Miami Heat: Bam & wings shine, Bucks rally to beat Heat for 3rd straight loss | Five on the Floor

Welcome to 5 on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sylvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the 5 Reasons Sports Network. Welcome back to the latest episode of 5 on the Floor, post-game. Tonight's floor plan. I'm your host, Greg Sylvander. With me, we have Sean Rochester. You can follow him on Twitter at SRochesterNBA. We also have Brian Fonseca. You can follow him on X at BrianFonsecaNY. We're going to recap the Miami Heat's disappointing, but at times exciting, 131-124-2211. The heat was short-handed. The Milwaukee Bucks were basically whole, aside from a J. Crowder. And it was a back-and-forth game, but ultimately, Milwaukee prevailed. It was, um, there was some fun stuff that happened, so I'm not going to shortchange at all, but ultimately, I think Heat fans will leave this one feeling a little disappointed, feeling like they probably had a few things gone differently. They maybe could have escaped with a victory. Although, when you shoot 47% from three, you usually got to get those games. We're going to get into the specifics. Before we get into any of that fun stuff, though, let's get right into the Rock eSports Gamer of the Night. And now, on 5 on the Floor, it's time for the Gamer of the Night, sponsored by Rock eSports Center, the place to eat, drink, and play all day. Post your next birthday party with them. Located at 15305 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay, they've got a 5,500 square foot state-of-the-art center equipped with all the high-end power. Play all day passes, available for just $25, but if you mention 5 Reasons, it's just $20. So mention 5 Reasons or 5 RSN, you get to play all day for $20. And now, the Gamer of the Night. So the Gamer of the Night, like, the Bucks won, and Damian Lillard had 32 and 9 assists. But I'm not going to drive a stake through the hearts of Heat fans, because I'm already feeling that. So, we're going to the 42 minutes that Bam out of Bayou played without Jimmy Butler. 31 points, 13 of 27 from the field. I know that that's a little shy of 50%, but 27 field goal attempts. Let's do it. 5 of 7 from the free throw line, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks. He was awesome. Brian, I'll start with you here, because we're going to kind of go around the entire team, but also some major takeaways from both of you. Bam out of Bayou to start, and then just your major takeaways of the game. He was awesome. I know that the story here is Milwaukee ended up winning the game, but Bam out of Bayou is doing things that's going to make the NBA at large notice him, beyond just the stuff that we always say doesn't show up in the box for. Notice how Shaquille O'Neal, Reggie Miller, everyone on the broadcast was raving about him the entire game, and the things they were raving about specifically, the aggression, the footwork, the development in his game, the passing, the defense, both on the interior and on the perimeter, the rebounding, the effort overall, right? He's playing like he's kind of put it all together. I tweeted out that this is probably the biggest jump he's made since his jump from the 18-19 to the 19-20 season, which is where he was second for most improved, where I thought he should have won the award over Brandon Ingram, because Brandon Ingram was the second overall pick that just developed that year. And Bam has made, I think, smaller jumps every year, just, you know, the great ones add to their game. They come back with a little something, a little something, and they're a little bit better here and a little bit better here. And this year, it feels like, whether it's just he got a chance to put in a full off-season again, whether it's just another trip to the finals and matching up against Nikola Jokic and that teaching him something, he's really playing like I actually believed they were going to win that game at one point, and without Jimmy Butler, and without Hitwood Highsmith, which I think is a pretty big loss, because if he was out there, Giannis probably wouldn't have hit his ******* over with all them goddamn free throws, as an aside. But I think Bam, he needs to be the story, because he was just great. Like, he put the team on his back and got some help, and they almost pulled through against what is a Milwaukee team sort of quietly rounding in the form that hasn't been great so far this season, but it's getting closer to where we think they could eventually be. This game hurts, Sean, because they lost the New York game, and then, like, the Brooklyn thing I guess was whatever, because guys were out. But the New York game specifically hurts when then they lose this game that you kind of maybe could have justified saying, okay, circle that one as maybe an L when they play Milwaukee, but you wanted that New York game, and they played like they wanted it. Tonight, they basically did not win a quarter except the 40-28 second quarter. They were outscored by 11 in the fourth, so although we are praising Bam, ultimately this is leading the team in a loss. Other guys stepped up. Jay Rich was great tonight. Kyle Lauer, you tell me we get 41 points out of the starting backcourt. I'm saying we're winning most of those games. Sean gets the tough questions usually because he's the coach, but is it just as simple as that teams are catching Miami when they run out of gas on offense, making a run, closing the game, and getting the hell out of there, or is there something else going on here that I'm missing? I feel like Spoh trying to take on Barry Jackson questions there with the lead into that. First of all, the first thing you said, they cared about this game. It could have went the other direction. It could have been like the Nets, and whether it's the in-season tournament, maybe we'll just paint that picture that they cared a lot about going to Vegas. I don't necessarily think that was the case. Is it the Bucs' rivalry? Is it just they wanted to get a win in front of their home fans? Whatever, but the competitive fire was there. The greatest example of that, a minute and some change left, Eric Spolster gets a technical foul. He never gets techs. The reaction he had to a, in my opinion, I think it was a pretty clear foul. I mean, he got his left arm, but Spoh's reaction, he didn't care. He cared a lot, and I think the team followed that lead. You talked about the guys stepping up. The backcourt, Lowry and Richardson were great, knocking down threes. Duncan was good. Jaime Jaquez was good. Caleb looks like he's starting to come back into his flow. Kevin Love was good on the boards, but to your question, how did we lose this game? Because if you look at the numbers, a 125 offensive rating, they had a 130, but that's good, both teams, right? We shot almost equally effective field goal percentage, both low turnovers. Both of us got to the free throw line fairly well. They did a little bit better. That shot diet that I keep talking about, 40% of our shots came at the rim against the team that is the best at keeping you away from getting shots at the rim. We were 39-32, mid-29-3. The difference? Offensive rebounding. They got six more field goal attempts, six more free throw attempts. The extra chances are what cost you in what, a six-point game, seven-point game. That's it. Who do you point to? BAM? No, I can't blame BAM. I can't blame Love. It's a team thing. They're just a bigger team, difficult task, but that's the small margin in a very competitive game that I know it's hard to lose, but I think you got to give the guys a little pat on the back for effort that you can move forward with. Leave this game with a positive attitude about what you accomplished. Agree. Some fans, particularly the cynical ones, are not going to like that line of thinking, but you know what? They were shorthanded tonight. I mean, an undermanned team against Milwaukee that had Dame and Giannis and Middleton, who finally, like, he played awful all night and then finally hit that three there in the corner late. It was a weird game like that. I thought that they definitely showed up, but just, you know, I think Heat fans saw what you saw. Like, they had a shot to win this. I forgot who it was. It was Brian or Sean who said, I thought that they could have, that they were going to get this one. I think it was Brian. Heat fans felt that too. And then so for them to come up short, they're feeling like, damn, now they got to get both against Indy. Let's go into the a aggressive insurance by Lynette play of the night. And now it's time for the insurance by Lynette play of the night, sponsored by insurance by Lynette dot com and a aggressive insurance agency. You can reach out to our friend Lynette at nine five four five eight one eighty eight hundred. That's nine five four five eight one eighty eight hundred or insurance by Lynette dot com. That's insurance by Lynette dot com with two N's and two T's. Your best play for auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, condo insurance, life insurance or retirement program. Reach out to Lynette at insurance by Lynette dot com. So there's lots of stuff we could go to here because I'll be damned if I'm going to pick any of those plays that Milwaukee made down the stretch. There was two plays in the second quarter where Jaime Jaquez just went straight Hooper mode like Billy Hoyle and white men can't jump. Just killing them. One move was like an up and under. Hold on. I have it in my notes here. There were back to back plays. One was like a jab step with a turnaround when nine thirty two to go. They were actually down thirty eight to thirty one. And then there was another great play where he kind of went up and under and had like a turnaround move similar to Jimmy Butler. Those were great plays. I thought Duncan Robinson getting switched off with Giannis guarding him one on one and Duncan getting to the cup was a hell of a play. Those are my aggressive insurance by Lynette plays of the night. And yes, this show is not giving credit to a Milwaukee Bucks player for a play of the night. Sean, Brian, do you have any others that we should quickly touch on before we slide to the next subject? I guess I'll go. Bam had quite a few. The one that stood out in my mind, he caught on the left baseline. I guess it would be in the second half, probably the third quarter. He jabbed right, shot faked and drove left on the baseline, kind of two hand finish off the glass. There was contact, but he didn't get the foul on Lopez. I mean, he is just tying stuff together. No hesitation anymore. He doesn't always go to that fake, fake, fake, jab, jab, jab. He just catches and shoots. That time it was great footwork to create space. And it's great to see from Bam. It's true. And Bam, that little jab step move that he's working with, he feels so comfortable with it that it's like becoming his signature move. And I love the fact that he's starting to build in signature moves of some kind. I know that's probably cliche to talk about. The fun thing about tonight, although it was a loss, is that you saw Kyle and Joshua referenced earlier play better. Duncan played. Okay. Kevin Love at 10 rebounds. Jaime Hawkins, though, Brian, he had my play of the night, six assists, four rebounds. We're going to start there and we're going to talk about Caleb, too. So I guess think about Caleb as I'm asking you this question, Jaime Hawkins and Caleb Martin are playing great tonight. They need to continue to do that, particularly in shorthanded matchups. But Jaime Hawkins, dog, like he is on some first team, all rookie trajectory, doing that stuff all night. What was your play of the night and what was your take on Caleb and Jaime? Jaime in the second quarter with about 10 minutes left. I was looking for it. That's why I was looking over here. I wanted to make sure I got it right. He got the ball in the corner. Bobby Portis went to go guard him. He up faked. He took him to the mid range area, drove into the paint, step back, little mid range jumper. He's got a real bag. We were actually all texting each other trying to figure out, like, what's the comparison there? I'm not at liberty to reveal some of the comparisons because I feel like we want to nail them down a little bit more. But, you know, I will say that him saying Jimmy Butler is his favorite player makes a lot of sense. But he at this stage has more talent than Jimmy had just naturally. And the reason I say that is because Jimmy has he's an unprecedented superstar who's had to work for everything. He wasn't recruited out of out of college. You know, I'm out of high school and wasn't really looked at as like an elite prospect out of college either. He was barely a first round pick. Jaime Hawkins Jr. was a four star. Jaime Hawkins Jr. was a a first round pick who, you know, maybe could have gone even higher than he did, depending on some teams, even though some people thought he was going to be a later first round pick. He was a very, very high level college player at a very, very high level school. He played in the final four at UCLA, you know, and he is really somebody who I think is if he's not already, he's going to be proven to be too good to not start. He's going to get the minutes regardless and he's finishing. So that's what matters. But I think you're going to have to ask yourself some questions if, you know, you're looking at the the starting lineup for this team moving forward and for the rest of the season. Is it better with Jaime Hawkins in it? And if so, where is he going to be? Because it's not going to be a three is not going to be a two, I don't think. So then do you play him at the four? And then does that really make a lot of sense? I think Haywood Highsmith is somebody who going into the season, I projected as being the four long term in terms of this season. But Jaime Hawk is maybe just too good, you know, to just keep him sitting there. But he does make sense for now in the role that he he he has. And maybe he'll hit a rough patch at some point, a rookie wall. That's entirely possible. But I think he's just he's he's a lock for all rookie and for All-Star weekend. Even if this continues. Yeah, and I'm definitely in Ethan's ear to try to get to All-Star weekend. It's in Indianapolis this week. I'd like to go to St. Elmo's and get steak and shrimp cocktail, but also not on the company dime. I'm willing to pay Ethan, but also because I think the heat will be well represented at All-Star weekend in various ways. Hawkins could find his way into the dunk contest if he's not careful. I'm totally speculating on that. Well, yeah, yeah, because everyone else will say no. So they're going to have to find four people to do it. But to your point, I mean, Duncan Robinson could be in a three point contest. Henry Hawkins could be in I don't know what they're going to call it, but the rookie challenge or whatever the case may be. Sean Caleb Martin, he's looking better. He's getting smoother. There's still moments where he looks like a little herky jerky, but I'm feeling better and better as I watch the games go by. Josh needed tonight. I felt like this is a big confidence boost. Kyle, we get one of these a month. Caleb Martin, though, specifically, I like what I saw because I feel like they're going to need him to round into form here. What what did you like best about what you saw from his performance? Yeah, I think collectively the whole group, you know, if they didn't step up, this was not going to be a game. And it looked like it was not going to be a game early. You know, I think Caleb, you can just see he's becoming more fluid. He's becoming more confident, I think, in his actions. And I think that's what's creating the fluid movement. He's not hesitant. He's getting in better shape, I'm sure. And with Josh, you know, we had the injury. He's getting into that point, too. And I think he's about a couple of steps ahead of Caleb at this point. But it's good to see Josh's shot going down three or seven tonight from behind the arc, seven to 13 overall. It's you just need those guys to be ready. I mean, I think that their roles are going to change. Obviously, once Tyler comes back, if Jimmy was out there, their minutes may fluctuate a little bit. But it's a good thing for Spode to have so many options because you can play the hot hand. You're not completely dependent on one guy. And no matter what, I have to ride with Caleb Martin, even if his shot is flat and it's not going in and he's not giving you good defense. All right, we'll flip it. Let's go to Josh. And if he doesn't got it, well, let's flip it. Let's go to Jaime. And if Jaime doesn't have it, you know, like Heywood, you got it's great to have that depth. And I think over the course of the season, you're going to see that continue to play out. They need the depth because we keep having to go over these damn Eric Rubenstein injury reports. And now it's time for the official five on the floor injury report sponsored by our friend Eric Rubenstein, the personal injury attorney born and raised in Lauderdale, Florida, lives in Miami, went to St. Thomas. He's a South Florida guy and a huge Miami Heat fan. But the important thing is he can help you get your money that you deserve when something happens to you. So reach out to our guy Eric Rubenstein. Again, Eric Rubenstein dot com or ask about me. I got you on Instagram. And now the injury report. So tonight's injury report for the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks game, essentially the things you need to know. Jimmy Butler and Heywood Highsmith didn't play. Both were questionable. I think both could have played, but they're being very, very careful. Heywood Highsmith was closer than Jimmy. They're going to be careful with Jimmy's ankle. Jovich, Orlando Robinson and Cole Swider were all here as well as Thomas Bryant, but all were DMP coaches decisions. R.J. Hampton continues to be rehabilitating an injury. Tyler Hero as well. And Drew Smith is out for the year. So that's where we stand injury wise. That's why you saw all these guys step up. Final thoughts, y'all. We're going to close this show. Sean, go ahead. I was going to say, don't forget Kevin Love. He continues to have the league lead and hits to the face. He should be ready for next game. But remember, he took that contact. That's his 36th of the season. Thanks for Eric Rubenstein for sponsoring that. He does get his face in messed up situations all the time. Brian, final thoughts on tonight's game. I think fans are going to be like, damn, they really painted lipstick on that loss. And we know that there was bad stuff that happened in lack of execution and fourth quarter meltdowns. But they're undermanned. Your final thoughts before we close. I mean, sure, but they're still ahead of where they were last year. I mean, they're on a not a great losing streak. No losing streak is a great one. This is three games, and it started with what I thought was the stupidest loss of the season so far and may continue to be that, you know, at Madison Square Garden. Just a dumb, dumb loss. The Heat, by the way, this is I'm going to be the fourth quarter guy, but this is glaring for me. They're five and 13 and fourth quarters, and they are minus 67 in fourth quarters this season. Now I'll say this. 12 of their first 17, now 18 games were on the road. You have a lot of home games coming up. You have to protect your home court. Difficult to do against Milwaukee without your best player, but you and your third best player. But you have a lot of home games coming up, many of which I think are pretty winnable. You have Indiana two straight. I get the feeling that they're going to win one of those because it's hard to beat teams twice. And I'm curious to see, like, legitimately how they match up with the way Indiana plays offensively. It's going to be chaotic. Indiana's hit their over like an all but two games so far this season legitimately. And then you have, you know, you have two straight games against Charlotte, one on the road, one at home, and you have the Chicago Bulls back to back times at home. You're going to have to beat one of those teams twice, you know, at least. And, you know, Minnesota is going to be tough. Orlando looking on down the line, and obviously you have the 76ers at Christmas. So I think you need to put together a run here since you have so many home games coming up because after Christmas you're going to be back out on the road for a West Coast road trip. I think it's going to be the first West Coast road trip this year, if I'm not mistaken, and that's going to have Golden State, Utah, both L.A. teams and Phoenix. So not entirely easy, but some winnable ones there. But ultimately, I think they're in a better spot this year than they were last year. They need to get healthy, which is the case every season. You know, we could have the Nicoli Ovitz conversation because he didn't play today, but I didn't I didn't think that they were going to play him today. Like, so we can talk about that another time. I do think, you know, there are some guys that I want to see, but R.J. Hampton, he's hurt. And I think that he is somebody who could take advantage of no Drew Smith, no Tyler Hero, Kyle Lowry can't play, but so much or you probably shouldn't play him that much, but he's hurt. So, you know, I think over the course of the year, we'll get a look at some guys and they're ten and eight. It's not awful, but the fourth quarter thing is the is the big thing for me more than the health. The fourth, the fourth quarter ---- has to stop if they're going to be like a good NBA team this year. Amen. I could not echo those sentiments enough. Ten and eight, seven seed in the east. And you bring up a great point that I'll close with by reinforcing when you got to play Indiana twice, Charlotte twice and Chicago twice, even though those teams aren't daunting because you have to play each of them twice. There's something about that that can get weird. And so it's not as easy a schedule as you would take it at face value. So the heat do have to definitely get their bleed together. They've lost three straight. They lose again to the Miami or to the Milwaukee Bucks. They tried to spoil the Dame Lillard visit to Miami. Did he get booed? I missed that in the beginning. He did get booed because everyone knows where he wants to be and everyone knows where heat fans want him to be as well. We're not going to avoid that. Thank you to Sean. Thank you to Brian. We will have you covered for the rest of the week as the Miami Heat gear up for the next game on Thursday against the Indiana Pacers. Have a good night. Sports Network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad.