MIAMI, November 22 This was always going to happen.
The Miami HEAT were always going to encounter adversity. They would have to endure injuries, like the ones to Mike Millers thumb or Dwyane Wades wrist or Udonis Haslems foot. They would have to fight through the best their opponents had to offer. They were going to have losing streaks, and nights where absolutely nothing, that they could or could not control, would go right.
Like all NBA teams, they were going to lose a buzzer beater, as they did last Saturday in Memphis, and they were going to have a game like this, losing 93-77 to the Indiana Pacers at home.
The HEAT were always going to have something to fight through. It just so happens it all came at once.
The Pacers, behind 20-point games from Danny Granger and Brandon Rush, jumped out early and never looked back, taking a double-digit lead with five minutes to go in the second quarter. But it wasnt that Indiana played all that well on offense scoring fewer than a point per possession on 41 percent shooting but it played timely offense, answering with a bucket whenever the HEAT threatened to put some momentum together.
Just 77 points on 95 possessions for the HEAT, who scored 18 points in the paint and committed 22 turnovers. The bright spot was the 38 attempted free throws, as both LeBron James and Chris Bosh made continual forays towards the basket, but it wasnt nearly enough with the team shooting 4-of-20 from three, and 38 percent overall.
To coach Erik Spoelstra, once the Pacers began hitting shots, including a couple early contested ones that deflated solid defensive possessions for Miami, everything about the HEATs attack appeared anxious, so foreign to who weve been the other 13 games.
It seemed like we were playng and pressing and forcing the issue rather than getting to our movements, Spoelstra said. Thats what happens when you face adversity in a game and start to feel pressure.
The hope is this was an aberration, he added. And thats the reality sometimes in this league, where you have 4-5 games where nothing seems to go right.
A reality, yes, one that the two teams in the NBA Finals last year experienced during the regular season themselves, but one not wholly expected, at least not on the heels of another bad game and a platter of bad news.
I dont think we anticipated anything like this, Bosh said. Were just going to have to deal with it. When we came into this situation we all knew that it wasnt going to be an easy road so we have to just embrace the fact that its not easy. We just have to keep pressing and keep playing and also find out what were doing wrong and make the change aggressively.
Thats the only thing left do to after a game like this. Evaluate the situation, accept both the causes and effects, and make the appropriate adjustments on the court.
The process is serious and the focus is there, James said. We wish we could move past the process and get to something else but this is what it is at this point. The only way to figure this out is to collectively do it. The only way to do it is to continue to get better in practice.
The HEAT will, because NBA teams dont continue to shoot 38 percent from the field, or all of a sudden forget all the things that brought them success before. And with Orlando coming up Wednesday, they are fortunate enough to have a major reason to remember quickly.
We have to be active participants in our own rescue, Spoelstra said. It can change very quickly in this league as we know.
This game was always going to happen because things can change so quickly, just as quickly as they can get right.