Jimmy Butler used the word a week ago and the Miami Heat have not shied from the reality since. Mediocrity is the concern.
MIAMI — Jimmy Butler used the word a week ago, and the Miami Heat have not shied from the reality since.
So Wednesday, heading into the team’s second game of the week against the Charlotte Hornets, this time at Kaseya Center, rookie guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. stayed with the theme when asked about the current four-game homestand.
“We’ve got homecourt advantage right now, and we’ve got to take advantage,” he said, with the Heat going into Wednesday’s game 13-10 overall, including just 5-4 at home. “This is an important moment for us as a team, to either take steps forward and becoming really great, or staying at mediocrity, and I don’t think that’s what we want to do.”
It was after the Heat’s Dec. 2 home loss to the Indiana Pacers that dropped them to 11-9 at the quarter pole of the season, that Butler said, “We stand right where we don’t want to be, which is very mediocre — not good, not bad, not great, not any of those things, just mediocre. When you talk about our offense, it’s been mediocre. You talk about our defense, it’s been mediocre. So that’s the word that I would use.”
The Heat went into Wednesday placing 15th in the 30-team NBA in net rating and 14th in defensive rating. Essentially, stuck in the middle, in seventh place in the 15-team Eastern Conference.
“We want to keep pushing that needle,” Jaquez said, “and keep pushing toward greatness.”
On that theme, Jaquez said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra addressed the team at Wednesday morning’s shootaround with a similar message, when it came to the two-game sets this week against the Hornets and the Chicago Bulls, who play at Kaseya Center on Thursday and Saturday nights.
“This is crucial,” Jaquez said. “Coach was talking about it today. A lot of teams, they don’t go 2-0 in these games, it’s always splits.”
This stretch of home games, guard Duncan Robinson said Wednesday, is as good a time as any to make things right.
“We’re excited to be back playing here,” he said. “We haven’t been as good as we’d like to be, protecting this home court. So it’s a great opportunity to improve that home record.
“It’s a good challenge. It’s a new thing that the league has done with these kind of two-game sets. So it’s a good opportunity for us.”
Guard Tyler Herro posted video of social-media of his latest workout, and those close to the situation say they expect a return before the end of the month.
Herro has been sidelined with a sprained ankle since Nov. 8 but has upped his work in recent days.
Similarly, there also is optimism of a return soon from center Bam Adebayo, who has been out since Dec. 2 with a bruised hip.
Both are expected back before the Heat head west for a six-game western swing after Christmas.
The Heat announced Wednesday that they will commemorate Dwyane Wade’s induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame this past August with a “Dwyane Wade Hall of Fame Night” on Jan. 14, when the Heat host the Hornets in a 6 p.m. game in the final game of the four-game season series.
According to the team, the event “will showcase highlights from Wade’s career, including an exclusive halftime interview featuring the basketball legend.”
That Sunday also will feature three wild-card NFL playoff games (at 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.), with the Miami Dolphins to be included in that round if they do not win the No. 1 seed in their conference. There are six NFL playoff games that weekend, two on Saturday, the three on Sunday and one on Monday.
