Heat victorious in season opener
Heat’s marquee player misses opener for personal reasons, but a win is a win
The Miami Heat opened their season Wednesday without their lone star, with nearly half the payroll absent, with two rookies starting, including the youngest player ever to start for the franchise, which all added up to …
Clunk.
Can we say that about an opening night win, as the Heat beat back lowly Memphis?
Can we hope to chuckle about it all sometime soon, too?
You expected an odd feel to this Heat season with so much new. But things grew genuinely odd when coach Erik Spoelstra said 90 minutes before tip-off that Jimmy Butler would miss the opener.
Butler was the one star, the big offseason move, the centerpiece of hope and marketing of this changed Heat roster. And he was out?
“Jimmy is not going to be here tonight for personal reasons,’’ Spoelstra said, delivering the news with an upbeat tone that said nothing was wrong. “Everything is fine.”
So the first game got to the top question of this season: Who can be Robin to Butler’s Batman? Wednesday was an open canvas of tryouts. The short answer: No one obvious. Certainly no one the way Wednesday played out.
That might be the short-cut to short circuit some of the optimism around this changed Heat. Wednesday showed just how much they’ll have to rely on Butler. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that a 24-1 run put away Memphis.
Justise Winslow tried mightily to take ownership of this team and had 27 points late in the fourth quarter. Bam Adebayo had moments, as his double-double of points and rebounds in the third quarter showed.
Kendrick Nunn, the rookie overshadowed by Tyler Herro, looks like he could be something
special as this season progresses and his role becomes polished. He had 24 points and impacted the game. He would have started even if Butler was around. You saw why.
But mostly the roster behind Butler is a picture in progress, just as you’d expect. If there was the excitement to watch the Heat at 6 p.m., it became disappointment in Butler’s absence at tipoff and then to general question watching a wayward game by the second quarter.
The shame is Dion Waiters could have been a star this night. Instead, all the news remained dumb around him still. Last year, it was being overweight after a return from injury. This preseason, it was a sideline spat with coach Spoelstra. That happens sometimes.
But then to mock Spoelstra on social media? And, while suspended for that, piling on with another posting?
“It’s not my ego,’’ Waiters wrote on Instagram. “I’ll play whateva role it’s has nothing to do with basketball. I seen the writing on the wall.”
Say good-bye to Waiters. You won’t see him in a Heat uniform again.
Throw in James Johnson, who is banned until in better condition, and the the Heat started the season with $59 million not even in uniform. That’s nearly half their $130 million payroll somewhere other than helping a play.
The only thing that saved this opener was the opponent. Memphis could be the Dolphins of the NBA. They’re in the second year of a multi-year rebuild. They have Ja Morant, the second pick in the draft who has drawn early predictions as the NBA’s rookie of the year.
As Wednesday went, Memphis gave this diluted Heat team a run for the opener. The Heat hoped to show everyone a new and entertaining brand of basketball centered around Butler.
In the fourth quarter, the Heat had a staggering three rookies on the court when Chris Silva joined Nunn and Herro. Silva, who has a two-way contract, put up eight fourth-quarter points as the Heat pulled away. He’ll be sent down to the developmental league soon. It was that kind of night.
Give the Heat credit for winning an odd night. Give fans credit for watching them, too. As it is, the real home opener will have to wait until next Tuesday against Atlanta. Butler, from all accounts, will play then.