Heat coach Erik Spoelstra believes that Monday’s game against the Spurs featured the two front-runners for Defensive Player of the Year in Bam Adebayo and Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Chiang writes for the Miami Herald.
“If we can really defend the way we’ve been defending the last month, then I think it’s a two-man race for the Defensive Player of the Year,” Spoelstra said prior to the game. “I think it’s just whatever flavor you like. They’ve won at an extremely high level, San Antonio. And their defense has been consistently a notch above ours. But we’re starting to catch them in that.“
Chiang notes that sportsbooks have Adebayo closer to fifth than second, with Chet Holmgren (Thunder), Rudy Gobert (Wolves), and Scottie Barnes (Raptors) ahead of him.
Spoelstra also believes that Adebayo is deserving of an All-NBA spot this season.
We have more from the Heat:
- The Heat have tied their worst losing streak of the season, dropping their fifth straight game against the Spurs, and are now 16-26 this season against teams that entered Monday with a winning record, Chiang writes. “When the going gets tough, we let go of the rope,” guard Norman Powell said. “I think that’s what happens when we have losses like this. We get hit, get some adversity, miss some shots, and then just everybody starts worrying about what happened on offense and teams take advantage of it and keep punishing us. But yeah, when we get hit, we continue to fold.” While the Heat have hung their hat on defense this year, Chiang points out that this marks the first time in franchise history that the team has given up at least 120 points in five straight games. Adebayo and Spoelstra were seen having an animated exchange after the Heat coach subbed out his star big in the second quarter. “I don’t want to be in the play-in. So some of that is, yeah, he’s got to protect me from myself,” Adebayo said after. “But also i don’t want to be in the f—–g play-in. So every game, I’m going to try to go out there and do the best I can to carry this team and force our way out of that.”
- As counterintuitive as it might run to the Heat’s DNA, it could be beneficial for them to miss the playoffs this season, Barry Jackson writes for the Herald. Jackson notes that Miami’s refusal to tank has hurt their ability to bring in another star-level player, while even vaunted teams like the Spurs have endured years of pain to form their talented cores.
- The Heat are entering year seven of being unable to wheel in a “whale” of a talent, according to Jackson. By that, he’s referring to their ability to sign or trade for a star player, though Powell did make the All-Star game this season with Miami. He goes through some of the top stars the Heat were in the running for in recent years and how the lack of success in the pursuit ended up looking with hindsight.