t wait with Nico when they absolutely could have and I think Nico would have gone into the summer and gone through their process as a restricted free agent etc. and um and they gave him the money now. There was no rush, but I was okay with it because to me it indicated that they were seeing things behind the scenes that were leading to this pop and everything else that we saw and heard this off season played into that. Correct. Spo touting his professionalism, the way he played in Euro Basket, the fact that he remained healthy. There were all of these positives leading up to camp. He even started him the first game. Although I know wear was nicked and so that was the reason he said that that he was planning on going with wear. What Hawz has done is what we thought Nico was going to be doing, right? It would look differently. But I mean impactwise, but I also think they thought I I I don’t think if if you gave them all truth serum and again it’s a it’s a big front office, okay, with different opinions. And so I I hate to make them a monolith all the time, but if you gave them truth serum about this pre the preseason coming into the year and said that Haimey was going to be more impactful than Yoic, I think at least half of that front office would have said no. Agree. More than that, right? Yeah. No, they they placed their bets on Nico. That’s what I mean is that it’s it’s the only reason why that decision is not becoming even louder of a what what what is happening here is because Hawz is offsetting that by playing so much above what we expected him to play and Larson Larson and Hawz have made up for the fact that Nico has not played well. But so I’ll ask you this and then we’ll close it because we’re almost at 30 and it’s a Saturday night. Want to let people go go out. We’ll be back tomorrow. We have another podcast. Um, and then also obviously Monday night I’ll be down there for the Clipper game with Brady and Alex. Make sure you check out all the work on honest and also sign up for off the floor. Um, would you play if if there was another opportunity like this? Let’s say Haime misses additional time. Do you play Keshad over Yoic, you play Simone over Yoic or are you tonight? I would have definitely gone to Fontio in the first half because the three-point shooting at the end of the game uh is not representative of how they looked throughout the whole game. They could have used an offensive spark plug earlier when Tyler couldn’t hit a shot. So, yeah, I think that they should go to Fon Heekio first. I’m not maybe there on the Kad Johnson minutes, but um only because I think uh at that point like you need Nico. I don’t know. It’s tough sometimes guys need to just take a few games off Ethan and that like I guess that that can help them maybe reset or something like that and ground themselves or or whatever the case may be cuz to put him out there for like six minute stints and that’s it. I think that that could hurt his confidence even more. So maybe you’re right. Maybe he does slide into the DMP coach’s decision situation just because you don’t want to hurt his confidence any worse. See, I think his confidence is going to be shot either way. That’s my that that’s my concern here. The short minutes where he can’t work his way into it and he’s committing turnovers and looking like that make it worse. But also after he was on this upward trajectory and then he’s going to be the 11th or 12th guy, they’ve got a lot of work to do there. I I don’t really know where you take it. It’s not the kind of thing’s not going to do what he did with Rosier and Hawkins last year and just keep playing them at the detriment of the team. this team is competing for something now. Like they this is a moving train. Okay, last year was a weird situation and then the Jimmy deal. This is not that you’re in the top four in the East. Like regardless of whether people think they can stay there, they’re there. Organizations want to treat it like that. Okay, maybe that does not mean they’re going to go make a trade for Trey Young or or LaMelo Ball. So stop it, okay? Or J Morant, but they’re going to treat at least in the way that they use their players like that and the current players they have. And so they’re not going to be suppose not going to be as patient with somebody like Nico as he might have been if they were kind of, you know, right below 500. I know it sounds contradictory to what how it that’s the way they operate. So Well, depth is the strength this year. Sorry to interrupt you. No, it it is. And he’s got to figure out a way to use it. And I I still think the single most important thing that has to be fig There are two things on this team that have to be figured out this year is they’re trying to win. Okay, we’ll close it here. Number one thing is Hero and Powell. Can they play together? Can they can they be additive to each other? Okay, can 1 plus 1 equal 2.5? Okay, if it can’t, then there’s that affects extension decisions. The other thing they need to figure out is Bam and wear th those those are the two things above everything else. Okay, so figuring out Yovic where they paid Yovic. Okay, I you know figuring out Hakez, well that’s kind of figured itself out, right? Like those are the two things that they have to figure out. Cass can wait. Okay. And you know, figure out what’s that cuz they got to figure out those two things, but then they got to figure out can all four of those guys play together because if you’re going to all if if you’re going to invest in those four as your core four, for lack of a better term, they better be able to play together. I think that that has to be paramount. Well, and then the other part of it is, okay, so if you’re going to play those four together and Wiggins is your connector, are you holding Wiggins past the trade deadline then to make sure that the thing works? If that’s the case, decisions to make. So, there’s a lot of stuff there. We’ll talk about it. I appreciate it. Uh, we did go 30 tonight, guys, for say for everybody who says we go light. Um, I’ve got some stories to go at it. Thanks to uh thanks for joining us tonight. Uh, c-armmanstaffing.com, our friend Nelson, also insurancebyette.com. Um, and also prize pick, use code 5 fe off the floor. Check out the link in the description. Uh, you know the deal by now. Have a good night everybody.

The Miami Heat made a late run, but poor defense throughout was the difference as the Pistons prevailed. Ethan and Greg break down a boxscore that didn’t really tell the entire story.

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