Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday night’s 125-91 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies:
– The lesson of recent weeks and even games such as Saturday is this: The Heat are good enough to compete for stretches against elite competition.
– And then reality hits home.
– As it did in Saturday night’s seventh consecutive loss.
– For stretches earlier this season, there at least were the occasional nights when the Heat had the best player on the court.
– Whether it was Tyler Herro or Bam Adebayo.
– Now those two routinely stand second (or worse) to an opposing player (or two or three).
– Even when an opponent sits an elite player.
– As was the case with Jaren Jackson Jr.’s Saturday night takeover for Memphis amid the Grizzlies’ absence of Ja Morant.
– Considering Jimmy Butler quit on the Heat and then was banished, this should not come as a surprise.
– Although the thought was it wouldn’t necessarily reach these depths.
– A losing season now all but assured.
– Yes, there will be (or at least should be) play-in.
– But playoffs feel like an abstract.
– And any playoff talk has to mean the Heat, at least occasionally, having the best player on the court.
– Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday night’s lineup switch mostly was due to matchups against the Celtics.
– So Saturday night, Kel’el Ware again was with the starters, but with Duncan Robinson staying in the starting lineup in place of Davion Mitchell.
– The other three starters remained Adebayo, Herro and Andrew Wiggins.
– So make it 21 lineups on the season for the Heat.
– The Heat got a break before the game, when the Grizzlies announced that both Morant and Vince Williams Jr. would be out.
– With Ware called for a pair of early fouls, Kyle Anderson was first off the Heat bench, his first action in three games.
– Jaime Jaquez Jr, who had started Friday against the Celtics, entered along with Davion Mitchell in the Heat’s second substitution.
– With Terry Rozier then back in the mix after being held Friday.
– Later, there also was a Pelle Larsson sighting.
– Spoelstra reflected before the game on Friday night’s loss to the Celtics.
– “We had three inflection points,” he said of how that game turned and how the Heat have to avoid such moments.
– Although the Grizzlies retired Tony Allen’s number Saturday night, unlike with the Heat’s ceremonies, they did it postgame instead of at halftime, maintaining normal game timing.
– Of Allen’s honor, Spoelstra said, “I love seeing that from somebody that didn’t put up big offensive numbers. And it just shows you that you can impact winning in a lot of different ways. He was a force of nature. You had to gameplan against his defense, for sure.”
– Former Heat guard Beno Udrih was in the building with the Grizzlies honoring Allen.
– The game closed the 14th of the Heat’s 15 back-to-back sets this season, after falling at home Friday night to the Celtics. The Heat entered 7-6 on the second night of such pairings.
– The Heat’s final back-to-back set of the season will feature the same pairing in the same order, with an April 2 game in Boston and an April 3 home game against Memphis.
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