After a pair of disappointing results, the Miami Heat will travel to face the undermanned Washington Wizards in the nation’s capital on Sunday afternoon.
Miami has dropped consecutive games, including a 98-96 loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday in which it squandered a 22-point lead. The Heat were one of the few teams to not make a move before Thursday’s trade deadline. Head coach Erik Spoelstra’s team appears to be content in its current form, but it also has to take advantage of a generous upcoming schedule.
Miami is hanging on to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference standings as it prepares for games against Washington (14-37), Utah (16-37) and New Orleans (14-40). The Heat had a chance to start a winning streak on Friday but scored just 37 points in the second half of their loss to Boston.
“The guys really competed hard, but we’re not looking for a moral victory,” Spoelstra said. “It’s disappointing, but we’re going to get better from it. As painful as this is, it’s going to drive us, and I feel we’re going to get there.”
For Miami’s leading scorer Norman Powell (23 points per game), the key to stringing together consistency starts with playing a full game.
“It’s very frustrating,” Powell said of blowing the 22-point lead. “Like I’ve said before, we have to put a full, 48-minute game together and that’s our Achilles heel. In the third quarter, we need to play with the same mentality that we start the games with, and then sustain it through the second half. We play a good 24 minutes, we need to finish it with another good 24 minutes.”
Behind Powell, Bam Adebayo averages 18.1 points and 9.8 rebounds, while veteran Andrew Wiggins adds 15.8 points per game.
Washington, meanwhile, is clearly playing for next season. Although the lowly Wizards have won four of their last seven, the team is playing far from full strength. In Washington’s 127-113 road loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday, Alex Sarr (ankle), Kyshawn George (knee), Tre Johnson (ankle) and Bilal Coulibaly (lower back) all sat.
Recent additions Trae Young (knee) and Anthony Davis (hand/groin) haven’t appeared in a game for the Wizards. Davis, who was shipped from Dallas on Wednesday, will reportedly sit out the rest of the season in D.C.
A young member of Washington’s core that is suiting up — and playing well — is rookie Will Riley. The first-round pick out of Illinois poured in a career-high 27 points on Saturday, drilling four triples in the loss.
“He’s got such a unique skill set and size to be able to read the defense, I think he’s just getting more comfortable within our offense where he can pick his spots,” Wizards head coach Brian Keefe said of Riley. “He’s pretty gifted in ways that he processes the game and sees angles. We’ve been pleased with him.”
Riley is averaging 19 points per game across Washington’s last five outings.
The two Southeast Division rivals are meeting for the first time this season, with Miami searching for its fifth win in six games in the series.
