[外絮] 無論在場內外，本賽季熱火都無法反彈

Miami Heat haven’t rebounded all season, on or off the court
無論是在場內還是場外，邁阿密熱火整個球季無法反彈

https://tinyurl.com/2p8zst3a (The Athletic付費)

MIAMI — What’s wrong with the Miami Heat? It’s an inability to rebound.

There is the strictly basketball sense of the word. The Heat were wretched atcorralling their opponent’s missed shots all season, and it was this
particular undesirable trait that sank them in their 116-105 loss to the
Atlanta Hawks in the Play-In tournament Tuesday.

Everything about the rebounding was absurd. The Hawks’ 63 rebounds and 26
second-chance points in the game were the most any team accumulated against
Miami all season, and again, it was a hard, hard season for the Heat in that
area to begin with. They entered play against the Hawks as the league’s
second-worst team on the defensive glass.

So, they’re bad at it.

熱火出了什麼問題？就是他們無法Rebound(反彈/籃板)。

從純粹的籃球意義來看籃板(Rebound)，熱火整個球季都表現得很糟糕，尤其是進攻籃板這一點特別糟糕，在周二的附加賽中也因此以116-105輸給亞特蘭大老鷹。

熱火在關於籃板球的一切都很可笑。老鷹在比賽中搶下了63個籃板和包含二波得分 26分，這是本賽季所有球隊中對陣熱火中最多的，而且熱火在這防守籃板方面，一直表現得很糟糕。在對陣老鷹前，防守籃板排在聯盟倒數第二。

But they shouldn’t have been that bad against the Hawks. There would be two
Heat players standing under a missed shot, and somehow the ball still ended
in Clint Capela’s hands. It was as if Miami’s starting five were
blindfolded, taking swings at the ball like it was a piñata, and whiffing.

但他們對陣老鷹不應該表現得那麼差。有時熱火會有兩名球員，位於失投球下面，但不知為何，球仍然落入了Clint Capela的手上。就好像熱火的先發五人像是蒙上眼睛，打
Pinata，卻一次次失敗。
(註: Pinata示意圖 https://imgur.com/baQXtru )
(蒙眼打紙漿做的獨角獸，會掉糖果)

https://imgur.com/7XlPZ1l

Sometimes it would bounce over Heat players’ heads into the waiting arms of
a John Collins or a Trae Young, who weren’t even in good position to get a
rebound. It was as though a bad (defensive) rebounding team had even worse
luck.

“The ball was bouncing their way, literally, the whole game,” Tyler Herro
said. “They beat the hell out of us on the glass so it wasn’t even close.
So we can point fingers, do whatever, at the end of the day, they beat the
hell out of us on the boards and that’s what it is.”

“Rebounding was just horrendous,” Jimmy Butler added.

有時候，球會從熱火球員的頭上，彈到John Collins 或是 Trae Young的懷裡，他們甚至不是處在一個好位置。 熱火就好像一支防守籃板很差的球隊，結果運氣更差。

Tyler Herro :「整場籃板球都彈到老鷹手上。毫無懸念地，他們在籃板上完全打爆了我們。我們可以互相指責，但最終，他們在籃板球方面屌打我們是不爭的事實。」

Jimmy Butler:「我們籃板真的爛透了。」

“There’s probably been a little bit more than a half dozen times, maybe
eight to 10 times, where we have not rebounded and where it has just been
absolutely crippling, in terms of how it’s hurt us,” coach Erik Spoelstra
opined. “At one point it was a comedy of errors. Deflections, missed balls
through our hands, even when we had block-outs. Or two guys there and they
would end up with the ball. I don’t think it was easy to say it was an
effort thing. I think our guys were battling, for sure, but you also have to
do things right.”

Heat president Pat Riley once said, “No rebounds, no rings.” And that’s
where the Heat find themselves now — one game from being eliminated from
contention for a title before the playoffs even start, standing on the edge
of a precipitous fall from last year’s glory if they cannot defeat the
Chicago Bulls Friday.

Erik Spoelstra:「可能有六次，也許是八到十次，錯失籃板這種對我們傷害是非常嚴重的。 在某種程度上，這是錯中錯。受到干擾，籃板從我們手中溜走。即使我們有兩個人在籃下卡位時，他們還是會得到球。我不會說搶籃板是一件努力就能容易達成的事。我認為我們的球員肯定有在爭搶，但你也必須做正確的事情。」

熱火總裁Pat Riley曾經說過:「沒有籃板，就沒有戒指。」 現在，熱火隊發現自己只有差一場就會面臨被淘汰，退出爭冠行列，如果他們不能在擊敗芝加哥公牛隊，就有可能無法重現去年的榮景。

The inability to clean the glass is definitely a reason, but it’s not as
simple of a discussion as “see ball, find ball.” Miami has never quite
rebounded from Butler’s missed 3 at the end of Game 7 of the Eastern
Conference finals last May.

It’s been said and written, over and over, that the Heat were within a few
inches of getting to the finals instead of Boston. Butler was open. His shot
was on line. It was just a smidge short. Losses like that are difficult to
swallow for anyone who endures them. It’s not a new phenomenon to the Heat.

“It took me quite a few weeks before I could even get to the autopsy of our
season,” Spoelstra told The Athletic back in October.

無法掌握籃板確實是一個原因，但這並不是一個簡單的問題，不僅僅是“看球，找球”的
問題。從Butler 去年五月在東區決賽第七場比賽中未能命中關鍵三分球之後，熱火隊就再也沒有反彈回來。

人們反覆地說著寫著，熱火離總冠軍賽只差幾吋的距離。Butler 獲得空檔，命懸一線，只是投短了點。這樣的落敗對任何經歷過的人來說都是難以接受的。而這對熱火來說並不是什麼新鮮事。

Spoelstra 在10月份接受《The Athletic 》採訪時表示:「我花了好幾個星期才出落敗陰霾，並對我們賽季進行檢驗。」

The true test isn’t how hurt one’s feelings are after coming so close to
reaching a big goal like making the finals, but how they respond in the
aftermath. The Heat simply didn’t rebound properly.

It started by losing P.J. Tucker to free agency and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Tucker is just one player, and he was with the Heat for only one season, but
he was the perfect complement to Butler and Bam Adebayo in Miami’s defensive
scheme. Miami didn’t replace him from the outside and jostled all year
between Caleb Martin, Max Strus and, eventually, Kevin Love as starters in
Tucker’s spot. None can quite do what Tucker does, a problem that was
exacerbated by other lineup changes the Heat were forced to make.

真正的考驗並不在於，未實踐目標(進總冠軍賽)，所受到的傷害有多少，而是在挫敗之後的應對。但熱火隊沒有因此而反彈。

這一切始於在自由球員市場上失去了P.J. Tucker 。雖然Tucker 只在熱火隊效力一季，但他在熱火防守端與 Butler 和 Bam Adebayo，有著完美的配合。而熱火沒有在自由市場找到Tucker 的替代品，反而整個賽季一直在Caleb Martin, Max Strus之間搖擺不定，最後 Kevin Love 頂上了Tucker 的位置。但沒有人能做到Tucker 能做到的事，而這個問題又因為熱火隊被迫進行陣容改變顯得更加嚴重。

Kyle Lowry, a good defender on the perimeter, played much of the year on a
bad leg, missed a month of action and suffered through one of his worst yearsas a pro. His replacement, Gabe Vincent, averaged a career high in points andwas only slightly less efficient compared to his career averages, mostly
because he was getting more opportunities.

But with no Tucker, and no Lowry (at least not the one they were hoping they’d get when they signed him on a three-year, $85 million contract in the
summer of 2021 that has $30 million left on it for next season), a lineup in
which Herro (an offensive juggernaut and defensive liability) was starting atoff guard was more vulnerable. The Heat slipped five slots in defensive
rating, from the fourth-best team defense last season to No. 9 this year.
(While we’re at it, the Heat were the 18th-best rebounding team overall in
2021-22, and 27th this season.)

Kyle Lowry是一位優秀的外線防守球員，但他本季大部分時間都因腳傷所困，並且缺席了一個月的比賽，Lowry度過了他職業生涯中最糟糕的一年。頂替他的Gabe Vincent場均得分來到生涯新高，效率略比他的生涯平均低一些，但主要是因為他得到了更多的機會。

但是在沒有 Tucker和 Lowry（這個Lowry不是熱火當時簽下他時，所預期的，下個賽季還有3000萬美元）的情況下，以Herro（進攻極具破壞力，但防守累贅）作為先發得分後衛的陣容更加脆弱。熱火隊的防守排名下滑了五個名次，從上季的第四最佳防守球隊降至本季的第九。（順帶一提，熱火隊在2021-22賽季總籃板排名第18，而本季則排名第27。）

The Heat’s 3-point shooting plummeted year over year. They were the league’
s best 3-point bunch last season, splashing 38 percent of their shots from
deep, compared to 34 percent this year. Only three teams were worse. Strus,
one of the Heat’s pleasant surprises last year, regressed as an outside
threat. Duncan Robinson, who still has three years and about $60 million lefton his contract, was nowhere near as productive as he’d been the previous
two seasons — and has been relegated to a part-time player at best who’s
shooting 32 percent from 3. Victor Oladipo, who has a player’s option worth
nearly $10 million from next season, hasn’t made the impact the Heat thought
he might after a promising 2022 postseason.

These are the cold, hard facts and numbers. An emotional letdown was followedby something similar in performance from a number of Miami’s important
starters and role players. That’s how a group that is mostly unchanged from
the team that was the No. 1 seed in the East in 2022 is now on the verge of
missing the playoffs entirely this season.

熱火隊本季的三分球命中率與去年相比急遽下滑，去年他們是聯盟最佳的三分球隊伍之一，命中率高達38%，而今年則僅有34%，只有三支球隊比熱火更差。去年熱火隊的一個驚喜球員Strus，在外線攻擊能力上有所退步。同樣擁有三年約6千萬美元合約的Duncan
Robinson，本季表現遠不如前兩季，最多只能算是一名兼職球員，三分球命中率為32%。而在去年季後賽表現優異後，拿下接近1,000萬美元球員選項的Victor Oladipo，並沒有像熱火隊預期的那樣對球隊產生重大影響。

這些都是冰冷的事實與數據。情感上的失落往往會導致球員表現的下滑，而熱火隊的重要先發球員和角色球員在本季的表現都有所下滑。這就是為什麼一支成員大部分不變，去年曾經是東區第一種子的球隊，本季卻面臨著錯失季後賽的危機。

“At least we have a lot of experience,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve had a lot
of ups and downs this season. Nothing about this season has been easy, so we’re gonna do this the hard way.”

Butler was the only player in the NBA to average at least 22 points, five
rebounds, five assists, and 1.5 steals this season. His efficiency (and
field-goal percentage) was off the charts all season, but especially in
April, when he had made 75 percent of his shots heading into Tuesday’s game
against the Hawks. He was only 6-of-19 against Atlanta.

Erik Spoelstra:「至少我們擁有很豐富的經驗，這個賽季我們經歷了很多跌宕。這個賽季的一切都很不容易，所以我們要用最困難的方式來完成。」

Butler 是NBA中唯一一位本季場均得分至少22分、5籃板、5助攻和1.5抄截的球員。他的效率（和命中率）整個賽季都很高。尤其在對陣老鷹隊的比賽前，Butler 四月份的投籃命中率高達75%。但他對上老鷹隊只有19投6中。

Adebayo set a career high for points this season, at 20.4 points per game. Hemanaged 12 on 5-of-12 shooting against the Hawks.

So in the most important game of the year, the Heat’s top two players from
the season had less-than-desirable games. A stroke of bad luck, coupled with
the bad rebounding, drowned them.

“As far as the confidence goes, we have to stay confident,” Butler said. “
We have to know we are capable of winning, if we start out the right way and
if we rebound obviously. But it’s just, I don’t know, shots don’t go in,
we foul, that’s never the recipe for success with us, so come Friday we got
to play like legit the exact opposite that we played tonight.”

本季Adebayo場均得分達20.4分，是他生涯最高。但對陣老鷹隊，他只有12分，12投5中。

所以，在這個賽季最重要的比賽中，熱火隊本季最頂尖的兩名球員表現不盡理想。一點倒楣加上糟糕的籃板球，淹沒了熱火隊。

Jimmy Butler:「就自信心而言，我們必須保持。如果我們開局表現良好並掌控籃板，我們就有能力贏得比賽。但我不知道，有時投籃不進，我們犯規，對我們來說，這從來不是獲勝的秘訣，所以在星期五的比賽中，我們必須打出完全相反的表現。」

Of the Heat’s 44 wins this season, 32 were “clutch,” defined as games in
which the margin was within five points in the last five minutes of the
fourth quarter. They posted the most such wins of any NBA team this season.

In a winner-take-all game on Friday, with a spot in the playoffs on the line,being the league’s best team in close games has to mean something. It’s one
last chance to rebound.

在熱火隊本季的44場勝利中，有32場都是在關鍵時刻勝出。本賽季關鍵時刻擁有最多勝利的球隊。

在週五的一場定勝負的比賽中，贏家能獲得季後賽的席位。熱火身為關鍵時刻表現最好的球隊，一定意味著什麼。而這熱火也是最後一次反彈的機會。

-----
Win or Go home!?

--