Miami Heat has problems with third quarters in the beginning of the season
Since the start of the season, something strange has been happening to the Miami Heat: they celebrate at halftime, only to be disappointed at the restart. In Miami, they are indeed struggling with third-quarter outcomes, and to problematic proportions. The Florida franchise lost on Monday to a basket just before the buzzer by Domantas Sabonis. But the groundwork for the defeat was laid in the third-quarter failure, which the Kings won 37-17. The problem seems quite deep and recurrent.
In their three losses this season, the Heat have completely failed to bounce back from the locker room: 39-18 for the Magic in the first game, lost by 19 points, 35-22 for the Knicks in a nine-point defeat. And then there was this terrible -20 on Monday, before losing by just one point. Even the victory against Detroit was marked by a similar drought, with a third quarter won 26-14 by the Pistons, before Erik Spoelstra’s players finally managed to secure the win...
The stats against the Kings support Spoelstra's analysis, which says: we win three quarters out of four but still lose the games. +3 in the first quarter, +10 in the second, and +6 in the fourth, Miami controlled the game for most of it. Except for that cursed third quarter, which ended with 6/20 shooting, including 1/8 from distance, only two assists, and a deficit of six rebounds in 12 minutes. A glaring lack of aggressiveness, which once again proved costly.
Miami's "Net Rating" (the difference between points scored and allowed per 100 possessions) at home in the third quarter was actually slightly positive (+0.5) last season. However, this season it is -16.5. The problem is that the players on the court are the same! A possible explanation? The Kaseya Center has hosted many ceremonies that extended halftime: from the inauguration of the court named after Pat Riley to a tribute to Dwyane Wade, and acknowledgments of Olympic medals brought home by Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jovic. Perhaps the players got distracted...
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