Is regular season turning into last season’s grind? Heat hopes not, but similarities are there

The Miami Heat didn’t want a repeat of last regular season. The Heat didn’t want to slog through another 82-game season filled with inconsistent play and bad losses that don’t reflect the talent on its roster.

But 45 games into this season, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Following Thursday night’s nationally televised 143-110 blowout loss to the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center, the Heat has dropped five straight games to stand at 24-21 and in seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

After 45 games last season? The Heat also stood at 24-21 and in seventh place in the East.

“Don’t nobody want to lose, especially lose five games in a row,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “But before you can even start thinking about winning games, I just feel like everybody has to get back to having fun again. Yes, losing is not fun and winning is. But if we ain’t playing with high energy, smiling and all of that good stuff, it can get a lot worse.”

Blowout loss to Celtics, first five-game skid since 2021. Takeaways from Heat’s ‘humbling night’

It’s already bad enough for the Heat, which has dropped five straight for the first time since losing six straight games in March 2021.

The Heat will try to snap that skid against the New York Knicks in another nationally televised game on Saturday at Madison Square Garden (3 p.m., ABC). It won’t be easy, as the Knicks have won five straight and hold an impressive 28-17 record this season.

“A win. It’s as simple as that,” Butler’s Heat co-star Bam Adebayo said when asked what it’s going to take to snap out of its current malaise. “Just a win. We really have to be desperate at this point and play like we’re last in the East trying to figure something out. Because if we don’t, we’re going to keep falling.”

The Heat has already fallen hard fast, finding itself a season-best eight games above. 500 less than two weeks ago before losing five straight.

There have been a few losses to bad or middling teams during this skid, but Thursday’s defeat came at the hands of an elite opponent with the Celtics holding the NBA’s top record at 35-10. It’s how it happened that was most concerning.

▪ The Celtics’ 143 points are the third-most points the Heat has allowed in any game in franchise history.

▪ The 33-point loss is the Heat’s most lopsided defeat since a 34-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on May 24, 2021. It’s also the Heat’s most lopsided home defeat since a 47-point loss to the Bucks on Dec. 29, 2020.

▪ The Heat allowed 149 points per 100 possessions on Thursday for its worst single-game defensive rating since at least the 1996-97 season.

“It was a humbling night, that’s for sure,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They put us in our place tonight, and you do have to respect the body of work that they’ve done so far in this season. They’re the No. 1 team in the league with that record and they’re doing it on both ends of the court.

“That’s the standard. Now we understand what that is, what the top record in the East looks like and we have some work to do. And that’s what we’ll do.”

If Thursday and the first three months of the season are any indication, the Heat has more than just some work to do in order to catch up to the Celtics.

The Celtics are one of only two teams in the league this season with a both a top-five offensive rating and defensive rating, entering Friday with the second-ranked offensive rating and second-ranked defensive rating.

Meanwhile, the Heat entered Friday as the only team in the NBA with a winning record despite featuring a bottom-10 offensive rating (22nd ranked) and bottom-20 defensive rating (11th ranked). The others on that list but with losing records are the Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Hornets, San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers.

“I don’t know,” Butler said when asked what it’s going to take for the Heat to shift the energy back in a positive direction. “I genuinely cannot give you an answer for that. I just know that we got to stick together through the good and through the bad. I know that this will change, this too shall pass, however you want to put it. But we got to go out there and do it. And it’s not going to get any easier, I’ll tell you that.”

One of the most concerning aspects of the Heat’s slide is that it has come despite having its entire leading trio of Adebayo, Butler and Tyler Herro available for a sustained stretch for the first time in months amid the team’s injury issues. The Heat is now just 5-9 in the 14 games that Adebayo, Butler and Herro have played together this season.

“I don’t care what Spo says, this ain’t on him,” Butler said. “This ain’t on none of the coaches. This is on us. We’re the ones out there playing. We’re the ones our there supposedly competing.”

The Heat added a new player this week, trading guard Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets to acquire guard Terry Rozier.

Thursday’s ugly loss to the Celtics marked Rozier’s second game in a Heat uniform and first in the Heat’s starting lineup. Rozier continued to show how he will help the Heat’s offense with his ability to attack the paint, but he didn’t hit many shots with seven points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting on threes, two rebounds, three assists and one steal in 29 minutes.

“It’s clear to see the positives with Terry,” Spoelstra said. “He brings us a burst, a speed, a quickness, his ability to get into the paint. I think that’s going to continue to get better once he understands how important it is to our offense and how we want him to be him and be aggressive. He was much more aggressive and assertive tonight than he was the other night. Everybody wants him to do that and he’s pretty dynamic and I think that will help.”

Last regular season’s grind ended with a 44-38 record, forcing the Heat to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament. The Heat then made an improbable run to the NBA Finals as the East’s No. 8 seed before falling to the Denver Nuggets in the championship series.

The Heat again finds itself in danger of needing to take part in the play-in tournament, which has the seventh- through 10th-place teams competing for the final two playoffs seeds in each conference at the end of the regular season.

A breakthrough eventually came for the Heat last season in the playoffs, becoming the first No. 8 seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals during a non-lockout-shortened season.

The Heat hopes this season’s breakthrough moment comes sooner, so it doesn’t have to rely on another unprecedented playoff run. Why? Because it was unprecedented for a reason.

“We better feel that way,” Butler said when asked if he thinks brighter days are near. “I mean, we got to win sooner or later, right? That’s the way I’m looking at it. But we got to start doing things the right way on both sides of the ball. The time is going to come, I know that.”