With a game against Eastern Conference rival, the Chicago Bulls, looming Thursday—and the playoffs starting in about two weeks—the Miami Heat are far from peaking. They fell Tuesday to the Boston Celtics, 115-107, their second home loss in their last three games, and are a middling 13-9 since the All-Star break.
Heat players stressed that the Celtics played exceptionally well Tuesday. Boston shot 60.6 percent from the field, prompting Dwyane Wade to say, “They shoot like that, it’s going to be tough to beat them.”
But Miami coach Erik Spoelstra sounded concerned about the team’s defense.
“To give up 115 points on our home floor, that’s not our style,” Spoelstra said, according to The Miami Herald. “We’re being made to feel uncomfortable right now. That’s the residual of the last three weeks or so.”
Bosh added the Celtics were a “step ahead of us the whole time. They kind of knew what our schemes were defensively.”
ESPN.com’s Israel Gutierrez points out the Heat’s issues on defense stem largely from Spoelstra still trying to figure out his rotation. The Heat are “very much in experimental mode at the moment, with just 10 games remaining in their regular season,” writes Gutierrez. " ... Most of the combinations Spoelstra played were either entirely new—like the all 6-foot-8 lineup of LeBron James, Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller and James Jones—or hadn't played together much of late.”
"Right now we're in the mode where we're figuring out our depth," Jones said.
Does this all mean Miami no longer is the favorite to win the East? Probably not. But the team realizes it needs to improve as the postseason approaches.
“We all know we have to take a big step forward as a basketball team,” Spoelstra said.
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