The Heat frustrate their fans with uneven play. They beat the Houston Rockets. The Rockets are 21-11 and are the number three seed in the Western Conference. The Heat lost to Atlanta the night before by 10 points. The Heat players don’t fight much. They got into a brawl last season with the Pelicans. It sparked team chemistry but not better team play.
Rockets have offensive problems
Danielle Lerner, Staff writer from the Houston Chronicle wrote that the Rockets are good defensively in the fourth, but can’t score. They were up by 7 in the fourth and then missed 11 shots in a row. They also gave up a huge lead against the Timberwolves on Friday.
Trenton Whiting wrote on the Rockets site on SI.com that what is hurting the Rockets is to get efficient scores at the end of the game. The opposing defense tightens up and shots at the start of the game aren’t there anymore. Ime Udoka is an outstanding coach. Now, his job is to make them more mature and professional.
Heat are mediocre
The Heat are a frustrating team this season. They beat the Cavaliers and the Rockets. But, they lose to the Pistons and scored eight points in the fourth against the Magic. Tyler Herro doesn’t play off the ball although he says otherwise. Bam Adebayo is overwhelmed in his responsibilities to quarterback the defense and get over 20 points every game.
According to Heat beat writer Ira Winderman, the Heat couldn’t finish the day before against Atlanta. They trailed 107-106 with 4:07 left but couldn’t score again. Against Houston, they were down by seven, scored, and finished the comeback. They play a back-to-back at home starting New Year’s Day and Jimmy Butler should be playing. “Mediocre play” is the biggest opponent the Heat have to plan for in both games.
Fight at the end
Tyler Herro and Amen Thompson let their emotions boil over at the end of the game. The Rockets let the lead go and then Fred Van Vleet got ejected for a five-second violation. Tyler Herro did his best impression of Jimmy Butler after the game. He gave a sly, petty comment that Thompson was upset that he was getting outplayed the whole game by Herro.
Former Rockets player Vernon Maxwell tweeted out another petty clapback at Herro, labeling him “Machine Gun Kelly.” Comparing the two men, they do look similar. Tyler Herro should concentrate more on playing off the ball like Steph Curry. In this NBA.com article, Herro compared his shot profile this season to Curry. Herro has taken more contact this season but is a volume shooter and needs the ball.
