Gimme some quotes.
To
Dwyane Wade the reality is evident: The benefits of freelance are limited, the payoff paltry.
And yet that's the approach he said the
Miami Heat all too often have been settling for during the most challenging times.
He saw it two weeks ago in the blowout loss to the
Detroit Pistons. He saw it in Wednesday's collapse against the
Charlotte Hornets.
"When we've gotten into this freelance basketball on the road, it's just not the game that's successful for us at point," Wade said, as the Heat's turned their attention to Friday's game against the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. "You can get away with that at home. But on the road you have to be specific on where you need to go."
Precision has been a hallmark of the Heat's practices. And the players claimed it was there during Wednesday morning's shootaround at Time Warner Cable Arena. And then the game started in Charlotte. And then it quickly was over.
"We had a great shootaround [Wednesday] morning," forward Chris Bosh said. "It's in the games. When the game comes, the things that we talked about -- we say move the ball -- when the game comes, the pressure hits, move the ball. When we say, 'Hey, talk on defense or do these things on defense,' do 'em. And make it simple for ourselves."
And when they don't, Bosh, a player so reliant on ball movement and offensive cohesion, can disappear. As he did in the loss in Detroit. As he did in the loss in Charlotte, with the Heat now 2-4 on the road.
"In our system, I have to have trust," he said. "And it is a necessity that the ball moves. If the ball does not move, I don't move. Nothing moves.
"I don't want to just go, get the ball, clear out, shooting bad shots. I don't want to do it. I want to be able to be able to go out there playing team ball. And we've done it before. We're capable of it. But for some reason, sometimes we just fall back."
That is because at times freelance can be enough, especially when the adrenaline is fueled by the home crowds. But it is far less comforting on the road.
"We just can't play freelance basketball offensively," Wade said. "And go back to the Detroit game. We have to get to C.B. He has to touch the ball in spots where he's comfortable. I have to touch the ball in spots where I'm comfortable. And then we play from there."
And yet this also is a team still trying to accommodate Goran Dragic at point guard, Hassan Whiteside in the post. With so many moving parts, including the expected return Friday of Luol Deng to the starting lineup, cohesion would seem essential.
"We've just got to find that 'it' together as a team," Wade said. "And that's what I've been cautioning everybody about at the beginning of this season. We're just not there yet. It's going to take a while for us to decide kind of how we want this season to go.
"If we want it to go in a positive way, then we have to figure out how to get it together, how to be on the same page together, communicate together and get the job and give ourselves a chance."
The disconnect, Wade said, is in the approach, not the attitude.
"
Everyone means well," he said. "This is a good team. Everyone means well. But sometimes you come out, and you trying to see where your game is, you're trying to spar with a team, but they're coming back at you.
"On the road, you can't come out and spar with them offensively. You've got to get to your game right away. And we haven't done that in some of the games. It's not saying it's going to guarantee us a win, but it'll settle us in a little bit and let us get kind of better shots, good shots, early on."
With that, the Heat returned to practice Thursday in Indiana, this time hoping there would be a carryover into Friday's nationally televised game.
"I think by now we should know our game," Bosh said. "We should know what we want to get to, especially on the road, and we don't do it. We talk about things, but we don't do it.
"So, it's just really, we've had enough conversations. I don't know how many speeches U.D. [
Udonis Haslem] has to give. But it's only so many you have in the beginning of the year. We have to be professional, and the mistakes that we're making, it's uncharacteristic. I think we're better than it and we have to play better."
Bosh said coordinated simplicity is what is needed.
"We need to do what we need to do," he said. "We need to put the ball in certain places. We have to know where the ball is going. We have to relay the calls.
"And those are conversations, like, 'Look man, it's going right there.' Then we can build from there."
