Oh no, the undefeated season is ruined! Suns come back on Heat, win 104-96
Gosh that has to hurt. You eventually lose, but to lose like that will sting for a while.
Miami had its hand on the throttle in the third quarter, and seemed poised to pull away and move to 4-0. But it all went wrong with about 2:00 left in the quarter.
Solid defense and smart passing turned to sloppy play. Everything went wrong. And Phoenix remembered they had Steve Nash. Miami coughed up the lead late in the fourth and never caught up, falling to Phoenix, 104-96.
Miami legitimately played well for a majority of the game, as players around Dwyane Wade contributed heavily, specifically Quentin Richardson. Take a look at Q’s contributon in the chart compared to the superstar, and you’ll see without Richardson, Miami’s losing big.
Like I said, losses must come. But ever since the beginning of the preseason, Miami’s had wild swings during games. Consistancy is an issue that must be resolved. To wrap up the analysis, check out this other chart from StatSheet.com, which compares the “Four Factors of Winning” for both teams. Pretty cool stuff.
And I’d like to take a second out to say something about Alan Ogg. I wrote the following in the TrueHoop season preview:
Miami isn’t a very “adopt-a-lesser-known-player” type of town. As a city with a majority of minorities, the scrappy white player doesn’t have the same kind of charm as it does in a city like Boston (Brian Scalabrine, I’m looking at you).
That statement does hold true, but shows my lack of institutional knowledge of the Heat’s early years. When I heard of Ogg’s death and the subsequent reaction, I knew I had missed something. I’ve learned more about him in the days following his tragically young death, and even though I never saw him play or even recalled his name, I felt like I knew him. He was the guy who had the work ethic but maybe not the skills. He didn’t have the best leaping ability but he had the crowd’s backing, and sometimes that gets you up. I’m sad that it took something like this for me to learn about Alan Ogg, but I’m glad I learned about him, and hope the Miami fanbase can become that type of group once again.
3 comments
Yup you’re right. That loss did hurt. While there were some nice positives (Q-Rich as you mention, and also Beasley is looking more mature each game), I’m dying to see Wade break out and dominate a game. Last night was sloppy down the stretch, as he seemed to get stuck in the air passing a lot (like how Jason Williams used to a ton back in the day on the Kings).
I do love how there is a better team dynamic this year, and how we have threats from all angles (Chalmers on steals, Haslem all those hustle plays and charges, JO showing life again..), but when push comes to shove at the end of the game, Wade needs to be the dominant force as he always has been down the stretch. I’m hoping it’s just an early season rut and we’ll see him in full form soon.
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[...] was 3-0, and looking to fatten up against a team that struggled mightily last season. Instead, the Heat took a paddlin’. That win took a little luster off the season, and Miami’s been stuck right around .500 ever [...]
You know in talking about Ogg, he was one of the highlights of a very talented young roster that was about to set a core bench and defensive rotation for Riley. Along with Ogg you had rookies Keith Askins, Willie Burton (of 50+ point fame), and Bimbo Coles, and Alec Kessler. Kessler was supposed to be “the future”; the Nowitzki of his time. For that first year though, Ogg stole the fan base from all of those guys.
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