While the Heat started the season 0-4, there's no denying that the pitchforks came out from within the sports world, and the overreactions started about the outlook of this team. As the Heat have bounced back and are now on a two-game winning streak after the 145- 125 win over the Indiana Pacers in the first game of NBA CUP group play, the team has made enormous strides, though there is still work to be done.

With the outside noise quieting down after Miami's last two wins, there could be others proclaiming the team as Eastern Conference favorites, despite being six games into the regular season. As giving out a drastic impression is common in our social media age, the Heat were due for a slow start to the season, making the 0-4 start less surprising to me than to most.

Heat's defense needs to get drastically better

In the same boat, while the last two games were encouraging, this team still has aspects to clear up, especially on the defensive side of the ball, ranking 26th in the NBA in defensive rating (117.2). Even head coach Erik Spoelstra, after the Pacers win, would say that Miami is “not close” to putting it all together.

“The league is tough, and it's challenging,” Spoelstra said. “Tonight they had us scrambling in the first quarter, and that's credit to their system. Even with guys out, they played their style, and if you're not really ready for it and down ready early, there can be some confusion, and then you end up scrambling. And anytime you saw us in a closeout game in that first quarter, it was leading to a blow-by drive or a wide-open three. We got a better handle of that. Started changing a little bit on our pick-and-roll coverages. That helped, but the most important thing in this league, if you want to defend, you have to have a collective team mentality to do really tough things.”

“If you think it's going to be easy, you're sorely mistaken. You have to do really challenging things over and over and over and over, and be disciplined to do it without mistakes. And even when you do it right, you still can get scored on. But you do it over and over, where you're making it tough, and you're getting disciplined, and collectively doing that. That's where you start to wear on teams. We're not there yet. We're not close, but we're starting to make strides in that direction.”

Erik Spoelstra on how close the #Heat are to being a four-quarter defense and what’s holding them back:

“The league is tough and it's challenging. Tonight they had us scrambling in the first quarter, and that's credit to their system. Even with guys out, they played their style,… pic.twitter.com/2WG9XwJz3u

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) October 31, 2026

Heat's starting lineup needs to be consistent

The defensive side of the ball has yet to click 100 percent with one another in the starting lineup with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, and Klay Thompson, despite each holding their own. While the defense seems less concerning since one has to think Spoelstra and the breadth of talent will figure it out, the offense still has to maintain consistency.

The first five games have been ugly statistically for the starters, being outscored by 30.1 points in 53 minutes together. Another surprising statistic shows that the starting lineup being among the 19 in the league with at least 40 minutes played together, they had the worst net rating before Friday's game.

It was much better against the Pacers, outscoring them by 20 points in the 13 minutes logged with the five, but it needs to stay consistent, which has yet to be seen, especially entering a tough five-game road trip on the West Coast. It all starts with the Heat's dynamic duo of Antetokounmpo and Adebayo, as while it started convoluted, the chemistry has been improving.

“I mean, y'all see what it can be, you see the potential for us,” Adebayo said after Friday's victory. “We got to keep staying consistent, keep trying to collect these wins, and obviously really worry about us because once you start winning a little bit, and obviously we had expectations to start the season anyway. But for us, it's really just buying into us being consistent and us keep working at this.”

Antetokounmpo recoded his second triple-double with Miami, logging 31 points, 18 rebounds, and 10 assists, and though having a slow start of his own, Adebayo has impressed the last two games, culminating with 27 points and nine rebounds on Friday.

The Heat's flow will be vital this season

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What has helped the Heat play to their strengths is not looking mechanical and thinking ahead on the court, as flow has been vital in the last two wins. Antetokounmpo would stress that to ClutchPoints after the NBA Cup group play win, saying that Miami played more “uptight” in the 0-4 start, addressing the outside noise during that time.

“I think we're just playing basketball the first couple of games; we wanted it so much, and we were just kind of tight. When the game wasn't going our way, I feel like guys were just…not panicking, but just playing more uptight. At the end of the day, obviously you get criticized. We're doing our job, and we get paid a lot of money to do our job, which we understand,” Antetokounmpo said.

“And I always say that there's going to be times that people say that you're the worst, and there's going to be times that people say that you are the best,” Antetokounmpo continued. “You know, none of those two things are true. You're not as good as people say you are; you're not as bad as people say you are; you're always in the middle. Just show up, do your job. You know, and the next guy will do his job, and things will become easier for us. But it starts defensively. I feel like once we guard, and we take the air space, and we are physical, and we put our hands on the ball, and then their bodies, the game becomes easier for us.”

At any rate, the Heat look to keep the consistency going starting on Monday in the five-game West Coast road trip against the Los Angeles Lakers.