When you fly Southwest, we always give you our mile-high heart. That's why we're giving Denver more flights than ever before. Not only do you get our low fares, but you'll always get two free bags and never pay change or cancel fees. Because we mile-high heart you, Denver! Look today at Southwest.com. Based on USDOTO and new scheduled daily flights from Denver, starting in July, 2023 surpass all prior days as a 512/2023 for whom second-check bags wait and size limits apply. Fair difference may apply. Failure to cancel a reservation, at least 10 minutes prior to schedule the partial main result in forfeited travel funds. *clap* *ding* Hey, it's Ethan Scolnik for 5 on the floor on the 5 Reasons Sports Network. We're bringing you some episodes from our YouTube channel. This one is called Floor Crew. They look at events that happen with the Miami Heat. The previous week, and look ahead to the next one. And this one, they focus on the imminent Patty Mills edition, Spolscher winning coach of the year, and Moore is hosted every week by Jonathan Ramlakan and his guest host this week, our Gadd Karahana, and Matteo Mayorga. And now, the Floor Crew. Welcome to 5 on the floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Scolnik, Greg Sylvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the 5 Reasons Sports Network. Welcome to the Miami Heat Floor Crew, your weekly heat show on all things Miami Heat. We're here with the boys Matteo Mayorga, and we got Gadd Karahana, my man. I appreciate you guys joining us so early, if you're not already, make sure you guys like and subscribe. They do have the post-game edition going on as well. So, if you want to check out just about this game tonight, that's where you'll be heading, but if you want to watch things about all things upcoming with the heat, how they're looking on the schedule, the edition of Patty Mills, Coach Spolwening, Coach of the Month last month, and just kind of some more of those topics. Keep it right here, we'll get you guys loaded. So, let's get off right after the rip, guys, you know. Miami Heat is continuing to play very well post All-Star Break, right? Since our last show, getting a win against the Jazz, and obviously tonight against the Detroit Pistons, and then falling short against the Denver Nuggets, right? So, Matteo, give me a quick recap. What did you feel like were some of the strengths that we were able to develop over the last week, and what are some faults that you still are, potentially, still there going later into the season? Well, one of the strengths that I picked up on is that the Heat's defense has seriously picked up, and December and in January, it was hovering around middle of the pack levels, and it's very encouraging how they went before this game against the Detroit Pistons, four out of their last five, the only loss coming against the Denver Nuggets, which are pretty much a bad matchup for anybody in the league, not really except for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the group designed to take them out, but the Heat recently has been holding teams to 32% from three-point range, not counting today's game, and which is very good, and what's also important to note is that, you know, Tyler Hero has been out for some time. Terry Rosier missed a critical spurt after he became a heel, so the Heat are slowly but shortly, you know, kind of playing their best ball of the season, and tonight, you know, they got a win. It wasn't their prettiest because, you know, early Jimmy Butler was very passive. Adebayo is getting outplayed by his counterpart on the other side, who was much younger. There was one play where Jalen Duren busted out of the post and dumped it ferociously in the paint. It almost raised an eyebrow. Thank goodness Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson showed up blasting early, but, you know, the difference later was, you know, a Jimmy Butler takeover, and, you know, he showed that he can do that at the flip of a switch, and I know it's the Detroit Pistons, but Eric Reid made a great point of this on the broadcast. That is a team starving for wins, so they really wanted it tonight, and despite it looking very ugly, the Heat managed to get one out of the mud again with without obviously, you know, hero and obviously Josh Richardson. Absolutely. The depleted Heat team still was able to get it done. Gad, I want to toss the name of Terry Rosier to you, right? Because today marks a week where he's been back with this team, and I really do think, even though it hasn't been the most efficient things, we saw some good moments, right? We saw, you know, in tonight's game, really closing out the quarter, getting close to the rim, attacking the bucket, getting the score, and then right after that, getting the assist to Duncan Robinson for us to go up six points with, you know, just over a minute to go. So I think Terry Rosier is starting to get, you know, a little more with the feel for it, obviously seven assists tonight, eight assists his last game out over the last four games, looking at about 15 and a half, 16 points a game, you know what I mean between those last four games. So, you know, he's starting to get his little groove more. What do you feel like he's been, and obviously naturally playing time will do that, right, Gad? But what do you feel have been some of the positive improvements from Terry Rosier after his comeback from injury? Yeah, I think with Terry, it's really just he is someone who was so not scared, but so cautious of stepping on anyone's toes when he first got here, that he was like, all right, I'm going to let Tyler rock out. I'm going to let Jimmy rock out. I'm going to let Bam rock out. I'm going to let Duncan rock out a little bit and then have all of them figure out how they want to play with me around and all just fit in. And I think what he's done at least over the last couple games is obviously, like you said, that natural progression, when you grow, you play with players, you cannot understand each other a little bit better. But at the same time, I think he's figuring out where he falls in that pecking order. And he's kind of had some moments where he's like, all right, it's Terry time, like time for me to shoot the basketball, time for me to take these pull up jumpers that I'm used to, right? Because the reason the heat got him is for what he showed he could do in Charlotte. Now, obviously you're not expecting him to do the same exact things, especially at the same exact volume, but you still need that archetype, that skill set of a pull up score to be there. So I think he's gradually working that into his game and slowly, I think we'll believe, I believe we'll see the three point shooting, the pull up three point shooting come into play as well, a little bit more than it has. But he just looks a little bit more comfortable, man, like, it just it takes time to figure out how to fit in on a good team. I think that's one of the things that's hard for some people to understand is when you're playing on a good basketball team in the NBA as a scorer, that's very hard. Because a lot of good teams have their scoring situations figured out, they're not missing that. So Terry coming into this is a little bit harder and I think most new players would have their transition be in the middle of the season. But I think he's done okay with it so far. And I think we're looking at, we're starting to scratch the surface of who Terry might be. Now, is he going to be a closer on this team? I mean, that's TBD. But I think it's good that the Heat have some optionality with Terry being there. Definitely. I think when you have him, and I mean, with the next edition of Patty Mills, which we'll get to, you know, you have just a little more diversity of the offensive attack that you'll have in the point guard position, right? Obviously with the injury that we had with the point guard position and the Cleveland Cavaliers court just being covered in paper covering holes, you know, we lost one of our backup point guards, but we did end up signing Patty Mills today, which was honestly a very surprising signing. In my opinion, I feel like, you know, he is a heat type player, obviously went through the San Antonio Spurs, won a championship with them was absolutely lethal 10 years ago against us in the finals. Wow, that's been 10 years. That's insane. But, you know, now he's obviously a little bit later in his career, but still shooting. I think Mateo, check me on this 38% from deep, right? He's been doing a still a solid three point shooter, obviously is one of those veteran players that can really fit well into a zone, even though he's not the most talented individual defender. He's someone that you can plug in because he's have that he's had that system that he's had to play into before. So Mateo, what do you feel obviously his role is going to be minimal, you know, because of Rosier being the primary guy here, bright and having bringing it along in as well, right? But what do you feel that Patty Mills maybe adds to this heat team? They just need him to shoot and he pretty much seems like the insurance policy for Josh Richardson, who hasn't returned yet. Listen, he is a much older player. He doesn't have the same burst off the dribble that he had 10 years ago when he was a spur and was one of the heat killers in the 2014 finals. But he could still shoot very well. He's shooting 38.2% from three point range. Actually, he was playing 10 minutes per game with the Atlanta Hawks and only 19 appearances. Listen, defensively, he's not really someone you want on the floor for too much time because, especially in a playoff series, he's somewhere that they would hunt down immediately. And if he's not hitting open jump shots or buying you those possessions where he just pulls up off the dribble in transition, he's not really giving you too much. This is really an insurance policy. However, you do have to remember this. Kevin Love, a year ago when he signed with the Miami Heat, I was on the record. I thought he was done. Listen, if you watch the game, his last tour in Cleveland, he looked, you know, completely done himself. And that was also partially because of the injury to his thumb. And also he didn't want to be there anymore because he was told that his role wasn't going to be the same. There is something to be said about players, you know, giving or being able to provide a little bit more to a situation when they want to be there. But listen, I wouldn't expect him to be a very solid, you know, one of those main contributors. He's going to be there just in case of an emergency. Yeah, I think being a depth guy is super important, right? You don't want to be in the case in a playoff scenario and obviously with Drew Smith getting injured, right? Yeah, a break, a break glass in case of emergency. You don't want him handling the ball in a situation in the playoffs, right? You'd rather have a veteran doing that, at least making some really nice additions as well as we have Greg Sylvander joining us as well. So, never mind. He's done. Oh, was he here? But what anyways, he's joined the wrong link. Yeah, I think he's joined the wrong link. But anyways, we got a surprise hop in my get, Greg. But yeah, so I got anything else that you see or do you think that's mostly a break glass in case of emergency type situation? Yeah, I think it's just you look at the injury situations that they're already dealing with. Josh Richardson, Tyler Hero. I mean, there isn't many options past that, right? So you look at the regular season, I think he's definitely just someone that can come in and give you some facsimile of the type of offense that they would try to give you, right? Like a little bit of pull up scoring, some catch chute defensively is a liability. But that, I mean, that kind of sounds a little bit like what Tyler Hero and Josh Richardson do, like really watered down. So he can give you some semblance of what they've provided for this season, obviously significantly worse than Hero. And I would say also worse than Josh Richardson, which is there's a reason why he was available this late in the season. But at the same time, I'm going to take a page out of my good friend Marco Rummel's book here. This is the type of signing that can also have a big impact in the locker room, because one of the things that at least I personally have been saying a lot throughout the season is, hey, it feels like there isn't any other vet, like a respected vet that's an outside voice that's really willing to say what needs to be said. Now, I don't think the heat is struggling with that problem, considering the fact that they had the players only meeting, Jimmy and Bam played a huge role in that, and they've really turned the season around. But at the same time, you know, if things do hit the fan later on in the season, maybe Patty Mills can be one of the voices in the locker room like, hey, you know, I just got here, but I've been on championship teams before, and this is what worked, and this is what we're not doing, and this is how we can fix it. So maybe just like another perspective from the outside, I think having a locker room guy that has been a part of some really good teams before, that can help, that can help. So obviously, you're looking at the off court value there, because on court, like Mateo said, he's going to shoot threes, you're going to hope they hit some, he's a shooter, but that's all he is at this juncture in his career. And that's fine. Like the heat I've made that work with players before. So yeah, I mean, hopefully Patty Mills can just come in, knock down a couple of buckets and get the crowd going a little bit. Maybe he's a random scrub, no walkie killer. You get a little bit of random scrubness out of Patty there, but like, that's actually a really good point that I mean, I don't know why that's my mind, but I mean, this guy is a championship, you know, has have championship experience, right? And you want that, especially when you're going into the playoffs, you want multiple guys to have different perspectives on how is it best to win or get in deep into the playoffs, right? So just having another voice, like you said, Gadd is an excellent point there. Before we go into next week and breaking down some of that, I do want to touch on Coach Spoh winning coach of the month, right? So Mateo, obviously, this has been a topic for a long time. Coach Spoh not getting the recognition that he deserves. This is probably just all he's going to get for this season. I don't see him, you know, or it would be tough to see him winning a coach of the year, you know, just because of the way the team is currently and, you know, not maybe over exceeding expectations as you would want, as much coach of the years typically do. But as for Coach Spoh, do you think that, you know, this is a season that he could potentially get that award or do you think that this was maybe just a one month thing and more so it's on the players? I wouldn't count on him getting Coach of the Year this season. Despite the Cavaliers being in a bit of Flux, J.B. Bicker's staff has some noise behind the Oklahoma City Coach Mark Dajano, I hope I said his name, right? It has some love as well. But speaking of Spohlster, this is only the 10th time in his career that he's received this honor and, you know, the first since December of 2022, speaking more about what the Heat did in February, they held teams to 101 points per game and four of these teams that they held to under 100 points where the, I wrote it down right here, the New Orleans Pelicans, they were sneaky good, the Orlando Magic, currently on a four-game win streak, the Milwaukee Bucks, you know, obviously doing much better and the Portland Trail Blazers. They beat those teams, holding them all under 100 points, which pushes the total to nine and no when holding teams under 100 points. This is very good and I mentioned earlier, you know, it's very hard to win when you don't have, you know, your full team available and Rosier was someone that Heat got to be their starting point guard. They missed four games without him and currently right now they, they'd have no backup point guard. That's also part of the reason, you know, they probably got Patty Mills into this, but the Heat are playing their best basketball of the season and you know, this was very well deserved for Coach Spolstra because again, I mentioned earlier, 32% from three-point range in February and this is just, it just goes to show you that, you know, the Heat may start off slow, but you know, they, they always kind of pick it up as the season goes along and it's very encouraging to see that right after the all server and during the all server, like, of course. Nah, beautifully said, beautiful said. I do think that's, you know, the improvement that he had from the month before to February, right. I think that was really the jump that allowed it to be Coach of the Year. Like you said, creating really more so of that defensive identity that we've lacked throughout the earlier parts of the season, but closing out here guys, obviously, the last thing we like to do, we like to break down the next week for you guys. So the next three games that we got coming up, we have the Mavericks tomorrow. We have the Thunder that we're going to take care of and then we're going to play the Wizards as well. So that's actually two of those three games are pretty tough, right? With the Mavericks, obviously, Luca, they've made some good additions as well. I believe at the trade deadline. I can't remember the exact name, but they made some, you know, they have a solid team just all around, you know, and then obviously the Thunder, those young picks that they got over the last couple of years, kind of like the Magic, they're starting to grow and develop and become actual legitimate threats with the spear of the tip being Shai Gil just Alexander, right? So, and obviously you have the Wizards with Jordan pool, but um, God, I'll let you, I'll let you kick it off my man next three games. How do you see this heat team doing? Yeah, man, I am excited because it feels like throughout this heat run and how they've kind of gotten this defense going and elite level over the past month or so. They've faced a whole bunch of different things, but I don't know if they've faced guards at the level of a Shai Gil just Alexander and Luca Donchich. And when you play against those types of players, who you can game plan for, you can throw the entire kitchen sink at them and they'll still give you 30, 10 and 10, the results against those players and kind of how they get their buckets. And if you're able to make them change their styles a little bit, I think that really shows how you good, how good you are as a defense, right? Like, ultimately, they're going to get their buckets, but are like, are they working for? Are they really, really having to just put their all in and kind of give you playoff type performances? So I'm excited to see if the heat can find ways to slow down such elite floor generals, because honestly, I look at both of them in the same light. They're both phenomenal. They can break you down at all three levels. They can get to the free throw line. And Shai as well is playing a really good season on the defense event. So the thunder or what the one seed right now in the Western Conference in a stacked Western Conference, they're unbelievable. I think the Mavericks are probably one of the teams that's, I don't know if they're in the play in right now, but like a, yeah, they're the A seed. They're the A seed. Yeah, I think they're probably the play in team Miami notwithstanding that could make a run and maybe upset one of the top seeds in the first round. I think I think that highly of the Mavs, I think PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford were phenomenal pickups with them at the trade deadline. And those guys, to me, make a lot of difference because they have PJ Washington, who I think can contribute a lot more than Grant Williams would have in a playoff series. You have Derek Lively getting older, you have Daniel Gafford, who can kind of give you some ability that lively can also give you. And you have Max Kleeber getting healthy, who in my opinion is one of the more underrated defenders in the league. These are good teams. The Mavs and the Thunder are good teams. I'm excited to see how the heat stack up defensively. I want to see what the heat look like against Mavs offensively. I'm excited to see what the heat look like against Thunder because they're a good defensive team. But at the same time, if you want to hustle, play strong and kind of get your bully ball on, the Thunder have some weaknesses there a little bit. They can kind of be taken to the woodshed and you can really, really force, impose your will on the inside there if you're coming on the second effort. So those two games are very excited for Wizards. Just handle business, man. They should win that game. I'm going to guess they go two and one over this stretch. I think the heater playing good basketball. Couldn't tell you who the first win is going to come against, but I know the last win will come against the Wizards and that alone is enough for me. I think they go one and one in the big games for the rest of the week. Gotcha. Gotcha, Matteo. I'm going to go three out of five. I have them beating the Mavericks and Dallas. They are not a very good team in their building and they're going to lose tonight and drop to 18 and 15 over in Dallas. Listen, if you can, well, you really can't stop Luca and Kyrie, but if you can stop Maxie Cleaver from pulling up from the three-point line and also being disruptive defensively, if you can hold Tim Hardaway Jr. to some inefficient shooting and also prevent Derek Jones Jr. from getting loose off backdoor cuts and some putbacks, you'll be in a pretty good position and I'm going to call the Heat to win that game. The Thunder is the one I really don't like. Victor Wembanyama has been popping off lately and he's been amazing and I think Chet Holmgren is secretly taking this personally and he might come out swinging obviously, not literally, but figuratively against the Heat's from court and he might be someone they might try to exploit because of his very thin frame, but he, truthfully as a rookie, is one of the better defensive players in the league. I think they're going to be a very tough team to play. Shagil just Alexander when you're guarding him, it's very tough because as a guard, he is fourth and paint points in the league. The man is all about his business and doesn't settle for a deep jumper, so it's hard to keep him away from the free throw line. I would go with an L against the Thunder. The Wizards, they better win that game and I don't really need to explain much more than they are arguably the worst team in the league. I think they're going to lose that one because I mentioned earlier the Nuggets are a bad matchup for most teams in the league and I think when Porter and Gordon are on the floor, it really neutralizes the effect that Jimmy Butler can have to inflict damage onto the paint and because they are so tall and long on the drive and kick, it's easier for them to contest against shooters. I'm going to go with an L on the heat for the heat on that game, but next they play the Pistons. You know, the heat tonight kind of looked like Chuck Daly's old Pistons from the 80s and the early 90s, a group that when they saw the really inferior teams, the really bad teams, they only showed up for like 12 out of 48 minutes and it was enough to get it done. I think that'll be the case against the Pistons too, so give me three out of five in the next five. Beautiful. Ask for three games. He gives us five. That's why he's one of the best guys. That's why we love Mateo here. But yeah, I do think, you know, out of the next for me personally, for the next three games coming up till the next Wednesday, because that's probably when we'll kick you guys another show. I was on Monday or Tuesday before that Nuggets game. We'll make sure we get back to you guys. But other than the next three, I do think we beat the Mavericks, I think on the Thunder the second night of a back-to-back. That's going to be a tough one to go and get, you know, I think with such a young team in the Thunder, and like you said, with Shay and our lack of, you know, point of attack defense, obviously you can throw a couple of guys on there, but I think with him, it's just no matter who you throw, it's like, I mean, with Luca, SGA, a couple of these guys, it doesn't matter who you throw at him, right? It's all about like creating that system. Coach Spow does a good job of cutting the head off the snake, but those are a couple of teams that have multiple ways that can attack you. So I'm curious to see how Coach Spow manipulates the defense to, you know, adjust to whatever threats that they bring offensively for those teams, but I think we get it done against the Mavericks. I think we probably dropped the one against the Thunder, and I think we do get it done against the Wizard. So I think we go two-in-one over the next week. I think we'll probably close next, or close, yeah close next week going into, or close of this week, sorry, actually, wow, the 28th of February, just made my mind not work. But yeah, so yeah, closing out this week, I do think that we'll get things done. We'll probably be in the five seed, because right now I do believe that's where we're sitting at as a half game behind the Knicks and the five seed. I want to say that these 76ers lost. Is that true Mateo? Did they end up taking the... Yes, they did. They lost by five. Cool. So that's, yeah, we're looking at the five seed right now. We're half game out of the four. Teding up, guys. Play all phrase coming around. Make sure you guys keep it locked here for the Miami Heat 4 crew. Appreciate you, Gadd. Appreciate you, Mateo, for bringing the heat, as always. Thank you always to all the guys, everybody that's watching. Irwin in the comments. Thanks for joining us, man. Make sure you guys like. Make sure you guys subscribe. And we'll keep you guys live after the next, the next heat week. So, as always, let's go heat. Take care, everybody. When you fly southwest, we always give you our mile high heart. That's why we're giving Denver more flights than ever before. Not only do you get our low fares, but you'll always get two free bags and never pay change or cancel fees, because we mile high heart you Denver. Book today at southwest.com. Based on USDOT OMB schedule daily flights from Denver starting in July, 2023 surpass all prior days as a 512-2023 for consecutive check bags, waiting size limits apply. Fair difference may apply. Failure to cancel a reservation at least 10 minutes prior to schedule the part you may result in forfeited travel funds.
