Maybe a little bit too happy.
That was the case Wednesday night against Denver. From the get-go, Miami played atrocious defensive effort and allowed 59 points in the first half against a team without its leading scorer. A couple of standoff second-half quarters ultimately ended with a 98-107 loss at the Pepsi Center, an arena Miami hasn't won in since 2002.
Not even the commentating of Hall-of-Famer Dick Vitale could get the Heat to play with some effort, as Denver constantly took Miami defenders off the dribble and took wide open jumpers. The Nuggets also employed a full-court type of offense. The Nuggets outscored Miami in fastbreak points, 35-13. While the Heat is a half-court team, there is no excuse why the players could not get back on defense. Miami's roster is filled with young, athletic guys that should be able to run to the other side of the court quickly. Unfortunately, Linus Kleiza, Chauncey Billups and J.R. Smith scored 21 points each, mostly off of defensive breakdowns on Miami's part. For the second consecutive game, the Heat has allowed 30 points from beyond the arc.
Simply put, Miami's effort wasn't there. The Nuggets out-hustled the Heat, highlighted by a second-quarter sequence in which Denver grabbed two offensive rebounds before getting a three-pointer. There weren't any defensive rotations, and there were too many times when a Nugget had an easy two points. Joel Anthony got into early foul trouble (he had two fouls in the first 44 seconds of play), only to have Jamaal Magloire commit five fouls in 11 minutes of play.
The closest the Heat got in the second half was cutting Denver's lead to three in the third quarter off a Shawn Marion hook shot. The Nuggets came right back and strung together eight unanswered points. Whenever the Heat would get the lead to five or six points, Denver would just make a mini-run and it was back to square one.
There were some silver linings in the game, though. Dwyane Wade had 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting and two blocks last night. Wade did give Vitale the "dipsy-doo dunkaroo" he promised the ESPN announcer before, but his highlight of the night came off a contested turnaround three-point shot as the shot-clock expired early in the third quarter. The 6-foot-4 guard out of Marquette did, however, finish below his average in both rebounds and assists, only made it to the free-throw line four times and turned the ball over four times. Wade's backup, Daequan Cook, did not play Wednesday night after his knee bruise against San Antonio, leaving Wade to play 45 minutes. Coach Erik Spoelstra went really small, with a backcourt of Chris Quinn and Mario Chalmers, but the rookie coach couldn't leave that tandem on the court for too long.
The fifth pick of the 2003 NBA Draft only had a deuce through the first 12 minutes of play. The Nuggets followed the lead of other recent Heat opponents and doubled Wade constantly. Fortunately for Wade, Joel Anthony's two quick fouls gave way to Michael Beasley early on. The second pick of the 2008 NBA Draft had 10 points in the first quarter alone. Beasley's offensive aggression, therefore, gave Wade more room to operate. The 6-foot-9 forward out of Kansas State got in foul trouble later on and only scored two points after the first quarter.
Shawn Marion continued to assert himself offensively, scoring 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds and two steals. I liked that the 6-foot-7 forward out of UNLV looked to create his own shot, something we have not seen from Marion in a long time. And even though Denver did run a fast-break offense, most of Marion's points came in the half-court setting. A good thing about Miami's offense was that it did not get caught up in the fast style of the Nuggets.
Mario Chalmers added 12 for Miami, and hit two of four shots from downtown last night (he also had a career-high seven turnovers against Billups). Udonis Haslem added 10 on 5-of-10 shooting, thriving off of open looks as the defense sucked into the paint on Wade's drives. The Heat's problem wasn't the offense, though. Miami put in a respectable 97 points. The Heat's problem was its defense, which was non-existent, especially in the first half.
If this loss has proved anything, it is that Miami cannot come into games thinking that it will be a cakewalk. Hopefully, this team will not come out lackadaisical Friday night against Sacramento. And 1-3 in the month of January, this is a game the Heat needs badly. After Friday's meeting with the Kings, the Heat goes down to Los Angeles to face off against the Lakers.
Heat News
In my last post, I stated that Heat guard Shaun Livingston was released after Monday's loss to San Antonio. That is essentially true; Miami has traded Livingston to the Memphis Grizzlies and cash for a conditional 2012 second-round pick. The pick is protected until the last five picks of the '12 Draft, meaning Memphis would need to be one of the five best teams in 2011-12 for the Heat to get the pick. The move puts the Heat about $400,000 below the luxury tax because Livingston was traded before the NBA's guarantee deadline.
Hours after Memphis acquired the lanky 6-foot-7 guard, the team released him.
The added luxury-cap flexibility on this deal has Alonzo Mourning's name written all over it. The longtime Heat center knows that the Heat is a rebuilding team, but doesn't want to end his career limping off the court, even if it was better than being carried off a stretcher.
Jamaal Magloire's contract, meanwhile, became guaranteed for the rest of the season.
Heat forward James Jones said he could return to the active roster as soon as Jan. 12 or somewhere around that time. Jones has been rehabbing for the past few months after undergoing wrist surgery on his shooting hand in October.
Daequan Cook is expected to return against Sacramento.
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