BOSTON — There was no need to look back Friday for Heat coach Erik Spoelstra a day after the NBA trade deadline. What was in place for Thursday’s practice at Kaseya Center remained the same as he guided his roster through Friday morning’s shootaround at TD Garden.
“I think everybody is just glad that all that is behind us and we can just focus on the next 30 games,” Spoelstra said, with the final 30-game sprint beginning with Friday night’s game against the Boston Celtics. “We have great opportunities still ahead of us.
“We know what we have to work on is our consistency. We have a high ceiling, but we need to do it more consistently.”
Despite standing at 27-25, the Heat were the lone team in the Eastern Conference not to make a move at the deadline.
That had Spoelstra asked Friday what had management and ownership believing enough is in place for the balance of the season.
“I think we’ve shown this year we have a high ceiling. I’ve talked about it quite a bit. The fact that we’re third in the league in scoring and have a top-six defense shows you where we can go to,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat leading the NBA in points per game entering Friday and sixth in the NBA’s defensive-rating metric. “But we have to be a lot more consistent with it.”
As team captain, center Bam Adebayo said the focus now can be singular.
“I mean, guys got that weight off their shoulders, where they don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Adebayo, with the Heat having been linked to potential mega deals for the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant. “It’s good to have that type of, I guess, clarity. So now we can focus on basketball and try to stack these wins.”
Among those who had been mentioned as part of potential Heat moves were center Kel’el Ware and forward Andrew Wiggins, both back to their normal gameday preparations Friday.
“It didn’t happen, so I’m still here, and I’m going to play basketball,” said Ware, who had been at the center of Heat discussions regarding Antetokounmpo but seemingly was off-limits in regard to Morant.
“I mean, it didn’t really bother me as much, I would say,” Ware said of the speculation. “But I’m just going to play the rest of these games, you know, see what we can do as a team.”
A year ago, Wiggins was dealt to the Heat in the trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors. This time the speculation centered on being sent out in a possible bid by the Heat to restock their draft stockpile.
“I’m sure everybody whose name is mentioned is always wondering what’s going to happen,” Wiggins said. “But I love this organization. It’s been great to me. I’m happy I’m here.”
With a player option for next season, Wiggins is eligible to turn to free agency in the offseason, potentially making Thursday the final opportunity for the Heat to package him in a trade.
Similarly, guard Norman Powell, in the absence of an extension in the interim, is scheduled to become a free agent this offseason, which also could have made Thursday the final day he could have been part of a Heat deal.
“This is our team. This is who we have,” he said of the Heat going without a move Thursday. “So we’ve got to focus on what these next 30 games will require of us. It’s going to be some things that we’re saying all season long, but now this sticks because this is the team. Nobody has any other worries, any other motives, anything else going on.
“It’s all about winning. It’s all about us doing whatever it takes to move up from the standings and rankings, now that everything else is out of the way.”