2025 Playoffs: Round 1, Game 2: Heatz v Cabs - 7:30pm EST on 4/23

[MHeat0279]

Come on now. He scored 40 in a game no one cared about.

No doubt. But I cannot understand that with so many players struggling...why not give him a shot?

I hear that too. During the game I was dangerously close to wanting him in over Duncan. But with the way the Cavs shoot, you can't justify it. I personally like Spo's rotation tonight except that he played Duncan. If he can cut Duncan out entirely I'll have no more notes for him.

Yep, he did good tonight with the rotations and substitutions. At the end of the day we dont have the talent to beat this cleveland team.

[dolphinatik]

The only players that seemed upset we were losing were Davion and Niko and they played like it. Bam doesn't seem interested in flexing at all. We lost the game passing out from point black drives for missed shots or turnovers. Niko said f this and drive and crashed every chance he got. K love usually gets ref respect what happened to that guy? Either way the Cavs were near perfect for 3 quarters. I respect their flex. That 3 point barrage was impressive, too bad it was against us. Not much you can do other than increase physicality.

[greg4012]

No doubt. But I cannot understand that with so many players struggling...why not give him a shot?

I hear that too. During the game I was dangerously close to wanting him in over Duncan. But with the way the Cavs shoot, you can't justify it. I personally like Spo's rotation tonight except that he played Duncan. If he can cut Duncan out entirely I'll have no more notes for him.

Yep, he did good tonight with the rotations and substitutions. At the end of the day we dont have the talent to beat this cleveland team.

If Miami steals 1-2 games from Cleveland this series it speaks well to our core guys IMO

[Shewasfly]

I don't think it's being talked about enough how Cavs are able to dictate our offense too. Playoff basketball is about being consistent enough with something that's working to alter the other team's game plan in that area. Every time the Heat went into the paint they were confronted by 4 set bodies and couldn't draw a foul. With that, your offense becomes solely about focusing even more on trying to score outside. And the Cavs were allowed to do this and essentially sit in the paint on offense because Bam and Wiggins were awful on that end (Wiggins on both actually).

The most athletic guys on the team couldn't make a thing outside the paint but also couldn't even get past their defenders with any consistency to get into the paint and draw fouls. That's a huge problem. And no, Bam pirouetting play after play to find others who would actually look for their offense doesn't count as him being good or even average on the end last night. He was a non-factor on that end, and it ultimately hurt us. We need him and Wiggins to a lesser extent to step up and be a threat on that end so that the Cavs can't just sit back on defense and actually have to work. If nothing else, get them in foul trouble. Donovan, Allen, and Mobley didn't have to guard a damn thing last night. Donovan hasn't had to do anything all series really.

Cavs were able to show that they had a threat (or at least a willing one) at damn near every position on the floor. All that, and yet we were STILL in the game is crazy to think about.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

I love seeing the game to game knee jerk reactions and dismissal of everything outside of PPG.

[MHeat0279]

I hear that too. During the game I was dangerously close to wanting him in over Duncan. But with the way the Cavs shoot, you can't justify it. I personally like Spo's rotation tonight except that he played Duncan. If he can cut Duncan out entirely I'll have no more notes for him.

Yep, he did good tonight with the rotations and substitutions. At the end of the day we dont have the talent to beat this cleveland team.

If Miami steals 1-2 games from Cleveland this series it speaks well to our core guys IMO

Pretty confident if we get a number one guy, we can compete for a title, I like Bam and Tyler to complement such player, if we get rid of Duncan and our bench guys keep on developing I would be satisfied.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Yep, he did good tonight with the rotations and substitutions. At the end of the day we dont have the talent to beat this cleveland team.

If Miami steals 1-2 games from Cleveland this series it speaks well to our core guys IMO

Pretty confident if we get a number one guy, we can compete for a title, I like Bam and Tyler to complement such player, if we get rid of Duncan and our bench guys keep on developing I would be satisfied.

If Tyler can find a way to be even an average defender possibly but when the postseason comes elite guys are just going to target him time after time to the point it doesn’t matter what he’s doing offensively because it just cancels out. They need to figure it out this summer

[Beenie]

Mia's best players are role players.

Simple as that

You calling Bam a role player?

1 million percent he is

An excellent role player but not a top 1 or 2 guy on a championship level team

[greg4012]

Mia's best players are role players.

Simple as that

You calling Bam a role player?

1 million percent he is

An excellent role player but not a top 1 or 2 guy on a championship level team

The role: provide a top 10 defense; operate as the fulcrum of all offensive movement and space creation; function as the team's #2 offensive facilitator; and function as the team's #3 scorer (ideally)

[HeatFanLifer]

You calling Bam a role player?

1 million percent he is

An excellent role player but not a top 1 or 2 guy on a championship level team

The role: provide a top 10 defense; operate as the fulcrum of all offensive movement and space creation; function as the team's #2 offensive facilitator; and function as the team's #3 scorer (ideally)

Bam is like a more refined Ben Wallace. You put him on a team of stars and he will fit right in to go the disrance. You ask for him to win you games though, and you get a 10th seed that snuck into the playoffs.

[greg4012]

1 million percent he is

An excellent role player but not a top 1 or 2 guy on a championship level team

The role: provide a top 10 defense; operate as the fulcrum of all offensive movement and space creation; function as the team's #2 offensive facilitator; and function as the team's #3 scorer (ideally)

Bam is like a more refined Ben Wallace. You put him on a team of stars and he will fit right in to go the disrance. You ask for him to win you games though, and you get a 10th seed that snuck into the playoffs.

I agree that Bam is like Ben Wallace in terms of defensive impact. However, Ben Wallace never averaged double digit points for any season in his career and never even averaged 2 assists per game (while having a much lower efg% than Bam)

Also, Ben was never on a team of stars (whatever that may even look like)

Bam is a supercharged Al Horford

[HeatFanLifer]

The role: provide a top 10 defense; operate as the fulcrum of all offensive movement and space creation; function as the team's #2 offensive facilitator; and function as the team's #3 scorer (ideally)

Bam is like a more refined Ben Wallace. You put him on a team of stars and he will fit right in to go the disrance. You ask for him to win you games though, and you get a 10th seed that snuck into the playoffs.

I agree that Bam is like Ben Wallace in terms of defensive impact. However, Ben Wallace never averaged double digit points for any season in his career and never even averaged 2 assists per game (while having a much lower efg% than Bam)

Also, Ben was never on a team of stars (whatever that may even look like)

Bam is a supercharged Al Horford

Fair point. One way or another though, he’s a very good support player on a winning team. If he’s the main guy on a team, he’s not going to win games.

[greg4012]

Bam is like a more refined Ben Wallace. You put him on a team of stars and he will fit right in to go the disrance. You ask for him to win you games though, and you get a 10th seed that snuck into the playoffs.

I agree that Bam is like Ben Wallace in terms of defensive impact. However, Ben Wallace never averaged double digit points for any season in his career and never even averaged 2 assists per game (while having a much lower efg% than Bam)

Also, Ben was never on a team of stars (whatever that may even look like)

Bam is a supercharged Al Horford

Fair point. One way or another though, he’s a very good support player on a winning team. If he’s the main guy on a team, he’s not going to win games.

He's not the best player on a championship team. No doubt about that. If that makes him a "support player" rather than the best defensive player and a top 2-3 offensive player, then cool. Semantic city is the place to be.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

The role: provide a top 10 defense; operate as the fulcrum of all offensive movement and space creation; function as the team's #2 offensive facilitator; and function as the team's #3 scorer (ideally)

Bam is like a more refined Ben Wallace. You put him on a team of stars and he will fit right in to go the disrance. You ask for him to win you games though, and you get a 10th seed that snuck into the playoffs.

I agree that Bam is like Ben Wallace in terms of defensive impact. However, Ben Wallace never averaged double digit points for any season in his career and never even averaged 2 assists per game (while having a much lower efg% than Bam)

Also, Ben was never on a team of stars (whatever that may even look like)

Bam is a supercharged Al Horford

Bam may not be the best offensive player in the world but he’s underrated on that end at this point and he’s one of the better playmaking bigs in the league.

The Draymonds, Horfords, Clint capelas, Ben Wallace, Joel Anthony etc never averaged as many points as Bam while playing with far superior playmakers than Bam hence his high amount of unassisted FGs and the only ones similar playmaking wise are Horford and Draymond who played with the 2 best shooters ever

[unowen85]

Hopefully Bam’s shooting can revert to the mean these next two games at home. Percentages are at 40/20/70 right now.

[NightWatch]

you guys need to blame Bam and Wiggins. Jesus christ! Heat will not go anywhere with that type of performance from bam and wiggins on offense. Cavs are guaranteed a 4-0.

Between points and assists, Bam produced at least 29 points in yesterday's game (assuming all assists were 2 pointers--which they weren't--so it's higher). Bam's season average production between points and assists is 26.7 points (assuming all assists are 2 pointers--which they never are).

His shot wasnt falling (1 for 5 from 3). Need to get that on track.

Throughout this season, Bam has had 65% of his FGM assisted (a normal rate for PF/C players--majority are higher). Through 2 games this playoffs, Bam has had 53.8% of his FGM assisted. So any delta in scoring can mostly be attributed to plays where Bam is a play finisher and others create the look (which every healthy offense needs to be doing with their bigs).

This Miami team has had a deficiency in players that can create their own offense and only has one real perimeter creator overall. This isn't a new revelation.

Tyler had a great game on offense--super encouraging. Bam was rock steady on offense and was our essential monster on defense.

This is still a Miami Heat team that won 37 games on the season (below 500). This an extremely complete and locked-in Cleveland team that won 64 games on the season (something only 7 teams have done over the past 10 seasons).

Miami still needs more offensive creation. No question about that. Perspective will set you free, though.

All that doesn’t matter if you’re not winning. Bam and Wiggins needs to step up in order for Heat to have a chance on offense unless someone off the bench went off. Heat is guaranteed a 0-4 if both doesn’t show up on offense as in score a point as to opposed try to pass. Highsmith showed up in this game when his offense was left too much to be desired in game 1 but then bam and wiggins shooting offense nowhere to be seen in this game. If neither of them show up this Saturday on offense. Sure bam defense was great but Heat can’t have bam too focus on defense because Heat lack offense scoring capacity, game 1 bam was good on offense but uh in game 2? bam and Wiggins have to provide much more tangible value on offense. If bam transatled his performance from game 1 into game 2. I believe Heat had a better chance of winnnimg.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

you guys need to blame Bam and Wiggins. Jesus christ! Heat will not go anywhere with that type of performance from bam and wiggins on offense. Cavs are guaranteed a 4-0.

Between points and assists, Bam produced at least 29 points in yesterday's game (assuming all assists were 2 pointers--which they weren't--so it's higher). Bam's season average production between points and assists is 26.7 points (assuming all assists are 2 pointers--which they never are).

His shot wasnt falling (1 for 5 from 3). Need to get that on track.

Throughout this season, Bam has had 65% of his FGM assisted (a normal rate for PF/C players--majority are higher). Through 2 games this playoffs, Bam has had 53.8% of his FGM assisted. So any delta in scoring can mostly be attributed to plays where Bam is a play finisher and others create the look (which every healthy offense needs to be doing with their bigs).

This Miami team has had a deficiency in players that can create their own offense and only has one real perimeter creator overall. This isn't a new revelation.

Tyler had a great game on offense--super encouraging. Bam was rock steady on offense and was our essential monster on defense.

This is still a Miami Heat team that won 37 games on the season (below 500). This an extremely complete and locked-in Cleveland team that won 64 games on the season (something only 7 teams have done over the past 10 seasons).

Miami still needs more offensive creation. No question about that. Perspective will set you free, though.

All that doesn’t matter if you’re not winning. Bam and Wiggins needs to step up in order for Heat to have a chance on offense unless someone off the bench went off. Heat is guaranteed a 0-4 if both doesn’t show up on offense as in score a point as to opposed try to pass. Highsmith showed up in this game when his offense was left too much to be desired in game 1 but then bam and wiggins shooting offense nowhere to be seen in this game. If neither of them show up this Saturday on offense. Sure bam defense was great but Heat can’t have bam too focus on defense because Heat lack offense scoring capacity, game 1 bam was good on offense but uh in game 2? bam and Wiggins have to provide much more tangible value on offense. If bam transatled his performance from game 1 into game 2. I believe Heat had a better chance of winnnimg.

And if certain guys could get a stop every now and then we might be able to win too, we can nitpick all day.

[Beenie]

You calling Bam a role player?

1 million percent he is

An excellent role player but not a top 1 or 2 guy on a championship level team

The role: provide a top 10 defense; operate as the fulcrum of all offensive movement and space creation; function as the team's #2 offensive facilitator; and function as the team's #3 scorer (ideally)

Hes a cross between a poor man's Rodman and an old Garnett.

That's actually a compliment when being realistic about his role.

[Beenie]

1 million percent he is

An excellent role player but not a top 1 or 2 guy on a championship level team

The role: provide a top 10 defense; operate as the fulcrum of all offensive movement and space creation; function as the team's #2 offensive facilitator; and function as the team's #3 scorer (ideally)

Bam is like a more refined Ben Wallace. You put him on a team of stars and he will fit right in to go the disrance. You ask for him to win you games though, and you get a 10th seed that snuck into the playoffs.

Hes the finishing piece to a team trying to get over the hump.

He'd be a perfect fit on the Lakers

[carnageta]

Bam needs to be much better offensively for us to have a chance