The Chicago Sky traded Angel Reese to the Atlanta Dream for consecutive first-round picks in 2027 and 2028 which probably won’t be any good. Luckily for them, they’ve made moves and have assembled a respectable roster since, bringing in Azurá Stevens (who was with their 2021 title team), DiJonai Carrington, Skylar Diggins and Jacy Sheldon.

 

Imagine if they had been a competent organization in the previous two years, but better late than never, even if it comes after losing a star like Reese.

 

Landing with Dream means that she is going to a contending team, and she could be the piece to put them over the top. She’s the most prolific rebounder in WNBA history and is a big factor on defense. Reese’s efficiency numbers don’t jump off the page for last season (45.8), but her numbers are skewed by her poor start to the year before her massive turnaround. Consider how she had the highest assist average (3.7) on the team after Courtney Vandersloot’s right ACL tear, and the next best playmakers on the team were Ariel Atkins, who is decent, and Rachel Banham, who wouldn’t get many minutes on a contender.

 

Now Reese, who expanded her game last season by playing more on-ball, should see even more improvement in her playmaking next to the options like Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray and Breonna Jones after almost doubling her average in her second year. The other area she could see enhanced is scoring as a roller. 

 

—

The rich get richer

 

The New York Liberty have made fine use of the new CBA money being spent in WNBA free agency by keeping the powerhouse that is Jonquel Jones next to Sabrina Ionescu (intends to re-sign) and two-time MVP Breanna Stewart, while signing Satou Sabally to be the fourth star.

 

Teams around the W are already scrambling to scheme up a way to deal with that much talent when they start playing heavy minutes in the playoffs. On top of that, strength is one of the biggest advantages a player could have, and the Liberty were not lacking it in Jones and Stewart, who can power down hill or finesse their way to the cup. Sabally adds another athletic, big and strong scorer.

 

The team’s complimentary shooters, and Ionescu will be in heaven because defenses primarily overload the lane at the expense of the arc.

 

Quick hits:

 

• UConn’s Azzi Fudd went first in the Monday’s WNBA draft, and three members of UCLA’s championship team were taken in the top nine (Lauren Betts 4th to the Washington Mystics, Gabriela Jaquez 5th to the Chicago Sky and Angela Dugalić 9th also to the Mystics).

 

• Dominique Malonga should be on everyone’s radar for the Most Improved Player award, even if she was last season’s second overall pick. Noelle Quinn, who was canned as coach after last season’s disappointment, and didn’t play Malonga nearly enough when she was an impactful defender against most matchups. Meanwhile, lesser talented rookies played more minutes on other teams. Things will be different under coach Sonia Raman.

Thankfully, it’s almost over.

 

The Heat’s regular season finale was a tune-up against the Atlanta Hawks’ D-Team, in which Bam Adebayo had a scoring spree on drive-bys and jumpers. The rest of the team got their licks in, and they won an inconsequential game by 26 points despite sweating a bit in the second and third quarters because of Cory Kispert, of all people.  

 

The only weight it carried was an emotional one for the organization, being PA announcer Michael Baiamonte’s last game after 35 years. 

 

This was a season that saw them get pantsed by all the good teams and they ended the last six weeks posting the 24th ranked defense. On top of that, they get hosed, receiving a second-round pick for the “unprecedented” Terry Rozier situation, in which they traded a first-round pick for him in 2024, without the important information from the Charlotte Hornets that he was under federal and league probe.

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra said it was an unusual game, but was pleased with the team’s approach. Regarding the Play-In, he said, “It’s a Game 7. I just want our guys to take on that challenge and do whatever’s necessary.”

 

Now the Hornets in Charlotte await them for the nine and 10 Play-In game which sends the loser to the lottery. The winner of this matchup will advance to play the loser of the seven and eighth seeded game for the last playoff spot, and a chance to get mowed down by the Detroit Pistons.

 

The best thing that could happen, as has been explained in this Diary previously, is for Heat to lose on Wednesday so they can get the highest pick possible in the upcoming draft. They only have a 4.8 percent chance at landing in the top four and only one percent of getting the first pick. 

 

There is one small consolation: the Heat are not the most disappointing team in Florida because the Orlando Magic are also a Play-In Tournament squad. The Magic had sky-high expectations and their regular season was a disaster, concluding in Boston with a loss versus the background players. Injuries are not all the blame as they have been a team with poor basketball character and it might cost coach Jamahl Mosley his job.

The Heat knew the build was dead in 2001 when they got smacked around by the Charlotte Hornets and were sent packing early in round one. One wonders if management realizes that it should be no different this time. 

 

They were drawn and quartered in Toronto on Tuesday to start their miniseries with the Raptors and it’s hard to keep track of what number of humiliation this is for them. It wasn’t because they sealed their fates going into the Play-In Tournament for the fourth straight year, but because they look a class below most of the decent and above teams. 

 

It’s a good thing that they are likely headed to the ninth and 10th-seeded Play-In game, instead of the seventh and eighth they’ve been accustomed to. This way they have a chance of getting put out of their misery early since losing would send them to the lottery. 

 

That’s right. The Heat’s one percent chance of getting the first pick is exponentially better than surviving the Play-In to get smoked in round one.

 

It’s come to this. 

 

Poor coach Erik Spoelstra has kept up this charade when he knows deep down they can’t hang — and they know it, too. The team will probably be hopeless against the Raptors on Thursday, giving up at some point in the second half. 

 

It’s around these times that a team quits on the season. In this case, it’s more about abandoning the mission than turning their back on Spoelstra. 

 

Two games remain after Thursday’s: Friday in Washington against the Wizards and the home finale on Sunday versus the Atlanta Hawks, which will be the final regular season game of Michael Baiamonte, the Heat’s PA announcer’s, career. He’s given them 35 years of service. The team would win that game if life were like a movie, but the Hawks already embarrassed them on the 2006 championship commemoration night. They could easily do it again because they have been a top nine team over the last two months (27-13).

 

Perhaps the closing to this season will make management reflect on what they had 20 years ago, when Dwyane Wade went beast mode in the Finals, delivering their first championship. Having a player like that is the only way to win. A collection of very good players winning a title doesn’t happen, save for the 2004 Detroit Pistons, and that team had arguably the greatest defense of all time.

 

The Heat had a real go-to when Jimmy Butler was around, but they couldn’t put a good enough team around him. The way he overdelivered with less in three great playoff runs that included two finals trips broke the Heat’s thinking. They’ve brought back teams that should have expired, thinking their way will surprise the public, but it wasn’t that — it was Butler being one of the greatest playoff risers in NBA history. They reached the wrong conclusion about how smart they are like Jerry Jones did when the Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1995 with Barry Switzer instead of Jimmy Johnson, who already had won two championships with them.

 

And now the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets, two division rivals, have eclipsed them in potency and relevancy. The Hawks intelligently traded away an All-Star player (Trae Young) because they couldn’t win with his awful defense, which is something the Heat should have done with Tyler Herro since he is not that guy and next year is the last one on his contract. Plus the Hornets spent a long time in the cellar, something the Heat were never willing to do.

 

Nick Arison and the committee pride themselves on having an adaptable organization, but that is being put to the test. So far, they’ve been at the desk a while and are flunking.

 

The Celtics stained Pat Riley Court with an 18-point blowout. It was like watching a cyclist try to keep up with a Ferrari, only catching up within a mile when the driver pulled over for gas.

 

Jaylen Brown was unrestrainable as he sliced to the cup for layups and buried pull-up jumpers. The Celtics were shooting 75%, forcing coach Erik Spoelstra to call a timeout that did not help because the Heat kept bleeding, and surrendered 53 points before the first quarter ended. 

 

Spoelstra said, “This is going to sound crazy but this game was not like the other games. Our guys were locked in and competing. There was an exceptional level of shot-making from them to start the game.” 

 

It stayed ugly for the Heat as the Celtics kept pushing the pace, and they made nine shots in the lane. They had a 23-point lead at halftime with as many assists (18) as the Heat had field goals (18).

 

The Heat were powerless to stop Brown’s encore because he was too big, strong and fast for whoever challenged him. Still, they turned it around, subsequently draining 11 3-pointers, the most in any quarter of their season, in large part because the guests got comfortable, and cut the deficit to 10 points going into the fourth.  

 

They didn’t have much gas in the tank after that, and the Celtics pounced on them again. Jayson Tatum worked around screens for pull-up jumpers and dished to his cutting teammates, throwing cold water on the Heat’s comeback chances. He dissected the zone easily as well, while the Celtics kept separating themselves on the glass. 

 

The Heat lost 147-129.

 

Observations:

 

• Norman Powell missed his third-straight game, yet the Heat’s offense scored in the 92nd percentile, so the problem is that they didn’t have the resources to hang with Boston’s attack or rebounding (48-37). There were moments the team overhelped, giving up treys, and no one was able to bother Brown and Tatum much on the dribble. Furthermore, the Heat only played six guys significant minutes because Spoelstra didn’t trust his reinforcements. Particularly, Kel’el Ware didn’t get much time because his screen-roll defense was weak and he bit on a fake.

 

• Brown had 20 of his 43 points in the first quarter, the most by any Celtic player this season. Tatum also did some of the heavy lifting, setting up shooters and crashing the glass like a madman. He had a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) by halftime, then picked up his shot creation and finished with a triple-double (25 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists) against two turnovers.

 

• The Heat allowed the Celtics to shoot 29% higher than the league average in the paint non-restricted area. Notably, Brown didn’t miss in that spot, going 11-for-11, and Tatum made five of seven baskets.

 

• Boston’s 53 points in the first quarter ties the most this season with the Heat ( against the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 7). The Celtics made 11 3-pointers in that stretch, five of those belonging to Sam Hauser, who had 17 points in the period. Additionally, it was the third time the Celtics have scored at least 80 points in the first half.

 

• Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez and Pelle Larsson were the top options in the lane, combining for 14 of the team’s 19 field goals. The Heat also scored 45 points in the third quarter and it was their top shooting spurt of the season, yet they were outscored in every other period. 

 

• The Heat are the 10th seed, being a half-game behind the Charlotte Hornets for the eighth seed, and 2.5 out of the sixth spot (Philadelphia 76ers). Regarding the Play-In Tournament, Adebayo said, “See if we can win all five and then figure out whatever happens after that. Take it one game at a time and whatever happens, happens, at this point.”

 

The Heat folded in Indiana, where the Pacers were on an 11-game home losing streak stretching back to Feb. 2. There was no bigger issue than the defense, which allowed the Pacers to score in the 88th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.

 

Keep in mind that they struggled against the team trying to lose, again. It was discouraging for anyone affiliated with them or supporting their cause as it was no different than watching someone who is supposed to be a decent level fighter go the distance and lost a split decision against someone who was supposed to be a tuneup.

 

They were barely up two after the first quarter thanks to Micah Potter getting payback for getting waived by the Heat nearly five years ago, by making four 3-pointers and T.J. McConnell adding four baskets at short and long range.

 

If it wasn’t for Tyler Herro going beast mode in the first half, they would have been embarrassed sooner. Yet the Pacers’ ball movement around the arc and penetration through the middle exposed the visitors, putting them down four at intermission.

 

It was subsequently a shootout and a track meet. Herro’s flurry continued, nailing two extra treys and scoring at close range, and the rest of the starters each made multiple shots in the third quarter. Subsequently, the zone was prominent in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t as disruptive as they needed while the offense fell apart. 

 

The Heat lost 135-118 after 10 ties and 16 lead changes, the last one coming in the last nine minutes.

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra said, “We just haven’t been able to do it in these last several losses, but I know our guys want this. So we are going to take this L, take that last L against Cleveland. They are two disappointing losses, and we are going to back to Miami and figure out how to get this one tomorrow.”

 

Takeaways:

 

• The Heat have the bad habit of not paying enough attention to detail on defense in games they need. Spoelstra even said that they cycled through all of their coverages, but that the team “needs to show that toughness right now.” Still, the Pacers have good pieces that helped them get to the 2025 Finals, yet they are without their star point guard Tyrese Haliburton while he recovers from torn achilles tendon that he suffered in Game 7 of that series. Even without him, the Pacers are the second-best passing team in the league behind the Golden State Warriors. Furthermore, the Heat’s 3-point protection was lacking as they permitted 13 in the first half (five in the second), six coming from the corner. The pace hurt them by tiring their legs by the time the fourth quarter started. 

 

• The Heat’s schemes prioritize protecting the paint at all costs, but the Pacers shot 7.1% above the league average at 0-3 feet and 13.8 above it in the non restricted area (3-10 feet). The Pacers scored 54 points in the lane, most of it coming from Siakam (12) and Quenton Jackson (10).

 

• The first game of the back-to-back set, which concludes against Philadelphia on Monday, was a disaster because the Heat are desperate to avoid the Play-In Tournament. The loss drops them three games out of the sixth seed, making their fourth-straight trip into the Play-In inevitable, with seven games remaining. 

 

• Herro played poorly in the second half of the miniseries in Cleveland, so it was no surprise that he came out blazing. He was shooting 63.2% through three quarters before going cold in the final stretch.

 

• Pascal Siakam is a matchup problem for everyone on the Heat not named Bam Adebayo. He’s smooth on the dribble plus can pull-up from distance. His scoring, Andrew Nembhard’s steady shot creation, and the 39 combined points from Potter plus T.J. McConnell did too much damage. Additionally, the Pacers had three players log multiple baskets in the fourth quarter.

 

• The Pacers broadcast highlighted C.J. Miles, who works as a photographer for the digital marketing team. He was a guard for them from 2014-17.