{"id":558560,"date":"2026-01-24T21:41:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T21:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558560\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T21:41:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T21:41:45","slug":"bam-adebayo-norman-powell-send-warning-amid-january-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558560\/","title":{"rendered":"Bam Adebayo, Norman Powell send warning amid January trend"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Miami Heat looking to finish the current road trip<\/a> on a good note, it has been one that’s disappointing, with the latest result being a 127-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. While the Heat have been dealing with the continued absence of Tyler Herro<\/a> and others, the team still has had a concerning start to the year, garnering the attention of Bam Adebayo<\/a> and Norman Powell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Miami had a fast start to the season, beginning 14-7, but since then, the team has gone 9-15, specifically 6-7 in January, which has seen the Heat unable to win consecutive games. These types of results have led to Miami being 23-22, putting them eighth in the Eastern Conference, a spot they are all too familiar with.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust got to be more consistent<\/a>,\u201d Adebayo said, according to The Miami Herald, after recording 32 points and 10 rebounds. \u201cWe can\u2019t front-run. Every game has to be; we hold the line on defense from the start of the game. And then from the start of the game to the start of the third, and we figure it out from there. We\u2019re having too many games where we\u2019ll play great defense one night. Another night, we\u2019ll kind of take off. So that\u2019s got to be the difference. We\u2019ve just got to be more consistent on that end, even if we\u2019re missing or making shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norman Powell on the Heat’s mindset amidst inconsistency\"MiamiTroy Wayrynen-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The team’s inconsistency could also be attributed to health, as besides Herro and Kel’el Ware missing the rest of the road trip, Heat point guard Davion Mitchell is nursing<\/a> a shoulder injury. Missing a bunch of crucial pieces in Miami’s rotation has given head coach Erik Spoelstra<\/a> a tough task in throwing out lineups that could fit.<\/p>\n

Besides the offense working through its kinks, the defense has faltered as well. While they’re 10th in defensive rating, the recent stretch has seen opposing teams score a ton.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense has to\u2026get that back on track,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had nine straight games now where we\u2019ve given up over 115 points, and that\u2019s not a winning formula for us. We know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Heat hope to get healthier and find consistency, it’s also going to take a mental clarification to stack wins, an area that Powell says they’ve done before.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be excited about one win,\u201d Powell said after scoring 18 points on Thursday. \u201cYou\u2019ve got another game coming up, and we\u2019ve just got to stick to what our game plan is. We can\u2019t have too many lulls, five-, six-minute lulls of not knowing what we\u2019re doing defensively, not knowing what we\u2019re trying to get out of the offense as well. We\u2019ve got to collectively be on the same page and sustain it. We\u2019ve done it before, we\u2019ve gone on win streaks, and we\u2019ve got to get back to putting our imprint on games multiple times in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

At any rate, Miami looks for a bounce back on Saturday night against the Utah Jazz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Miami Heat looking to finish the current road trip on a good note, it has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[1179,7,491,1200,144,295,189,3881,6,558,492],"class_list":{"0":"post-558560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-bam-adebayo","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-davion-mitchell","11":"tag-erik-spoelstra","12":"tag-heat","13":"tag-miami","14":"tag-miami-heat","15":"tag-miamiheat","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-norman-powell","18":"tag-tyler-herro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115952254854516383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558560","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=558560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}