MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 119-114 loss to the Boston Celtics:<\/p>\n
\u2013 It has been a recurrent theme from Heat coach Erik Spoelstra in recent days.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat\u2019s play has been better than its record.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Stated again before Thursday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cBased on everything I\u2019m seeing,\u201d he said, \u201cwe should have a handful more wins than what we have right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 So maybe the record doesn\u2019t say who the Heat are.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But it does say where they stand.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In play-in-ville.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It is why this mattered.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Entering the midpoint of their season only one game above .500.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder up next on Saturday, to conclude this three-game homestand.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With a five-game western swing then to follow.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And now, just 21-20.<\/p>\n
\u2013 A team stuck in the middle.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With a middling record.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And no sense of urgency.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Managing to fall in this one from 19 up.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Boston may not have Jayson Tatum.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But they still carry that pedigree.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Stealing into the South Florida night at 25-15.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Because their record also says who they are.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In a similar theme, Spoelstra was asked pregame about only now Tyler Herro and Norman Powell having the opportunity to build extended continuity.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cJust give us more time,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to look better and better. We need all of our weapons. And getting that continuity and ability to play off each other\u2019s strengths, that comes from actual time out there together. But I\u2019ve been encouraged by what I\u2019m seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Again, as the play-in clock continues to tick.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Davion Mitchell (shoulder) out, the Heat opened with a lineup of Herro, Powell, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins and Pelle Larsson.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kasparas Jakucionis was the replacement starter in the previous game Mitchell missed against the Celtics.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So for the fourth consecutive game, Kel\u2019el Ware played off the bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And barely played.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In his case, not given time.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With it the Heat\u2019s 13th lineup in their 41 games.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Celtics opened with a lineup of Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Jaime Jaquez Jr. out, Jakucionis was first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nikola Jovic followed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Ware making it eight deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And Dru Smith fourth to enter off the bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Smith reached his 100th career steal in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
\u2013 There even were first-half minutes for Simone Fontecchio.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Who then played ahead of Jovic in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat reported pregame that the MRI taken on Jaquez\u2019s sore knee showed only irritation.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cHe\u2019s already starting to feel a little bit better,\u201d said Spoelstra, who said the injury occurred in Tuesday night\u2019s victory over the Suns. \u201cNot good enough to play tonight. We\u2019ll continue to treat him, but we\u2019re all pretty encouraged by how he responded.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra again before the game tackled the question of whether the league had caught up to the offensive system and approach the Heat instituted this season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThings that we put together for us we felt made sense for us to be able to maximize our roster,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think there\u2019s a lot more good things going on with what we\u2019re doing. We just need to be consistent with it and ultimately find ways to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Of Celtics forward Jaylen Brown taking his game to another level this season, Spoelstra said pregame, \u201cHe\u2019s putting a lot of pressure on defenses, driving, attacking, getting to the line, shooting really well. I think he\u2019s just really sharpened up all the tools in his kit. You\u2019ve got to be prepared for his physicality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Former Heat guard Tim Hardaway was among the faces in the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 119-114 loss to the Boston Celtics: \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-539841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-heat","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miami-heat-blog","14":"tag-miamiheat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115902783406013023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}