Spurs cool down Heat, stay undefeated

The San Antonio Spurs came to Miami undefeated and they left Miami undefeated. Hassan Whiteside's absence proved to be the number one factor in the Miami Heat's 117-100 loss to the Spurs.

LaMarcus Aldridge lead all scorers with 31 points as he dominated in the post. Miami had no one who could truly match-up with Aldridge and his inside/outside game. Greg Popovich even went as far as putting in a line-up that consisted of Rudy Gay at the center position.

The coaching efforts of the Spurs was amplified from having six players score in double figures. This Included the two veterans of the bench, Rudy Gay and Manu Ginobili, combined for

The back court play the Heat did not under perform. Goran Dragic, Dion Waiters, and and Tyler Johnson scored a combined sixty points, (20, 17, 23 respectively). Forward James Johnson also had an effective night scoring 21 points and grabbing nine boards. The reason the Miami Heat lost this game will not be found in the performance of the back court.

Miami is missing Hassan Whiteside and it is going to show up against playoff caliber opponents. Especially those out of the “West”. On a positive note, the Heat DID NOT perform poorly as a team at all. Through the first two quarters, Miami went “toe to toe” with San Antonio and trailing by only 5 points going into the half. It was after halftime, Greg Popovichs' bread and butter, where San Antonio made key adjustments. This propelled them to end the quarter up by ten.
This proved to be to much for Miami, without a significant post player, to match-up with Aldridge and protect against an rim attacking Spurs offense. The Heat was only outscores by 2 in the fourth quarter but couldn’t overcome their short falls from the third.

Hassan Whiteside will be sidelined for his fourth consecutive game tonight as the hometown Heat defend Triple A against the visiting Celtics. Whiteside, who has a bone bruise to his knee, was conditioning on Friday but still ruled out by Erik Spoelstra. This is understandable as there is still a lot of season left to play and Spoelstra has to make sure his franchise player is 100 percent bed stepping back into his star role. The Celtics lost Gordon Hayward to a bad ankle injury so they will also be short a big man. They still harbor a skillful Kyrie Irving and notable role players and Miami needs to be fully prepped for tonight’s game.

Celtics @ Heat 8:00 p.m. (game covered locally on SUN)
October 28, 2017
American Airlines Arena