Miami’s ace is head coach Spoelstra.
The Miami Heat defeated the Sacramento Kings 121-110 in the 2023-2024 NBA regular season on Sunday (Jan. 27) at Golden One Center in Sacramento, California, USA.
The win was Miami’s fourth straight and moved them into sixth place in the Eastern Conference. The Heat are on a roll, going 8-2 in their last 10 games. It’s certainly a rebound after the trade market.
But tonight’s game was a big one for Miami. The Heat were without Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jokic, and Thomas Bryant due to disciplinary reasons after their brawl against the New Orleans Pelicans on April 24th. Tyler Hiro and Terry Rozier are also out with knee injuries.
In effect, Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin were the only key players available.
Miami went with a starting lineup of Delon Wright-Duncan Robinson-Jameer Hakez Jr-Martin-Adebayo. This was Miami’s 30th starting lineup of the season, and the Heat have now played 57 games this season, meaning they’ve changed their starting lineup almost every game.
Frequent lineup changes are never a good thing. Some players want to start, and some players don’t perform as well when they’re sent to the bench. Basketball players are sensitive beings. You should be extremely reluctant to affect their routines or moods. It”s best to stick with a solid starting lineup.
Miami would have loved to. But the injury situation prevented that. Established starters Adebayo, Butler, and Hiro have missed significant time with injuries, and the starting four has been a rotating mix of Martin, Highsmith, Hakezu, and Kevin Love.
But regardless of the starting lineup, Miami’s organization has been unwavering. Much of the credit goes to Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra.
Currently considered the best coach in the NBA, Spoelstra has faced this situation every season. Ace Butler needs constant injury management, and Hiro has a lot of nagging injuries. Adebayo is the only one who is healthy. Plus, Miami has plenty of reinforcements up front. However, Spoelstra is not without problems.
Adebayo, Hakez, and Martin were the difference 카지노 makers in the win over Sacramento, but Spoelstra’s mercenary tactics were just as impressive.
Not only did he start Wright, who recently joined Miami as a free agent after a buyout, but he also gave him 35 minutes. Wright averaged 13.8 minutes per game for Washington this season. He played 35 minutes in his first game with Miami, a much stronger team than Washington.
In 35 minutes, Wright scored 13 points and dished out five assists, and did a great job defending De’Aaron Parks and Malik Monk on offense throughout the game.
Even in the postgame interview, Wright admitted that he was “overwhelmed because it’s been so long since I’ve played this many minutes”.
It wasn’t just the mercenary skills, but also the tactics. On this night, Miami used a zone defense, which is their specialty, and Sacramento countered with a zone defense. However, the quality of the zone defense was very different between the two teams.
Miami used Adebayo to easily carve up Sacramento’s zone defense, while Sacramento struggled to defend Miami, which was the biggest factor in Miami’s victory.
Spoelstra signed an eight-year extension with Miami in January. As long as Spoelstra is in charge, Miami will be a powerhouse.