Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Is capturing the sixth seed too hard for the Heat?

It only took the Heat four days after their return from the All-Star break to remind everyone how unserious they are. Losing to the Bucks without their indecisive Greek megastar is one of their worst losses of the year, and there’s a new candidate for those every few weeks, it seems. On top of that, no matter how close they get to grasping the sixth seed, it slips through their fingers, like most recently on Thursday.

Pat Riley had a distraction from this team in his trip to Los Angeles, in which he was honored for past glory, but it ended just in time for him to witness the Milwaukee meltdown, too. 

The players sang the same tune in the locker room and presser about not getting stops. Their Tuesday performance highlights how much they’ve seen better days, in the 20-year anniversary of their first championship.

Coach Erik Spoelstra has preached the same platitude about pressure being a privilege, and now he sounds like a cleric reciting sermons on the street corner that no one is listening to. He could turn to veterans like Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem and Andre Iguodala in the past to inject the rotation with a different dynamic, but aside from Tyler Herro, who has glaring defensive shortcomings, there’s not much else. 

One wonders what the decision-makers hope to prove this season, as a swift first-round exit likely awaits them if they get that far. It should sting them twice that the star they covet knows how they’ll struggle with what he’s got already. Keep in mind that it was in Milwaukee’s best interest to lose that game to improve their lottery chances. 

Then they blew their second-half comeback on Thursday in Philly against the 76ers because they were clueless on how to guard the arc and got beat in the open court 27-22. Spoelstra called it getting beat at their own game, yet interestingly, the Heat are not good at playing fast; they do it more than other teams to break down opponents’ legs (first in frequency), yet are 29th in points per possession (1.07).

Thursday’s loss was a double whammy because they fell a game further away from the sixth seed (2.5), held by Philadelphia.

It seems inevitable that the Heat will be in their fourth consecutive Play-In Tournament. So the NBA should change its name to the Miami Heat Invitational. Unfortunately for them, they’ll have no vintage Jimmy Butler to bail them out.