The three games that defined the Miami Heat's season

No one in the organization would have believed it if they were told a fourth Play-In Tournament was their fate. They can point to injuries, but their vision was flawed because they didn’t have the talent to compete with the top teams and at least one philosophy is antiquated, considering how they give up the most open 3-pointers per game. 

It was one of the most frustrating seasons since 2014-15 because there were moments of progress that were fools gold. A few moments defined the season and further highlighted that this build cannot continue. Let's review.

Nov. 12 versus the Cleveland Cavaliers 

Consider how the Heat started the season with a 7-4 record and the offense was one of the early standouts of the league. The Cavaliers were in Miami for a miniseries and had lost the first the game on a buzzer-beating lob by Andrew Wiggins.  They played their D-Team of background players with Jarrett Allen in the second game, and the Heat were up 14 points with four minutes left in the third quarter and then it all came crashing down.

The Cavaliers made nine of 12 shots in the lane in the fourth quarter. There’s no way Kel’el Ware would have played nine closing minutes if Bam Adebayo had been available (foot injury), but all the drives were indicative of a bigger problem: an inability to guard up top, which was one of the stories of the season.

Jan. 10 at Indiana

There’s few things in the league that will humble a team like getting spanked by those strategically tanking. The Pacers had won the previous game against the Charlotte Hornets, but had gone nearly a month winless. 

The Heat used their small-ball lineup, which was always designed to fail because of its low collective resistance, and the team got beat at its own game: playing fast. On top of that, they never led in Indiana, and Andrew Nembhard was the best player on the floor, lighting them up from short and long range while dishing out nine assists against zero turnovers. It was only Indiana's eigth win of the year.

Feb. 3 versus the Atlanta Hawks

The Heat’s performance on the night they commemorated the 2006 championship could not have gone worse as former members sat and watched the current team get disemboweled. The game got away from the Heat in the first half and they couldn’t guard well the rest of the night, either.  

This was nearly a month after the Hawks made the trade that sent Trae Young to Washington. It showed the Heat up close how much better a team gets after getting rid of a negative, short-armed defender in its main rotation. Additionally, it was clear that after that game the Heat were not in Atlanta’s class, and they were still two games under .500 at that point and in the early stages of their turnaround.