After the Heat dropped its third consecutive game Monday, Josh Richardson suggested it was time for the team “to start looking in the mirror.”
That’s exactly what the Heat did, with a team meeting on its off day in between Monday’s home loss to the 76ers and Wednesday’s road game against the Nets. It was an open and honest dialogue focused on solutions after a 5-8 start.
“Our defensive identity, making sure we’re helping each other out there on both ends of the floor, enjoying each other’s success and just solutions, solutions to our problems,” Heat team captain Udonis Haslem said when asked what the message was in Tuesday’s meeting. “You know, 48 minutes worth of good Miami Heat basketball will give ourselves a chance to beat anybody in this league.”
When asked who spoke up in the meeting, wing player Rodney McGruder said, “everybody.”
The result was a complete 48-minute performance from the Heat (6-8) in a convincing 120-107 victory over the Nets on Wednesday to begin a quick two-game trip, which ends with a Friday matchup against the Pacers. The victory also snapped Miami’s three-game losing skid.
Brooklyn never led, as Miami used strong defense and relentless paint attacks to control the game from start to finish. The Heat limited the Nets to 40.2 percent shooting (Brooklyn’s second-worst shooting percentage in a game this season) and finished with a season-high 70 points in the paint.
“We lost three games straight, so this game was huge for us,” point guard Goran Dragic said. “We had a little meeting to just try to get that swag back. Tonight everybody was pumped, everybody was cheering for each other and we just followed the recipe of how [Erik Spoelstra] and the coaching staff told us before the game of how we need to defend and how we need to play.”
But it turns out the message was deeper than just defense, paint attacks and selflessness. It also was a conversation about playing with perspective.
Perspective for a roster that includes a core that’s now in its third season together.
“Without getting too pumped up in your head, most of us got paid, most of us got good contracts to be able to come back here So, what are we complaining about?” said Tyler Johnson, who is the Heat’s second-highest paid player this season with a $19.2 million salary. “I think what’s crazy is before any of us got any money, we were just some dogs.
“We had to just come together. Why it’s so special to be with a group for so long is that we can really check each other. We have real heart-to-heart conversations with one another, and I think today we went out and really just played for each other.”
Haslem believes Tuesday’s team meeting was critical.
“I think it’s very important to get things out and come with solutions on how we can help each other win basketball games,” Haslem said. “I think it’s very important. Basketball is not always physical, sometimes it’s mental. So it was good for us to get a mental day.”
Team meetings aren’t unusual, though. The Heat and every other sports team have them.
But Miami wants this one to be different. The Heat wants the message from its latest team meeting to have a long-term effect.
“It has to sustain because then it’s fake,” Johnson said. “If we’re having to have this discussion all the time then nobody really heard it. Then it was just rah-rah for one quick moment. I think that’s what the beautiful thing is, we can really check each other and we don’t hurt each other’s feelings. We’ve been together long enough to know that it’s nothing more than we just want to win.”