The Miami Heat lost a tough game against the San Antonio Spurs and they need answers. The offense and defense are moving through a couple of players for the Heat, and that is not going to win games. The Spurs are one of the top teams in the western conference and they are not a push over.
These are the games where the Heat need to play close to perfectly in order to win. The Spurs outscored the Heat in three of the four quarters and that paved the way for their victory. The Heat need to get their other players involved in order to get their offense to play better.
The Heat had a hard time containing Kawhi Leonard as he would explode for 27 points. Leonard would also have 6 assists to go along with that, and lead his team to victory late in the game. The Heat defense is not strong enough to contain the powerful Spurs offense. Patty Mills and Pau Gasol would also score in the double digits for the Spurs.
Mills would contribute 18 points, and Gasol would put up 20 points. Hassan Whiteside would have another double double with 27 points and 15 rebounds, but it would not be enough to win the game. The bench production lost this game for the Heat by only scoring 14 points.
The Heat would bounce back with a win against the Sacramento Kings. This game was won because the Heat outscored the Kings when it counted the most in overtime. The Heat had the advantage for the entire game, but they never held a big lead over the Kings.
That would come back to hurt them in the fourth quarter where they would get outscored by 6 and go to overtime. The Kings offense was run through 3 players and that is what led to their overtime collapse. Rudy Gay, Arron Afflalo, and Demarcus Cousins were the only players to score in the double digits for their team.
The Heat would outscore the Kings 17-5 in the overtime period and come away with the win. Whiteside would have another double double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Heat offense got going in this game and had 5 players in double figures.
Tyler Johnson played a big role in that game with 22 points off of the bench. Johnson would be perfect from the three-point line going 2-2. Johnson would also go 6-6 at the free throw line. Johnson played a great game and helped the starters in a big way. Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters would contribute 45 points combined in the Heat win.
The Heat matched up against the Toronto Raptors and they would have a hard night as they were defeated by 9 points. The Raptors offense had a great game and looked one step quicker than the Heat defense. DeMar DeRozan was the issue for the Heat as he lit them up for 34 points.
Terrence Ross would also put in 20 points off the bench for the Raptors. The Raptors did not do anything special to win this game they were just more aggressive on the boards than the Heat. Toronto would have 50 total rebounds while the Heat would have 43.
Whiteside would once again have a double double with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Although Whiteside has had a double double in every game this season head coach Erik Spoelstra needs to find a way to get his other players to score more. Whiteside is a great player, but cannot win by himself and he needs help from the other starters and the bench.
The Heat bench needs to start putting up big points as well, taking some of the pressure off of the starting 5 players. The Heat will have a tough game on Monday against Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder and they will have to be great on defense in order to come away with a win.