DALLAS — Observations and other notes of interest from Wednesday night’s 118-108 loss to the Dallas Mavericks:
– So much for the notion of overstated concern.
– Can the Heat make it work with both Tyler Herro and Norman Powell?
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– As Wednesday night showed, it ultimately might be the only way.
– Herro did his part, at least in the first half, against the Mavericks.
– Powell was just a spectator, sidelined by an ankle sprain.
– Yes, when Herro returned last week from his September ankle surgery, it initially was an either/or approach by Herro and Powell.
– Understandable.
– Acclimation takes time.
– But few teams go anywhere with just one go-to scorer.
– Except maybe the play-in round.
– In today’s how-high-can-you-go NBA it takes more than one 20-something scorer.
– The Heat have two.
– Getting them and keeping them on the court is the challenge.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– So far with just three games together, Powell sidelined for two others.
– Last week, the Heat made it work with Herro and without Powell against the Mavericks.
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– But with Anthony Davis back and the game on the Mavericks’ court, more was needed.
– Like the best of Herro. (Check.)
– And the best of Powell. (Street clothes.)
– Can the Heat make it work with Herro and Powell side by side?
– They have to, if they want to take it to another level.
– With Powell out, Heat opened with a lineup of Herro, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson, and Davion Mitchell.
– The Mavericks opened with a lineup of Ryan Nembhard, Max Christie, Cooper Flagg, Naji Marshall and Davis.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– Jaime Jaquez Jr. again played as sixth man for the Heat.
– Dru Smith, Simone Fontecchio and Kel’el Ware then followed together off the bench for a quick nine deep.
– Ware reached 100 career blocks shortly after entering.
– Heat coach Erik Spoelstra reiterated before the game that the Heat’s league-leading pace could still evolve.
– “We still want to do better, some different things,” he said. “And if we need to pivot a little bit, we will. But that’s where we are right now.”
– It was of no matter to Spoelstra that the Mavericks entered 7-15.
– “You have to respect how many close games they’ve been in and how they play, particularly at home,” he said at the morning shootaround at SMU. “It is not indicative of their record at all. I mean, I think one of the more impressive things is they’ve been able to sustain a top-five, top-six defense with that record.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– The difference between last week’s game against the Mavericks was this time Davis was in uniform for Dallas.
– “He’s a Hall of Fame player,” Spoelstra said, “Look, that’s basically what’s happened with their team. They haven’t been able to fully realize what it could look like with all of their guys healthy and in the right spots.”
– Spoelstra added of his Team USA work with Davis, “I got to know him with USA Basketball. And I love him. I just think he’s about the right things. He impacts winning. He’s a Hall of Fame talent, but he plays the right way on both ends of the court.”
– As he did before last week’s matchup against the Mavericks that the Heat won at Kaseya Center, Spoelstra gushed pregame about Dallas’ Cooper Flagg.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– “He just has a great maturity about him,” Spoelstra said. “He’s not even 19 years old. I just can’t even fathom that. My oldest son is seven, and if I project him, it just doesn’t make sense. And if I was 19 in his shoes, I would stat hunt and not play the right way. He just has a great, competitive spirit, plays the right way, competes to win. That’s an extremely hard thing to teach young players.”
– Flagg then thrived despite three early fouls.
– As for the emergence of undrafted Mavericks point guard Ryan Nembhard, Spoelstra joked about Gonzaga coach and fellow USA Basketball coach Mark Few, “I don’t want to hear from Mark Few anymore about any of the Nembhards. I’ve been hearing about Nembhards forever, just pounding me to get one on our team. But he’s a Gonzaga guy and you’ve got to love those competitive guys, the Mark Few guys, and he’s one of them. Just super competitive. We love those stories, two-way guys who are starting to break through. But he’s doing it with a competitive spirit for sure.”
– Having the opportunity to get to .500 on the road was of no small matter to Spoelstra, with the Heat entering 4-5 away from Kaseya Center.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– “It is because we started out slow on the road,” he said. “Our guys are a competitive group, an ambitious group. We want to have a better road record, with the understanding that it’s tough going on the road. You have to do even more and be even more intentional.”
– Said Adebayo, “We’re taking care of home, but now we’ve got to go on the road and take care of business. It’s harder to win on the road, but we got what it takes. We’ve got to keep playing the same way we’ve been playing at home and take it to the road.”
– Next up is at Orlando on Friday night.
– Wednesday night’s matchup marked the earliest the season series against the Mavericks has concluded in the franchise’s histories, beating the previous earliest date by one day, Dec. 4 during the 1996-97 season. The Heat have now completed the series against Dallas before yet facing Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Indiana, Toronto, Washington, Houston, Minnesota, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah.
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