MIAMI — Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night’s 127-115 loss to the Atlanta Hawks:
– So Chicago decided enough of the fool’s errand of play-in purgatory. So Nikola Vucevic was dealt Tuesday.
– Before that, Atlanta decided something had to change from their play-in pointlessness, so they dealt Trae Young.
– And now here stand the Heat, after a week of toe-to-toe against the Bulls and the Hawks, again tracking toward the play-in, as if inescapable.
– The next two days, prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, decisions will have to be made.
– Is this good enough?
– Can it get better in the short run?
– Or teardown to follow?
– The Bulls and Hawks basically cried “uncle.”
– For the Heat, such is a loser’s lament.
– Insisting there can be something more from this season.
– And yet, here they are, looking up from their familiar perch in the Nos. 7-10 portion of the East.
– Good, perhaps.
– But not good enough.
– A bad loss Saturday against the Bulls.
– A struggle Tuesday night against the Hawks.
– More pretender than contender.
– Back here again.
– Stuck in the middle.
– As the other East middling teams decide time for change.
– With the Heat now assuredly on the clock.
– With Andrew Wiggins (hamstring), Norman Powell (personal) and Tyler Herro out, the Heat moved to their 17th starting lineup of the season, opening with Bam Adebayo, Simone Fontecchio, Pelle Larsson, Davion Mitchell and Myron Gardner.
– It was Fontecchio’s third start, Gardner’s second.
– Jaime Jaquez Jr. was first off the Heat bench.
– Kel’el Ware and Dru Smith then followed together.
– Then Kasparas Jakucionis for nine deep.
– With Nikola Jovic then entering in the second quarter.
– Powell was in the building, but not in uniform.
– The game was part of the Heat’s celebration of their initial title team in 2006, amid the 20th anniversary season.
– Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said it was a meaningful commemoration and tribute to the fact that management and ownership remains intact.
– “I hope that, and I sense that our group really kind of felt the legacy and felt the history and felt how different and unique we feel like our franchise is,” Spoelstra said of the current roster.
– “It just brings you back,” Spoelstra said. “That’s like an instant time machine. And it was an amazing run. And it kind of obviously put our franchise on a different kind of map in this league.”
– “I do hope our team just sees how special that is,” Spoelstra said. “And then imagining that 20 years from now, you know, what that could be like, coming back to celebrate something really special as a group.”
– With trades at center stage in the league ahead of Thursday’s NBA trading deadline, Hawks coach Quin Snyder was asked pregame about his team’s adjustment from the Young trade to the Wizards.
– “It’s something that I think from a coaching standpoint, that’s what you spend your nights thinking about,” he said. “How to acclimate those guys, and how to get them to where the whole can become greater than the sum of the parts. Try to be patient with it. There’s not always a lot of time to do that.”
– Heat two-way player Jahmir Young has been selected to participate in the 2026 NBA G League Next Up Game during NBA All-Star Weekend. Young also has been selected for the G League 3-Point Contest.
