The Miami Heat lost for the sixth time in the last seven games on Monday night, falling 103-87 in a road matchup against the Denver Nuggets. After the game, Heat guard Justise Winslow expressed his belief that a lack of consistency is the team’s main problem.
Winslow indicated that the team has generally done well during its current road trip, but key stretches of the game have been its downfall:
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“This game and Sacramento, turnovers were a big part of that. That’s what makes teams great, the consistency. But we’ve been playing really well on this road trip. It doesn’t feel like 1-3.
“That’s the weird part about it, because we’ve been playing some good basketball. We just had four minute stretches where things got out of our hands. We’re playing good basketball; we have to figure out a way to get these wins.”
Winslow noted that turnovers on the part of Miami have been a key barometer when determining their problems.
The Nuggets were able to score 21 points on the 19 turnovers committed by the Heat, with teammate Josh Richardson ending the night with seven miscues. The loss came on the latter part of a back-to-back stretch in which the Heat lost a close battle to Golden State on Sunday night.
The loss drops the Heat to 25-30 on the year, with one more game at Dallas on Wednesday night before the annual All-Star break. Picking up a win in that contest would offer some momentum for the final two months of the regular season, something that’s become even more important.
That’s because the Heat are currently one game out of a playoff berth, trailing the Detroit Pistons for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The silver lining in that current status is that they’re only 2.5 games behind the Brooklyn Nets for the sixth-best record among Eastern teams.
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