Miami Heat 0 and 3: Should Giannis and the Heat Panic Yet?

RIB-Heat-10-25-2026 === Eric: [00:00:00] Opening week of the 2026-27 season is over, which means it's time to run it back. This is Run It Back, NBA Week in Review Heat Edition. I'm Eric Labrador, contributor at thePeachBasket.net, covering the Heat. This is the show where we recap the week that was in the NBA and then highlight the marquee matchup for the week to come for the Heat. We now start with the only objective overall NBA power rankings anywhere. You can read more about how we get to these rankings and see the entire list at thePeachBasket.net. As for the Heat, they dropped to 26 after being ranked 10th in the preseason. The Greek Freak set the tone for the opening week, leading the team in scoring at 35 and a half points per game, 14 field goals attempted per game. He led in total rebounding, offensive [00:01:00] and defensive rebounding. Davion Mitchell dispels all doubters by averaging eight assists per game and one and a half blocks. Bam averaged two and a half steals per game, and Klay Thompson averaged two and a half three-point makes per game. Now a review of the week. The Heat had a tough week, going 0 and 3. The Minnesota game was a blowout. The defense looked a step slow the whole game. Giannis looked fantastic. He looked vicious. He looked as if he was a video game player with the bounds of his steps. He looked like he was everybody else was on level 50 with a 50 rating, and he was at 99. Minnesota has one of the deepest teams in the NBA and will be in contention to win the Western Conference throughout the whole season. So let's throw that one out. New team versus an experienced elite team. But the next night, a pattern emerged. Detroit jumped all over the Heat [00:02:00] from the start of the game, got out to a big lead and didn't relinquish it. The Heat again responded by looking a step slow on defense again and didn't respond on offense. But finally last night, the Heat bucked the trend of the pattern. But they waited until the fourth quarter. They went on a m- miraculous, magical, in this fan's opinion, 27 to six run to tie the score, but Charlotte responded with clutch plays. Charlotte has improved from last year. Charlotte will be in contention for a playoff spot this season, so this Heat team has their work cut out for them, and Charlotte ended up winning the game Some reflection, it's not the same players, it's not the same team, and not the same time. But the 2011 Heat, who everybody when they got together said that they would break the then Lakers record of 72 wins the [00:03:00] 2011 Heat got started to in their first 17 games, they went nine and eight. Everybody was wondering, "What's wrong?" They had LeBron chest shoving a young Erik Spoelstra. The Cry Gate game versus Chicago, where Coach Spoelstra admitted in front of the press that there were guys crying in the locker room after a tough loss. There was finally, when they ended up making the NBA finals and losing on vacation, LeBron and Wade had the discussion, the heart to heart that LeBron would be the alpha player and Wade would take a step back. So what's my point in all this? Are the Heat gonna become the Heatles? No. Do they have things to figure out? Yes. And you could see it during the Charlotte game that they were starting to figure things out. Let's move on. From a technical standpoint, I do believe that opposing teams are ready for Giannis to dominate touches and actions. It's obvious. [00:04:00] Giannis is gonna get the ball, Giannis is gonna attack the basket, the teams pack the paint. So what do you do? They were basically daring the rest of the team to beat them, and so far the players have tried to respond, but the shots aren't falling. The guys are probably missing some defensive assignments. They're, learning how to communicate with one another. But they're still playing, they're still taking shots, but they're missing them. Those shots are gonna start to fall. Klay Thompson last night in the Charlotte game had two great looks at the basket late to tie the score. His shooting motion looks pure. He looks, on top of it, he just missed the shots. You could see he was walking down the court, he was shaking his head. You know that with his motivation, he has been saying in the press that he has more in the tank don't judge him up by his performance in Dallas. You know for that splash brother, those shots are gonna start to fall Giannis should really develop his mid-range jumper. Dwyane [00:05:00] Wade is a, a, a reasonable comparison. When he was first in the league, Wade would attack the basket fiercely and get injured. And then Erik Spoelstra worked with him on his jump shot to develop his jump shot. Later in his career, David Fizdale worked on his post-up game. Giannis should do the same thing and work with the coaches on his mid-range jump shot. I do believe that instead of the relentless pace of the offense you have two post players who are expert passers. You park them in the, in, on different sides of the block, and you make the defense crazy on who's gonna, who's gonna take the shot and who's gonna get open w- when they pass out of the double team Also, Giannis could play off the ball. Not should, not has to, could play off the ball to let Davion Mitchell and other players find him cutting to the basket. But the whole [00:06:00] NBA, they know the deal with Giannis. He's gonna attack the basket. He's a big guy. Need to vary it up, switch it up a little. So the marquee matchup of the Heat heading into this week are games against Atlanta and Indiana at the end of the week. From the postseason, critics of the team have used the following template to gauge the Heat's chances. One, Boston, New York, Philly, and Detroit are the top four best teams in the East. Miami is not going to crack the top four because of these teams. Two, Cleveland, Charlotte, Indiana, Toronto, and Atlanta are very good teams, very competitive, and they'll contend for those next spots. The Heat can't beat those teams, so this equals play-in I don't think that's gonna happen. There's a lot of season left to be played. But the fun part is having this opportunity to run it back and talk to you all about it. So that [00:07:00] leads me into full court press. In a Google search on the Heat with AI helping me out, I found the following three interesting articles. Isaiah Thomas gave a very lukewarm, very obvious take saying that Davion Mitchell isn't enough at point guard. Okay, Isaiah, so who? Kyrie Irving? So then on, on this team where Giannis loves to dominate the ball, Bam is, loves to dominate the ball, you're gonna get another ball dominant guy? No. Work with the things that you have. Davion Mitchell is plenty and he's enough. He's a good defensive point guard, and he knows how to pass the ball. That's what you need on a championship team, not a guy who wants to score first. Second, Erik Spoelstra says that the team needs to find inspiration as they did in the fourth quarter against Charlotte. This is a new team. Anybody that was expecting that this was gonna be an NBA [00:08:00] 2K you know, league team where the AI response was down to zero, so you could win every game by 40, no, it's not gonna happen. They're gonna get their chance. The Heat don't have an east anymore that it's gonna be just, "Oh, okay, let's plan on the second round of the playoffs 'cause we got everything else cinched up." No, every game is gonna be competitive against Atlanta, Indiana, Cleveland, Toronto, Charlotte. So let's go. Let's do this. Those guys are figuring it out. And finally, and this is one of the things that I love to see, Udonis Haslem already said, "I'm gonna go talk to them boys," in the Amazon Prime Studio show. When UD comes it, Pat Riley, it's like the principal calling you to the office. Udonis, it's like the sergeant at arms or the guy, the principal from Back to the Future. "You're a slacker. Don't be a slacker, son." So Udonis is gonna go talk to Bam, is gonna go [00:09:00] talk to Giannis, and that's one of the beauties of the Heat, that it's, they have internal coaching and patience that is gonna make the team better. That's it. Opening week of the 2026-27 NBA season is in the books. Join me next week when we run it back. Have a good rest of the day, everyone