too much spontaneity on defense<\/a>, and with not enough on offense.<\/p>\nIn the pantheon of home openers in the franchise\u2019s 39 seasons, arguably only the 108-66 opening loss to the Chicago Bulls\u00a0 in 2006 \u2013 one that came on the heels of the franchise\u2019s 2006 championship \u2013 felt more rancid.<\/p>\n
The effort was so skewed toward Giannis-or-bust that beyond his 35 points on 13-of-19 shooting, no other Heat player scored more than Bam Adebayo\u2019s 15. That hardly was enough to offset the 45 by Minnesota\u2019s Anthony Edwards and 21 of new Timberwolves teammate LaMelo Ball.<\/p>\n
As could be expected, Erik Spoelstra started with the defense when it came to the clean up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to step up our defense. We know that,\u201d the Heat coach said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to have to be all across the board, with efforts and disruptiveness and these effort plays. We\u2019re capable of doing it. We\u2019re just going to have to get a lot better at committing to it, all five guys on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an opener filled with telling numbers, including being outscored 20-6 on second-chance points, with the Timberwolves beating the Heat 17-4 on the offensive glass and 52-34 overall on the glass. Then there were the 19 Heat turnovers that led to 31 Minnesota points, with the Heat also outscored 63-24 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plays in the margins, we\u2019re also going to have to get better at that,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cForcing more turnovers, taking care of the basketball. They basically won all those departments. We outshot them (.481 to .469) and we got beat by 30. They dominated the turnovers, dominated the offensive glass, and dominated the three-point line.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Antetokounmpo said all he accomplished on offense wasn\u2019t enough, even though his 35 points were the most by a Heat player in his debut with the team, eclipsing the 31 scored by LeBron James in 2010. The 35 points also were second only in franchise history to the franchise opening-night record of 37 by James in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur effort has got to be way better. It starts with me,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cOur effort has got to be better. My effort has got to be better. Our effort was not as good as in the past. They scored 130 points in our house. I have to be better. It starts with me. I\u2019ve got to set the tone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spoelstra acknowledged there were times he didn\u2019t know what he was looking at, as his players kept turning to him for direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were also doing things that were uncharacteristic \u2014 walking the ball up, waiting for play calls, playing on one side of the floor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been developing a style of play that we have to trust. Whether that would have been good enough or not, it\u2019s tough to evaluate. We didn\u2019t get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was so much left to lament that it had the Heat back at practice Thursday at Kaseya Center, despite the session coming in the middle of a stretch of three games in four nights, with the Heat playing their road opener on Saturday night against the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be better,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cWe have to play better. And hopefully now on Friday we can respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the moment Wednesday\u2019s final horn sounded, Antetokounmpo knew major film study had to follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur spacing has to be better. Our offense was very, very stagnant. We did not look as fluid as the preseason,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t give you an answer why that is.\u201d<\/p>\n
So still searching for a first win, while also moving on to, seemingly, soul searching for a critical missing element.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrust,\u201d Antetokounmpo identified. \u201cWe just got to trust one another. We weren\u2019t ourselves. I think everybody knows it. \u201d<\/p>\n
With the next opportunity coming Friday, this time with the challenge of Cade Cunningham and the team that finished last season with the best record in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us like to be humbled like that,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cIt starts with the individual mentality and collective mentality to do tough things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 This was not what Giannis Antetokounmpo signed up for, standing as a one-man show while chaos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-434880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}