Miami Heat Floor Crew | PreGame Show Edition | Breakdown and Predictions

[Applause] [Music] welcome to the Miami Heat floor crew brought to you by the five region Sports Network I'm your host Jonathan AKA Jonathan MMA we got the crew out here we got Matt we got Gad and we got Marco Romo make sure you follow the boys they all got their links over there in the names but with tonight we got the Heat versus the Kings the heat are coming off of a win um showing an impressive Victory coming uh against the Pelicans getting a dub against them um but tonight going up against the Kings a little bit of a different threat a little bit of a different matchup so we'll give you a little bit of breakdown of tonight's Kings game and we'll also as all we always do break down the rest of the week to that but uh this Heat team looks good coming out of the playoffs obviously no Jimmy no uh yic because they got in a little scuffle in that and you know something like that is always good for a team like the heat right something like that can either make or break a team when it comes to bringing that group together and what we saw is that team you know as we always see them do after a moment like that I.E you know whenever they when they played the uh Pacers with TJ Warren and and everything that happened there right uh brought that group together you know again tonight I can't remember the name of the dude that tried to do something with Jimmy some noname you know what I mean but Thomas you know yeah there you go Marco knew the name but you know no Jimmy tonight obviously it's going to be like the uh it's going to be the BAM show hopefully we'll see him um you know take off against guys like sabonis he always picks up and shows up against guys that he's typically compared to but let's get enough for me that I talked enough uh JN and donut Dan uh in the comments appreciate you guys hopefully definitely get the win tonight um but Matt I'll start with you my man right tonight going up the king against the Kings um obviously they're a much improved team over the last couple years right what do you feel like they some of the biggest threats that they have that we should probably look out for tonight well they're one of the they're one of the League's most potent offenses I mean they've had the fifth best offense in the month of February we all know what Daren Fox and Damon sabonis are capable of sabonis has been I don't want to say walking triple double but he's had a lot of triple doubles this year um they have a lot of shooting with Kevin herder and Keegan Murray even if they've been a little bit inconsistent throughout this year so they just have a very potent offense Miami's had the League's best defense in the month of February which has been really encouraging and they've won seven out of their last nine games that seven that that nine game stretch started with beating the Kings um and so potentially they they could uh they could rally for another Victory even though they have only 10 active guys tonight um or it was something like 10 active guys because of the injuries and obviously the suspensions to to Bryant yic and uh Butler but the kings are again very potent offense not the best defense we'll see what happens West Coast late game front end of a back to back you're not you're missing your best player um so I'm interested to see kind of how this how this develops yeah absolutely like you said started off with the Kings seven and three over the last team over their last 10 and coming off of a three are currently on a three- game winning streak right but like you said with the um Tyler hero being on the injury report tonight not going to have him that's going to be definitely a lot harder to get some offense created hopefully we see a lot more Duncan Robinson um and Bam out of Bio actions I think that'll be one of the uh main facilitators uh when it comes to creating offense tonight is going to be around those two guys you know I think dunan you know continuously we said we said it a little bit last year uh but this year as well it continues to grow right when he signed that contract initially uh he had some moments where obviously he wasn't playing up to it and I felt like he had to grow into it a little bit this guy this guy is worth every penny of that contract in my opinion now you know for what he brings to this team he's absolutely on a great contract for what he's doing especially coming up on the last couple years of that deal Marco who do you feel uh for this Heat team you know needs to step up tonight you know given given that you know obviously no Tyler hero no Jimmy Butler uh I do like the Duncan pick shout out to Black History mon Duncan uh highe High kids I think he probably be the guy I'm looking at because uh he's been in a not a very quiet uh rookie wall moment for him uh I think most of he Twitter has kind of like noticed the rookie wall he's hit uh it's not even a rookie wall it's like a it's like the rookie Great Wall of China or something uh but hopefully you know he gets do that that's going to happen with young guys you know and I I'm fine with what he's been doing besides not scoring because that's what the one thing that he was doing even whenever you know he wasn't going through the sub he was doing the little things and he's still doing those little things obviously so I think a guy like him could probably look at tonight as like okay maybe tonight's the night that I finally get over this hump uh of like it and it's most the scoring because he still has everything else kind of going for him uh defensively you know he's a rookie they're going to have their ups and downs uh but I think highe is gonna be the guy I look for um he's probably GNA start tonight with no yic or Jimmy uh I think spo's gonna probably stagger his minutes with uh bam Mo because uh they're going to need another secondary playmaker with the bench unit because you know there's no bench unit tonight is pretty much the case so I think Hae and Duncan are the two guys are going to be looking at but especially Hae definitely you know I think this is a like you said it's a great coming out game I see a couple guys Jose Mato saying Delan right in the comments maybe you know the defensive impact that he can have tonight I would love to see a little bit of that um obviously with the um amount of opponent assists a game you know we were able to probably create that but with the Kings you know top six in creating assists for that team obviously with the head of the spear coming with uh dearon Fox with that so do you expect us you know um sticking on the topic of D Wright do you expect us to see a little bit of Delon on dearon guide or and how do you expect us or how do you expect that matchup to go for the maybe a couple of those minutes that you'll see that tonight I I expect the heat to throw everything at Daren Fox I don't think many things are going to work tonight if I'm being honest with you I think they they got their lick by using the Zone and getting that win a couple weeks ago and kind of getting the riding the ship a little bit and getting back on track um I think tonight might be the opposite of that just by virtue of the type of personnel that they have on the floor but I am very excited to see because theoretically speaking Delon Wright is the best point of attack Defender that the Heat have and it's not particularly close in addition to that I think he's actually a really smart off ball Defender and I'd love to see him get involved in that zone I would assume they're going to throw it out tonight as well but you throw someone like Caleb Martin maybe even Jamal Kan given the Personnel we have tonight you throw them on the top of that zone and you see if they can kind of slow things down mck things up a little bit because ultimately the problem is the kings are probably goingon to get to the rim at will tonight in addition to the fact that they're a really good shooting team so there's a whole bunch of things that you're really going to try to take away but if you can kind of have bam anchor the paint a little bit in the zone and have D and Caleb kind of find their ways to maybe not stop but just put a little pressure on De Fox to the point where he wants to take jump shots as opposed to get to the rim or they force sabonis into hook shots as opposed to finishing at The Rim I think then the heat could have a good chance but if I'm being honest with the all signs are pointing towards this not being the best game for the Heat and we we understand why yeah obviously when you're locking Jimmy Butler Tyler hero Terry Rosier three of your five best offensive players on this team it's it's going to be tough to to be able to you know see those things and and you mentioned with Darren Fox you definitely want to try to let him shoot because over the last couple of weeks he's looking at what 31% from Deep after starting off this season 37 38% shooting at a lot higher clip right and when you have that of course with a guy that's so powerful and so Dynamic getting to the rim when you have the threat of the three-point shot like before it makes you have to respect that and you have to play him closer allowing him to drive past you a little bit more maybe you stay back a little bit you give him a little bit of cushion you let let him shoot some of those jumpers and you live with that right so you maybe you try to do with that from there so getting and keeping into tonight's Kings theme before we break down the rest of the week guys let's get to a quick prediction right so Gad I'll go around with you this time and start off with you give me uh your quick prediction for tonight's game and and how do you and Jose a great question who's the X Factor for tonight's game offensively or defensively so I'm Gonna Roll with Marco's point that he laid out so eloquently I think haime hakz is The X Factor um I'm excited to see how he looks because we haven't seen him full blast full go I really think since he's been hurt and it'll be fun to just say Hae do something cool and then if Hae can do something cool that's great like that's what they need they need him to get that confidence a little bit higher than it has been ultimately I think the heat do lose tonight totally fine with that I think they're gonna have a pretty decent week after that or it'll be 500 in my opinion um but yeah the the Kings just play Fast they're very good offensively and I don't think the Heat have the Firepower to keep up offensively tonight but obviously I mean crazier things have happened in this league it is I think the kings are on the second night of a back toback it's a 10 pm game weird things happened this this like King's heat matchup we've just had a whole bunch of weird games over the past couple years I wouldn't be shocked if it was closer than people expect I believe the spread is Kings minus 7 if the heat keep it close I would not be surprised but I think ultimately they're gonna they're just gonna not have enough at the end of the game the Kings will get a nice win at home in front of their fans yeah like like you said it's just going to come down to availability at this point you know and they have um a couple of guys that are just doing so good I mean like you mentioned uh Marco I think uh 20 triple doubles for sabonis already this season and we still have a couple games going to the end of of the year and then um Jose saying starting lineups are announced so Delon Wright is actually starting at the point guard position right we're also going to see haime ha haime hakz in the starting lineup as well um in addition to everybody else that we kind of expected Caleb Duncan Bam um starting as well so Marco same thing give me your prediction give me your X Factor for tonight uh so I saw this tweet I think it was hero Juku uh if you follow him on Twitter he said every night that Z heat are down like this many guys it's either they're going to put up 130 points or they're barely going to scrape 0 uh I think tonight's gonna be one of the barely scraping 90 uh but I think it'll be close because again like ad said it's a second night of a back toback uh and historically even like even this year with the offensive uptick that teams on second nighted back to backs have been really you know well below their averages and I think tonight's going to be one of those nasty nasty brick you know Lane Fest tonight by both teams uh both for different reasons obviously uh but I think Miami keeps it close I think it'll come down to probably a clutch game a very old school Heat game I think probably they lose but I'm going to be fine with it uh The X Factor I'm actually G to look you know besides haime I'm going to look at Kevin Mo because uh Kevin's quietly played pretty well for you know a couple weeks uh you know before the allstar break but uh he's like the one veteran guy that's going to be like okay maybe I can step up here tonight you know these guys need me to probably be more of like a post threat or you know they need me to score more or shoot more uh so Kevin Love is gonna be one guy as well as highe that I'm going to look at uh Jamal Kane last time that he were down this manyi dudes in California he put up a great night against the Golden State Warriors so you know hopefully he can repeat that but you know I'm I'm looking more at Kevin because you know he's the veteran guy he understands you know what maybe the team needs from him tonight yeah definitely and you know something you mentioned like potentially being a game that we're barely scraping 90 this is one of the rare times where the Heat team has you have four plus Defenders starting right you have you know Delon you have Caleb you have haime and you have bam right those are four actually really good Defenders when it comes to that side of things and you know it's very rare that you see that with this team um obviously they're going to lock the offensive Firepower but you know with guys like h and Caleb you guys you have more Rim pressure with those couple of guys as well so maybe you're able to create create some of that with that you know go from there my exactor I don't know if ales Williams travel with this team but hey maybe if he gets the minutes maybe he has the offensive Freedom tonight to to burst loose that's all I'm saying that's all I'm saying right and like like like uh Jose and GN Rosario are saying make sure you guys hit that like button we appreciate you guys joining us almost close to 10 p.m. real Heat fans out here so we really do appreciate that so make sure as you see you know make sure you guys like and if you're not already subscribed why not right it's free what you doing Matt give me your uh give me your breakdown for tonight and give me your X Factor with the I've landed on I think the Kings win 110 to 104 um I think again I think Miami keeps it close I think I think they try to slow the pace down um even if the Kings want to speed it up a little bit I think Miami tries to muck it up as much as they can uh for for 30 or for like 44 minutes until uh it they event Sacramento eventually pulls away I think the X Factor tonight I mean it's it's not even like much of an X Factor but it's Bam um because just because I think him anchoring The Zone him being one of the primary facilitator if not the primary facilitator offensively um him being the guy with the ball in his hands probably the most often tonight him going up against one of the best one I don't say one of the best but one of the better bigs in the league um in De Manas zonis I think bam takes it a little bit personally because I'm not sure if he's seen it but there has been obviously discourse regarding bam and sa bonus over time from Kings fans Heat fans whomever um and so I think bam gives him his best shot tonight um it's going to be a very physical game I think even though Miami's missing even though Miami is short-handed they're missing the majority of their guys um including hero and Butler but I think the X-Factor is Bam even though like Caleb's a good x-f Factor loves a good X Factor um haime hawz is a like you could pick a number of these guys and you I could talk myself into it but I think the primary x-f factor for Miami to win this game is bam out bio being bam out bio and doing what bam out bio does 100% you know and and like you said with him you know it's one of those games where you don't really get to see it much but you remember you know him versus a Brooklyn when he hit the gamewinner right you know whenever sometimes the moment is just like hey Bam go make some stuff happen you can go do that right and and defensively the Kings you know they have some good players but I mean correct me if I'm wrong they're not the best defensive like they don't have a lot of matchups to really throw at BAM when it comes to that side of things right sabonis not the best defender right obviously offensively really good right one of the best when it comes to just being a well-rounded offensive player as a big but defensively I think this is a matchup that bam can really attack maybe he gets sa bonus into foul trouble right that can be one of the things as well but you know I think one of the other X factors this is a pretty you know behind the scenes one coach SPO right how is coach SPO gonna you know react like he always does to having a different lineup right he almost yelled at me when I asked about the injury games in Orlando about how they might prepare him for moments like this but you know at the end of the day having this you know the the roster that we do um even though they're not really injured when it comes to Jimmy and yovic right you're going to be able to test out some lineups that you can potentially see in the playoffs when there is just Jimmy and Duncan on the court with another bunch of these guys because this could be a defensive lineup that you could see down the line you know in a clutch moment right you need to stop you throw Jimmy in there instead of you know haime in you know I mean or maybe Jimmy instead of Duncan in there right and you have five plus Defenders that can play on and off ball as well so speak you know continuing on defense before we close out here tonight I'll get to your predictions again over the next week and see if the last game getting the win against the Pella can change that against for you guys but this he team correct me if I'm wrong has been the best defensive team since we had that meeting right so you know um when it comes to that side of things Marco do you uh feel that this is a thing that was that was more of a mental adjustment or you know what have you been continuing to see even post All-Star break with this Heat Miami Heat defense uh it's a combination of a lot of things you know their schedule after that meeting was also very light uh they've had a bunch of teams that are not good at scoring you know uh they themselves haven't been scoring as well but you know that's been helped because of the defense that they've had and I think there's also been a lot of uh cleaning up of the little things because they were a mess with communication uh I saw a lot of miscommunication before that meeting happened and you could just tell that that meeting was mostly guys being like yeah I'm not in the right spot you're not in the right spot when you know uh spoke teams require a lot of trust in the defensive system that they play because it's very you know a lot of coaches talk about that it's very much different how they run a Zone it's different than any other Zone that Miami that any other team in the league runs you know teams throw zone out there but it's not like Miami Zone it requires a lot of mental fortitude because it requires you to be on your head for around you know 24 seconds of that shot clock uh and I think Miami cleaned up a lot of that they've you know been playing a little bit better of his own better of a manto man not by much I still think you know that's not their best look uh the drop has been cleaned up a little bit you know guys are trusting bam to know to keep that that uh drop a little cleaner than they were at the beginning of the year or at the middle of the Season whenever that drop off came uh but I think it's been a lot you know of the little things they cleaned up a lot I saw them actually against Boston uh in the Super Bowl game I remember they had a pre- switch which I was like Miami hasn't done a pre- switch in forever and I was just like wow that meeting actually might have did something uh so you know those kind of things you know that I've noticed hopefully they keep up and hopefully it's not just the opponents they've had you know maybe this can be a thing that they can you know build off of you know build off of U but you know this is again some of it is the schedule but some of it is that they' cleaned up a lot of miscommunication that they had absolutely and actually just building off that point God do you think that this Heat team can continue to make their defense their identity going lat into the latter portions of the seasons and build upon using that into the playoffs because that has been something going into you watch a lot of previous Seasons right the m Milwaukee Bucks one of the best offensive teams we knocked him out of the playoffs for a couple Seasons right we've had um a bunch of other teams that really did great offensively I think the Atlanta Hawks in 2022 offensively they were a juggernaut we went we went in 4-1 against them I think as well right so this Miami Heat team has done a really good job of suffocating teams come to defense do you think this Heat team has the personnel and unit to keep up that defensive intensity going into the playoffs um for this season so I think you initially labeled it as identity I don't think I would Define them as like it would be their defensive like the defensive side of the ball isn't their identity to me I think they actually have a chance to be very well-rounded and balanced because I think they have the Personnel to make the offense really work and I think they have the Personnel to have the defense keep them in games but I don't think it's going to be some sort of world beating defense the way that it has been over the last month or so and that's fine I don't think they need that to the extent that they maybe have needed that in Pre previous years but I think the defense can stick for the most part because like Marco said it's a lot of little things and another thing is they've just picked up the level of physicality that I think they've needed right like you watched the game against Boston a couple months ago and it was very much just oh we're not g to try to muck anything up just kind of you're gonna get through whatever movement you want to get through and then if we make you miss a shot you miss a shot the last time they played Boston the last couple games that they've played over this stretch of the last last nine games or so there's been a lot more physicality to the point where teams are having to kind of fight through some contact in order to just get their off ball movement going and that while it doesn't seem like that much you do that over the stretch of a game and then you look at the fourth quarter and the heat who are probably more conditioned than the other team are they're they're keeping the same level of intensity and the other team's tired because it's Weighing on them because the Heat play a different brand of basketball in the regular season at this time of year than most of the NBA because a lot of these guys in the dog days of the season they don't care they do not care at all they'll just let you run through whatever you want there's no no hand checking off ball whatever it may be so I think that part of the Heat and the fact that they're doing that can really be something that they hang their hat on I don't think they're going to be some top three defense for the rest of the season but I think you have a good enough defense for this Heat team to be able to make a decent amount of noise absolutely and Matt I'll let you close out with this one right if this heat team picks up a victory tonight I think last week you either 3-2 or two and three over these next couple games the Heat team picks up a victory tonight does that change your outlook you know for the predictions that you made going up until the Saturday game which is going to be up against the Jazz you know what I mean does that change your prediction with that side of things no because I think I still had them beating Portland and Utah um and I had them losing to Denver and I think that remains the case win or loss tonight so so that that's how I think it ends up I think they had I think I originally had them losing tonight so if they win but if they win tonight it's not going to change my perspective that much now no for sure like you said with no Jimmy and you know without that it's really you can't get a true gauge for this team uh but just for the shortterm Outlook I do think if we do are able to pick up a win tonight you know going into um you know a Portland matchup and also you know you're going to have Jimmy coming back with fresh legs on that one the Nuggets matchup I think that's the toughest one which is always the case When anybody goes into Denver the elevation right traveling there you know it just everything when it comes to playing that Denver team it just it's always hard so I don't expect us to pick up the win tonight but guys we are closing in on the Kings game tonight Marco fought through the flu game to to make it here tonight so we appreciate the boy for doing that but if you're still with us make sure you guys like the video make sure you guys subscribe follow the boys as well you know they got some great content on their feed as always but as always guys make sure you guys uh keep it locked with us we'll keep you guys locked in next week and let's go Heat