Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday night's 119-98 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers:
- What now, Joe Cronin?
- With each Heat trip to Portland come the questions of what might have been had the Trail Blazers and their general manager taken Heat calls when Damian Lillard said in the 2023 offseason he wanted to be dealt to the Heat.
- Instead, Cronin ghosted Pat Riley and wound up dealing with the Bucks, Suns and Celtics.
- At the time, the Blazers saw no need for Tyler Herro since they had Shaedon Sharpe, Anfernee Simons and Scoot Henderson.
- Now there is little doubt about how Herro stacks up (although Simons did have his moments in Saturday's third period).
- As for the rest of the Blazers' haul? Yes they turned part of it into Deni Avdija.
- There still are picks coming from the Bucks.
- Something still could be mined for Robert Williams III.
- And perhaps Deandre Ayton turns into more than empty statistical calories.
- Losing out on Lillard certainly was painful at the time for the Heat.
- But perhaps Cronin should have taken the Heat's call?
- Heat coach Erik Spoelstra for the fourth consecutive game opened with Herro, Jaquez, Bam Adebayo, Terry Rozier and Haywood Highsmith.
- That was with Jimmy Butler serving the fifth game of his seven-game suspension.
- Kel'el Ware and Jovic entered together as the first two off the Heat bench.
- Duncan Robinson and Alec Burks then followed together.
- With the appearance, Robinson tied Chris Bosh at 384 for 13th place on the Heat all-time regular-season games list.
- With two early fouls on Jaquez, Pelle Larsson then received his substantive first minutes in three weeks, making it 10 deep for the Heat in the first period.
- Spoelstra went in talking about consistency, with the Heat having won their previous two.
- "Look," Spoelstra said, "we can't relax at any time. You try to build that muscle (memory), that habit, particularly when you're on the road."
- Of the rebuilding Blazers, Spoelstra said before the game, "They have a lot of high draft picks. They are the biggest team in the league. And they have a lot of youth, speed, athleticism."
- A good deal of that height was missing with Ayton and Williams sidelined.
- Herro was asked pregame of the previous game breaking Robinson's Heat record for most consecutive games with a 3-pointer, which had been 69.
- "Just trying to be as consistent as possible," Herro said.
- Of taking Robinson's record, he added, "Honestly, we haven't even spoken about it. But it's cool I guess. I'll keep going."
- Herro extended his career-best streak of games scoring in double figures to 66. His previous high was 38 in a row.
- Herro also has now converted a 3-pointer in the season's first 37 games, having previously broken the longest such Heat 3-pointer streak to open a season, of 28 set in 1998-99 by Tim Hardaway.
- Herro's second 3-point attempt was the 2,250th of his career.
- It was the 400th double-digit scoring regular-season game in Adebayo's career.
- Saturday was the Trail Blazers' annual Celebration of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage.
- It came with Spoelstra, of Filipino ancestry, as one of the first and one of the few of that lineage coaching in American pro sports.
- "I feel a sense of pride of my heritage and I've hoped that it can inspire others to dream big," Spoelstra said before the game. "I definitely used to feel that when I first became head coach, that it didn't feel like I fit the mode of what a head coach looks like. So I probably had some imposter syndrome from that. Eventually I got to a point where I just embraced it. And I'm grateful for that."
- He added, "It's exciting to the Asians to be recognized."
- As part of his annual trip home, Spoelstra paid a visit to the Chiles Center, the basketball home of Spoelstra's University of Portland Pilots.
- "I haven't been to the Chiles Center for 20 years," Spoelstra said pregame. "I've been to the new practice facility; we've had practices there."
- He added, "It was good just to connect. And I want to support the program and the school as much as possible. It's dear to my heart."
- And, of course, back to his parents' home, as well.
- "And more important," he said, "I was able to go back home and had some time to break some bread with my parents."