Heat take final exhale before decisive seeding sprint
To put into perspective how the pandemic has changed the perspective for the Miami Heat, consider that the self-proclaimed “hardest working, best conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the NBA” followed up Wednesday’s day off on Thursday with . . . another day off.
Oh, there still was a video session and team meeting on the schedule in advance of Friday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at AmericanAirlines Arena, but for a team that previously would remind on the locker-room white board “pads on, mouthguards in” for what coach Erik Spoelstra dubs his team’s “Hunger Games” practices, rest, recovery and renewal have become this season’s three Rs.
“It’s definitely been a challenge,” guard Duncan Robinson said of the compacted schedule created by the season’s late start and commitment to completion before the Tokyo Olympics. “We’re not alone in terms of going through it. Everybody is going through this new normal that we’re all adjusting to.”
For the Heat, idle at this time last year amid some of the worst of the pandemic, it’s as if the past two seasons have melded together.
“This has kind of blended in in some respects with the bubble,” Robinson said of the quarantine setting at Disney World utilized into October to complete last season. “And it’s just kind of been this dead sprint, where you’re playing every other night with a bunch of back-to-backs mixed in there.
“Like I said, everyone is going through it. So you can gain a competitive advantage if you, as a team, are willing to wrap your mind around what everybody is going through. So definitely been a challenge.”
That has led to adjustment from Spoelstra, including during this break that will lead to six games over the final 10 days of the regular season, with all but one remaining off day being a travel day.
“But, once again,” Robinson said, “you try to keep everything in perspective. If this is the thing that we gotta complain about the most, then we’re all doing pretty well.”
To Heat captain Udonis Haslem, the altered reality is a dramatic change from the culture developed over his 18 seasons with the team.
“We’re still a team in 2021 that still likes to get out there and practice and mix it up, and we call it Hunger Games, and just create that mentality of competition and playing at a high level all the time,” he said. “So that’s something that’s been taken away from us, obviously with the schedule.”
But Haslem said it also has been more than the missing court time. Many of the NBA’s pandemic protocols have limited team gatherings and even player interactions.
“Just the opportunity to spend time with my guys. You know what I’m saying?” he said. “We take pride in really having relationships that go beyond the game of basketball. I consider all of these guys like little brothers to me.
“‘So the time on the golf course that we had. It’s the time to spend time with Bam [Adebayo] and his mom. Just those things, that have the opportunities to do with a lot of those guys, have been taken away. And I think those things actually contribute to the way we come together and play the game of basketball.”
At times, amid the late-season push to avoid the play-in round, the Heat have looked gassed, including the latter stages of Tuesday night’s home loss to the Dallas Mavericks. That had guard Goran Dragic appreciative of the two-day break.
“It’s definitely going to help a little bit,” he said. “Coming from a back-to-back to one day off and then [the Dallas] game, the team is tired. That is not an excuse because everybody has similar schedules, so we have to deal with it.”
