This one started out well enough with the Heat getting out into the open court and showing it’s dominant transition game. LeBron in particular was setting the tone with his typical one-man wrecking crew theatrics.
It looked for the most part like Miami was going to be feasting on bird tonight but the Hawks switched their defense to the dreaded ( queue echos ) ZONE zone zone …
…which stopped Miami’s momentum in it’s tracks and killed it’s offensive efficiency. Clearly, the Heat have an achilles heal. Wade and Battier started combating the zone effectively but then the Heat started turning the ball over and the Hawks flashed their open-court game which aint too damn shabby itself. The Hawks are pretty athletic in their own right and were able to push their game in the open court to good success.
“They went to the zone, we got out of our rhythm and it affected us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We will get better at it and this is something we need to have a breakthrough with.”
Miami did not look too good in the halfcourt and had trouble in the fourth quarter defensively. Both teams exchanged leads in the second half, but the shots were not falling for Miami late and thats usually why you lose in basketball.
It appears that Wade is still in his mini-slump and needs to figure out how to get comfortable scoring in the halfcourt with LeBron playing at such a frantic pace. With Wade at full efficiency, the game would have been much closer.
It is easy to only pin this on Wade, but the truth is that the team overall shot the ball poorly and had a bit of trouble with Atlanta’s length and athleticism.
“Not every game is going to be able to be played out at our ideal pace,” Spoelstra said. “This was a game that simply was going to be a grind. We’ll adjust. We’ll adapt. We’ll work at it.”
Anyways, it was good to see the legendary Tracy McGrady healthy and in uniform for Atlanta but it was not so exciting to see him hit the clutch threes to put the dagger in the Heat.
It didn’t look like McGrady could hang with the athletic pace these two teams play but when the game slowed down, playoffs-style, McGrady was there to capitalize.
Alas, an undefeated season is not going to happen.
Alas, alas, alas.
Notes:
Wade may have struggled on offense but he dished 9 assists and had this sick block, continuing his defensive exploits in the paint:
Wade sucks, he lost his athleticism and his midrange.