Here we find ourselves again. A new team but a familiar theme.
A year ago, the Miami HEAT were coming off an impressive opening-night victory over the Washington Wizards. They didn’t post their highest assist total of the season, nor did they play their best game, but it was a night full of promise. The ball was whipping around the court and open shots were in relative abundance. It looked like it could have been the start of something rather impressive.
For a variety of reasons, injuries foremost among them, Miami wasn’t able to sustain and build on such ball movement. Like so many other teams rich with encouraging signs in the first couple weeks of the season, the habits built during training camp and preseason gave way to the grueling marathon of the regular season.
Now they’re back in the same spot after assisting on 64 percent of their shots and posting a cool 111.5 offensive rating in a season-opening win over the Charlotte Hornets. Searching for consistency and continuity among players that have barely played together. Showing positive signs. Committing to the difficult habits.
Trying to sustain the beautiful game.
The game which creates possessions like this…
“It goes from good, to good, to great and you live with the results,” Erik Spoelstra said. “Those are habits that you build of trusting your teammates, sharing the game and working for the best available shot.”
There’s no reason to dive too deeply into exactly what the HEAT are running offensively right now. One game against a Hornets team full of stretch-bigs – leading to less Hassan Whiteside and more small-ball than might be typical – isn’t going to reveal an entire system. What matters most in these first takes is that the HEAT are creating space with execution by simply running things well. The sort of things that let the team open the season with Luol Deng hitting a screened Chris Bosh on a cut.
Big things, like drive-and-kicking the defense over and over into submissions until an opportunity reveals itself.
Small things, like reversing the ball before the defense can re-set itself.
Complicated things, like hitting the timing on screening a player into a handoff.
While there’s no doubt the instincts on display signify a particular talent level – Justise Winslow’s court vision continues to impress and helped him to a +26 impact for the evening – none of this is rocket science. But even the simplest actions gain tremendous value when backed up by the right habits.
As with most habits, there’s no secret or trick to developing these. Want to get into a routine of running a few miles before work every morning? Then get up every morning and go run a few miles.
“Keep doing it,” Bosh said about sustaining offense. “Do it when the times are hard. It’s easy to do it in your home opener, everyone is feeling good. We made a couple shots. But when it’s not going as well as we want it to, when things hit the fan a little bit, that’s when we have to trust and continue to move the ball.
“We have to make an effort to really pay attention to detail. It can change. Goran [Dragic] might be in there, then [Mario Chalmers] is in there. It’s like, ‘OK, I have to automatically change to his tendencies’. But all in all, it’s basketball. Putting the ball on the floor, moving it when you don’t have anything and getting the second and third situations. Trusting each other.”
Ask a thousand questions about ball movement and you’ll probably get a thousand answers containing that word. Trust. Coaches like to say ‘the ball finds energy’, but the ball can’t find anyone unless someone is willing to send it on its merry way. In that respect, Miami may be more encouraging, more hopeful, than your typical team enjoying a fine first outing.
Sometimes a willing passer is better than a talented passer. Creating the former, sometimes, just takes a few trips around the block.
“It’s got to be each individual, they have to understand what makes us successful,” Dwyane Wade explains. “There’s going to be some moments in games where its not going to move the same, but overall if you want to be successful, especially with the way the league is going and how teams are offensively moving the ball, we have to keep it up. We have to continue to share the game and share in it together.
“Having veteran guys helps as well. At this stage, a lot of guys have made their name. You’re not out there trying to make a name. We are who we are. It doesn’t matter if Chris Bosh averages 24 points or if Chris Bosh averages 17 points. He’s Chris Bosh and he’s great at what he does. When you have guys like that, it makes it easy to just say, ‘Let’s play the best game’.
“The best game is to play the team game and not worry about the individual.”
Despite results, Miami didn’t play its best game in what was almost a narrow victory over a Charlotte team shooting below 40 percent. Far from it. The HEAT won’t often hit 60 percent of their threes, nor will they make 95 percent of their free-throws. Despite positive showings from various lineup combinations, the starters have things to sort out with time.
But this team showed that the best game, the right game, is in there.
It’s just one night. The calendar hasn’t even hit November. You just have to start somewhere, and the HEAT have officially started.
Where they and their deep pool of talent go now is up to them.
