There used to be a cushion for nights such as these, when a roster is being reshuffled following the trade deadline, when illness deals a shocking blow to the rotation.
This season’s Miami Heat have no such leeway, which is why Saturday night’s 105-91 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans at AmericanAirlines Arena particularly stung.
With incoming guards Goran Dragic and Zoran Dragic introduced hours earlier, and with the team announcing shortly thereafter that Chris Bosh would be lost for the season with blood clots on his lung, the Heat looked a lot like healthy and whole Heat rosters have looked at home this season against similar marginal competition: Incapable.
“We have some work to do,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re not going to make excuses for it. It was a very emotional day.”
Even with the Pelicans losing forward Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson for the night, and perhaps longer, with injuries in the first half, the Heat fell behind by 25 early in the third quarter on the way to falling to 9-16 at home and 23-31 overall, now in an even more tenuous position in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
“Bringing in a dynamic player and losing a dynamic player, we have to start over,” guard Dwyane Wade said. “We can’t feel story for ourselves. We still have an opportunity to make the playoffs.”
With Goran Dragic missing his first five shots, and with Wade uneven in completing a back-to-back set in his first home game since Jan. 27, the Heat lacked nearly enough, even with Mario Chalmers making his first seven shots and closing with 20 points and with center Hassan Whiteside getting back on double-double track with 11 points and 16 rebounds.
“It looked like we were strangers out there on both ends of the court,” Spoelstra said. “We can fix that. We’ll continue to try to simplify the package.”
“We’ll keep scaling back until everybody feels comfortable with whatever package we have. We looked cluttered in the mind.”
For the Heat, the search for continuity presented another ragged ride, with assists at a premium.
“We have some work to do,” Spoelstra said. “We have some work to do and I think tonight showed that.”
Dragic started at point guard despite having little over a day with the team’s playbook, studying his iPad at his locker stall shortly before tipoff. He closed with 12 points and just one assist.
“It was tough,” he said. “Sometimes you didn’t know where to go.”
With Bosh’s absence now permanent, at least for the balance of the season, Spoelstra again opened with Udonis Haslem at power forward but then went with a three-guard alignment of Dragic, Chalmers and Wade to open the second half, with the Pelicans forced to go small because of their injuries.
Wade, who played for the second time after missing the previous seven games with a strained right hamstring, closed with 19 points on 8-of-23 shooting. He said playing alongside Dragic was different.
“I’ve got to get used to his speed,” he said. “We all do.”
Guard Eric Gordon led the Pelicans with 24 points, shooting 6 of 11 on 3-pointers.
Playing in Pelicans colors just two days after practicing with the Heat, guard Norris Cole, who was dealt to New Orleans in the three-team trade that delivered Dragic from Phoenix, closed with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.
“It was confusing,” Chalmers said. “Cole is like a brother to me.”
Of moving forward without Bosh, Spoelstra said, “You don’t replace that. You don’t replace what he gives you. But we have other guys that are very capable.”
He indicated a replacement roster move is possible.
“We’ve been discussing things behind the scenes,” he said.
Wade said he isn’t sure there can be a replacement.
“We’re going to miss him,” he said. “You can’t replace that guy.”
The Heat got off to another uneven home start, down 25-14 at the end of the first quarter and 52-42 at halftime.
It could have been worse if not for that 7-of-7 start from the field from Chalmers, who moved back to a reserve role.
As bad as it got for the Heat in the first half, it was worse for the Pelicans, who lost Davis and Anderson, a shoulder injury for Davis, a knee injury for Anderson. The Pelicans already were without starting point guard Jrue Holiday, due to a leg injury.
Yet even without those three, the Pelicans seized control in a third quarter that ended with New Orleans up 85-65.
The Pelicans were the only team the Heat had yet to face this season, with the two-game season series to conclude next Friday in New Orleans.
The Heat entered having won five of the previous six meetings, but lost 105-95 last season in New Orleans in the teams’ most recent meeting.
The Heat entered having won five consecutive home games against New Orleans, with their last previous home loss to New Orleans on April 7, 2009 in overtime.
The Heat are now 1-8 at home this season against the Western Conference.
The game concluded the Heat’s 13th back-to-back set of the season, with a 5-8 record on the second night of such pairings.
The Pelicans, who are in a dogfight for the final playoff berth in the Western Conference, also were completing a back-to-back set.
The Heat won Friday night in New York, while the Pelicans lost in Orlando.
The Heat complete the two-game homestand Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers, an Eastern Conference cellar-dweller that already has defeated the Heat this season at AmericanAirlines Arena.
iwinderman@tribpub.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ira.winderman.
