{"id":548353,"date":"2026-01-20T06:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/548353\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:34:13","slug":"analysis-of-monday-nights-miami-heat-golden-state-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/548353\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis of Monday night’s Miami Heat-Golden State Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Observations and other notes of interest from Monday night\u2019s 135-112 loss to the Golden State Warriors<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2013 No matter where you stand on Jimmy Butler, no one wants to see that, the former Heat forward being helped off the court midway through the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u2013 After having several statement moments early against his former team.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Bam Adebayo getting the initial defensive assignment.<\/p>\n

\u2013 But such also is the risk with older players.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No, not random injuries such as Butler\u2019s in this one, but rather the potential recovery time.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Which does make it different from the rib issue<\/a> the Heat are dealing with at the moment with Tyler Herro.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No sooner was Butler dealt from the Heat last February than he signed a two-year, $111 million extension with the Warriors.<\/p>\n

\u2013 As in $54 million this season and $56.9 million next season.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With the Heat, by contrast, holding off with Herro, as he deals with his own injury issues.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Availability as ability still matters.<\/p>\n

\u2013 As the Heat continue to learn with Herro.<\/p>\n

\u2013 As the Warriors likely are about to learn with Butler.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Which is why you have to spend wisely.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Davion Mitchell and Jaime Jaime Jr. back<\/a> but Herro out, Erik Spoelstra opened with a lineup of Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson, Norman Powell and Mitchell.<\/p>\n

\u2013 That lineup entered 2-1.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The Warriors, in the void of Draymond Green, who was out with an ankle issue, opened with a lineup of Butler, Will Richard, Quintin Post, Moses Moody and Stephen Curry.<\/p>\n

\u2013 It was the first time those five Warriors played together.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Unlike the Heat, the Warriors had moved to a degree of stability with their starting lineup, opening with the same five now in 12 of their previous (Curry, Moody, Post, Green and Butler).<\/p>\n

\u2013 Jaquez was back to being first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Simone Fontecchio followed, with continued faith from Spoelstra.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Solid in this one with his rebounding.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Kasparas Jakucionis and Ware then entered together.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Dru Smith made it 10 deep when he entered early in the second period.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Leaving Nikola Jovic on the outside of the rotation.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Mitchell and Jaquez were back for the Heat after missing the end of the just-concluded homestand.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Said Jaquez of his road back from his knee sprain, \u201cA lot of rehab, work in the pool, just everything I can to make sure my legs are strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0 Said Mitchell of his path back from his shoulder contusion, \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work in the weight room trying to get that range of motion back. Plus, the first couple of days, I couldn\u2019t really raise my arm. So I always had to get that strengthening back and that feeling back. But I feel a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 For the Heat, this is a particularly challenging trip, opening with a back-to-back set (with a Tuesday night game against the Sacramento Kings) and then concluding with another back-to-back set (Saturday at the Utah Jazz, Sunday at the Phoenix Suns).<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cWe\u2019ve proven we can beat anybody. We can win anywhere,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe have to be more consistent to our identity, but that\u2019s everything. Ultimately, it gets a little bit gnarly on the road, and we just have to collectively figure it out and do enough things consistently to give ourselves a chance to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Of the trip, Adebayo said, \u201cWe understand it\u2019s going to be a little hectic. But road trips are like this. And when the team really bonds together, really gels together, we start seeing what we can become.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Still, the change of time zones matters.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s kind of crazy because I woke up at like four in the morning,\u201d Mitchell said, \u201cbecause I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s supposed to be seven in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Of Adebayo on Monday being named NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week, Spoelstra said pregame, \u201cHe was a force of will, a force of nature. And as our captain, we turn to him when we have these kind of moments where we feel like we have to do whatever\u2019s necessary to try to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 For Wiggins, it meant his first game back at Chase Center since being dealt last season from the Warriors in the Butler trade.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s really great to see him have that smile on his face,\u201d Spoelstra said at the morning shootaround. \u201cHe feels very comfortable. A lot of, I\u2019m sure, a ton of cool memories here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Spoelstra also said of Wiggins, \u201cHe\u2019s doing so much for us. It\u2019s probably a similar role that he had during that playoff run, when they won the championship \u2014 guard all the best wings and scorers in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 It was, to say the least, a warm embrace, with Warriors coach Steve Kerr saying pregame,\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s just a really good player. He was a good player before we got him and obviously helped us win a championship in \u201822. He\u2019s a guy who is not afraid of the moment and he will rise up and shoot it anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Of dealing Wiggins 11 months ago, Kerr said pregame, \u201cHe was just a joy to coach every single day. When you get a guy like that on your team and you go through a lot together, both on and off the court, then you make a trade, it\u2019s just like that. It\u2019s just crazy, this league, how this business operates. You have to just deal with it but it is sad when your relationships like that are all of a sudden . . . I mean you still have a relationship but you don\u2019t see each other. So we\u2019ll say hi out there, it\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations and other notes of interest from Monday night\u2019s 135-112 loss to the Golden State Warriors: \u2013 No…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,479,164,4025,4024,165,189,3880,6,66,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-548353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-goldenstate","12":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-miami-heat","15":"tag-miami-heat-blog","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115926038340889890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548353","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=548353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}