After opening the season with so much promise, the Miami Heat will look to end a four-game losing skid when they visit the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.
While there figured to be an adjustment period with the addition of Giannis Antetokounmpo, nobody could have expected this. A week after the two-time MVP’s debut for Miami, the Heat are still looking for a victory.
Miami is off to its first 0-4 start since the 2007-08 season, when it finished 15-67. Antetokounmpo had his first triple-double with the Heat in a 113-109 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday.
The 10-time All-Star finished with 29 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, but Miami shot 9 of 25 (36%) from the field in the fourth quarter and missed 11 of their 25 free throws overall.
“This is not the start anybody wanted, but it has happened,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So we have to address what’s in front of us, and we need to continue to get more consistent with our game.”
Davion Mitchell scored 21 points in the loss to Dallas, while Bam Adebayo had eight points on 3-of-10 shooting. Adebayo is averaging 11.8 points and has made just three of 18 3-point attempts.
Miami’s offensive rating of 105.3 is 27th in the league entering Tuesday’s play.
Adebayo said he is being made the “scapegoat” for Miami’s slow start, but Antetokounmpo said there is plenty of blame to go around.
“I think it’s not just Bam. It’s everybody,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’re trying to figure out where we fit in and what we’ve got to do. We try to not step on toes. I do it myself at times. I find myself just floating around and trying to see how to help the team.”
The Heat won three of their four meetings last season against the Hawks.
Atlanta enters the game at 2-2 following consecutive losses to the Houston Rockets, including a 120-110 road defeat on Monday.
Atlanta struggled to contain Houston’s interior attack in Monday’s loss. The Rockets scored 64 points in the paint, shot 53.1 percent from the field and outrebounded the Hawks 52-35.
Jalen Johnson scored 21 points and CJ McCollum added 20, but the Hawks went 3 of 16 from 3-point range in the second half as the Rockets used a 22-2 run midway through the fourth quarter to secure the win.
“When we play the way that we need to play, we’re very competitive,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “But when we don’t change side to side, we don’t run, we don’t pass the ball, we’re just not as good a team.”
Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu had 11 points, nine rebounds, one assist, two steals, one block and one 3-pointer against the Rockets.
Atlanta will need its perimeter defenders to disrupt Miami before Antetokounmpo gets downhill. Dyson Daniels is averaging 3.5 steals and 2.5 offensive rebounds, giving the Hawks extra possessions.
Snyder has emphasized that Daniels can share demanding defensive assignments with Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luguentz Dort.
“You can’t put him on everybody,” Snyder said of Daniels. “And, you know, those matchup questions, you’ve got other guys in Nickeil, too, that can guard the ball.”
