November 20 The Miami HEAT were without Dwyane Wade, out with a sprained wrist, for the game and Udonis Haslem, who left the game with a sprained left foot (X-rays were negative and he will be re-evaluated Sunday), for the fourth quarter, and yet it still took a buzzer-beating fadeaway jumper from Rudy Gay for the Memphis Grizzlies to take a 97-95 win.
Thats the silver lining approach to the loss, because even had the HEAT won and they almost did after Chris Bosh banked in a three and Eddie House stole the ball in the backcourt to tie things up with five seconds to go this game was full of film to be reviewed in practice.
Of course, under most circumstances, games like these, shorthanded and on the second night of a back-to-back Memphis had played Friday as well are ones to play and, regardless of result, move on from. And in the end thats what will happen, but after showing remarkable growth in consecutive games, Miami was not at its best on either side of the ball.
Offensively, the HEAT got 69 combined points from the trio of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Eddie House (a season-high six threes), but the fluidity of the previous two games was lost as the ball often got stuck after the initial couple passes, evidenced by the fact that nobody outside of House or James had more than a single assist.
When the ball got stuck, the possession generally resulted in a jumper despite Memphis doing little to deter the HEAT once the ball entered the paint. Miami scored 34 points in the paint but attempted just 12 free throws, far below their previous season-low of 24.
But the team, both players and coaches alike, has preached defense from the first day of training camp, and it was there that Miami struggled the most.
Apart from a few uncontested layups from the Grizzlies, the team was mechanically sound on the defensive end, allowing 108 points per 100 possessions, just a point and a half above the league average. It was at the end of those possessions where the problems arose, and Marc Gasol (11 points, 11 boards) and Zach Randolph (21 and 13 off the bench) combined for 10 of Memphis 14 offensive rebounds.
So, even though Miami fought back from a slow offensive start (shooting near the 40 percent mark for most of the first half) and engaged Memphis in a back-and-forth battle for the lead throughout the final quarter, the Grizzlies five buckets off their own misses in the final five and a half minutes were the reason the HEAT needed five points in 30 seconds to tie the game, and why Memphis had the ball with a chance to win.
And despite all that, the HEAT were five seconds away from forcing overtime before Gay, who appeared to be swarmed by James, dribbled across the top of the key and hit a tough, leaning fadeaway from the right wing to take the game. A tough, covered leaning fadeaway that made the difference between a possible win and a loss, but this early in the season, one that likely made no difference at all in the big picture, as this game had already offered its learning points for the HEAT.