On January 30, Beijing time, the Heat sat at home against the Suns, and at the end of the game, the Heat lost to the Suns 105-118. The Heat have been in very poor form lately, and although the Heat acquired Rozier through a trade, which is a good complement to the team's firepower on the offensive end, the team still has various problems. After this game, the Heat are currently on a seven-game losing streak and currently have a team record of 24-23, tied with the Magic for seventh in the East. Let's take a look back at the whole game.
Eubanks had a great first quarter, scoring 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting, and with the Suns on more points, the Suns deserved an eight-point lead heading into the second quarter. In the second quarter, the two teams engaged in a fierce tug-of-war. The Suns held steady and maintained their advantage. At halftime, the Suns led 62-49.
At the beginning of the second half, the Suns' offensive offense was more intense, Booker found offensive form to help the Suns extend the lead, while the Heat, on the other hand, the offensive state was very poor, and the defense was not satisfactory, which led to the Suns blasting 38 points in the third quarter and expanding the margin to 26 points in one fell swoop. However, the Suns' fourth-quarter performance was admittedly bad, so the Heat did not give up hope of chasing points.
In the fourth quarter of the game, the Heat, under the leadership of Butler, launched a scoring attack on the Suns, and after a wave of small climaxes, the score was narrowed to about 10 points, but the first three quarters were too far behind, even if the Heat won by 13 points in the fourth quarter, but still failed to pocket the victory.
However, in this game, Butler's performance was very good, Butler started the game for 37 minutes, 7 of 12 shots, 2 of 2 three-pointers, 10 of 10 free throws, 26 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, and the new recruit Rozier seems to have gone through a period of running-in, gradually getting better, he contributed 21 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in this game, and 4 of 6 three-pointers, with a shooting rate of 67%. However, the excellent performance of the two alone cannot support a team to win the game. Adeba was 3-of-9 in this game, only 8 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks, which was incompatible with his previous performance, while Herro only scored 17 points on 18 shots, and the poor performance of the two also made the Heat unable to end the losing streak.
And in the post-match interview, Butler said of the seven-game losing streak: "I'm not worried at all, I still know what we can do, really, we just need to get back the smile, the fun of playing, the competition and the defense." "We've got to get back to our defensive identity, to go back to our standards and to compete with the opposition at the level of our organization's DNA, and we just haven't been able to do that recently," Spo said. But we're definitely at different stages of the season and we have to come back en masse. ”
The Heat seem to be going through a painful period this season, with the offseason without Lillard and the departures of Strus and Vincent, adding to their already poor offensive efficiency. But fortunately, the Heat traded Rozier as a scoring expert, which is also a big addition to the Heat's offensive ability. As long as the Heat can get through this run-in period and regain the team's defensive ability, then the Heat can still return to the ranks of the strong teams in the East.