Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Heat embarrassed themselves on the 2006 title’s celebration night

The Heat got demolished against the Hawks on the night they honored their 2006 championship. Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal sat courtside for the embarrassment, yet the only bright spot was the halftime presentation, sitting the former teammates in a circle at midcourt in custom team jackets.

They started their skeleton crew lineup and found themselves in a 10-point hole despite Pelle Larsson going to the body and Davion Mitchell racking up four dimes because of weak corner coverage and an inability to hit shots, at one point missing nine in a row.

It subsequently got worse, as the Hawks’ bench outworked Miami’s. They also sliced to the lane with little resistance and erupted from deep with seven extra treys, and the Heat went into intermission down 17.

The halftime show, which was slightly longer than normal, affected the Hawks on defense, even with five minutes to warm up. The Heat cut the deficit to single digits, but their progress was short-lived due to CJ McCollum taking over the period, nailing shots on and off the dribble from short, mid and long range.

Then they got smacked around so hard in the fourth quarter that fans started leaving with seven minutes to go.

The Heat lost 127-115. Additionally, they only shot 25% from deep, and allowed 18 points off turnovers.

It’s just frustrating because we can still win with 115 [points]…We got to lock in and do the little things, but also, that 3-point line is a big factor in the game,” Bam Adebayo said.

Takeaways:

•  In part because of the absences to Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins, the team was flat in the first half and let the misses affect them on defense. They only allowed six baskets from the corners, but passes into the area still left them scrambling. Coach Erik Spoelstra said postgame that at their best, they are capable of playing good help defense, but it’s a mentality they must improve.

•  Jalen Johnson was the top player, and the Hawks got hot with too many easy shots, and they eventually started hitting contested ones. McCollum and Luke Kennard combined for 10 of Atlanta’s 21 3-pointers. On top of that, their bench was superior, outscoring Miami’s by 23 points. In the locker room, Larsson said the defense was lacking because of breakdowns that created open threes.

• The Heat tied their fourth-worst night of the year, guarding the lane, allowing 66 points. They barely used a zone because of Atlanta’s sharp ball movement.

• Kel’el Ware got beat from inside and out, and was yanked quickly in the second quarter. He also struggled in his nine second-half minutes as well.

• The Heat only led for fewer than four minutes after tip-off. Notably, Dwyane said pre-game in his presser about the 2006 season that the Heat’s record is not good enough.

• Adebayo shot poorly (25%) while seeing mostly single coverage. He missed everything outside of the lane, and he is not a good enough shooter to be trying to fool opponents with a pump fake. He would have more success if he just shot without hesitation.