This was my sense: not a well-played game, a win that hung in the balance

HEAT Overcome Slow Start For Professional Back-To-Back Victory

1. When you’re on a back-to-back in the middle of a West Coast trip, nothing matters more than just getting the win and getting on the plane.

Sure, it was a strange back-to-back given Miami was getting back some fresh players off suspension and injury so it’s not as though everyone came in with tired legs, but it looked like a back-to-back from the start anyway as the turnovers came in fast and furious. Portland came out with plenty of energy, their threes falling and their rangy defenders getting into the passing lanes, but it was nothing Miami hasn’t seen plenty of times before. And yet it never matters what you should be doing, only what you are doing, and facts were the Blazers were working with a double-digit advantage for most of the first half because Miami couldn’t string more than a couple good offensive possessions…

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A professional win, 106-96, for the HEAT in the end, one of 82 that won’t be remembered too long beyond the upgrade in the win column. On to an NBA Finals rematch in Denver.

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2. This was about as business-like a game as you’re going to get during the 82-game slate once Miami dispensed with those first-quarter mistakes. 

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… 18 turnovers…

That is so not the Culture. 

Hot Hot Hoops

@hothothoops

 (https://twitter.com/hothothoops)Terry Rozier: “Heat Culture, there’s nothing like it.”

True, nothing matters more than getting on the plane with the W but Miami has to do more than this if they’re going to be all that they can be. They lost 7 straight for crissake, they’ve futzed away too much of the early season. They have to bring their A game every one of these last 24.