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Eric Nehm: FINAL: Heat 145, Pacers 125 - Antetokounmpo 31pts/17reb/10ast - Adebayo 27pts/9reb/3ast - Thompson 25pts/3ast - Larsson 18pts/3reb/3ast - Mitchell 15pts/6reb/11ast - Wiggins 12pts The Heat are now 2-4 on the season. They start a 5-game West Coast trip on Monday vs. the Lakers.
How does growing in the league later in your career differ from when you first arrived? Davion Mitchell: One thousand percent. Honestly, I feel like I had all the tools. That’s why I have this thing called Trust My Work, Trust Your Work. That’s kind of just been my thing, just believing, because honestly I feel like I’m the hardest worker in the league. I think mental was the biggest part, and it helped me just because I had to go through a lot of those things for me to even realize that it’s all mental. It was never physical; it was never that I couldn’t shoot, it was never that I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, didn’t jump high enough. It was none of that. It was just always the mental part.
How did you realize your biggest challenge was mental, not physical? Davion Mitchell: Nah, I just knew I was doing the work, and I knew I was killing it in practice; I was killing it in the workouts, I’m killing it in one-on-ones because I’m not thinking about other things. I’m just, all right, this is practice, so I get the hoop, I’m not thinking of other things, and then when I got in the game, I felt like I was trying to play perfect. And then I knew it was mental because I’m like, I didn’t try to play perfect in practice. I didn’t try to play perfectly when I’m playing one-on-one. I’m just out there playing free, and then I realized that damn, like I’m really putting this game, a basketball game, instead of like practice, I’m making it bigger than what it is. I’m still doing the same thing. It’s still the same goal; it’s still the same ball. It’s just me looking at the whole situation and putting emotion on it, and I had to stop doing that.
What is the hardest part about continuing to develop in the NBA? Davion Mitchell: I would just go back to the times when I was in Sacramento and Toronto, where I was getting DNPs. I was the ninth pick when I’m thinking that I’m gonna play a lot. I’m a Top 10 pick. I was on top of the world, obviously everyone gets in the NBA, but I accomplished something that I’m like dang, I didn’t expect me to be the ninth pick in the league or whatever, but then I had to look at it like these DNPs taught me something. It taught me more about myself, that just because I’m in this situation right now doesn’t, it doesn’t make me who I am. I still work on my game. I played in my mind, like, oh, I gotta play tonight, so I gotta work extremely hard. I worked a little bit harder because I knew I probably wasn’t playing, so in the moment, I just didn’t get down on myself. I just looked at this situation and thought that my opportunity is gonna come somewhere, someplace. Maybe if it’s not the NBA, maybe it’s just a lot of things you can do to get better at.
Zachary Weinberger: #Heat drop to now 0-4 on the season as they lose 113-109 to the Mavs. An absolute frustrating loss as the team has yet to get in the winning column. Giannis with 29 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists. Davion w/ 21, Bam with 8 points (3-10 FG) and 8 rebounds.
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Eric Nehm: FINAL: Mavericks 113, Heat 109 - Antetokounmpo 29pts/15reb/11ast - Mitchell 21pts/2ast/3stl - Wiggins 12pts/3reb - Larsson 12pts/4ast The Heat are now 0-4, continuing to look for answers to try to get into the win column. They play again on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Anthony Chiang: Heat guard Davion Mitchell after shootaround this AM: "You got to expect with someone like Giannis, one of the greatest players in the league, it's going to look different than what we did last year. The way we play is going to look a little bit different, because he's one of the greatest players in the league. So he needs his touches. People got to figure out how to find a rhythm with him, and I think people are. We got to get used to it."
Heat Central: Davion Mitchell says the Heat need to stop DISRESPECTING other players on defense: “We have to have a sense of urgency and not let people get comfortable. I think sometimes we disrespect people because they don’t have a ‘name’. That’s when they get going, get the rhythm, and it’s hard to stop. We have to stop disrespecting people in a way”
Eric Nehm: FINAL: Timberwolves 131, Heat 106 - Antetokounmpo 35pts/6reb - Adebayo 15pts/7reb/4ast/3stl - Wiggins 11pts/2reb - Mitchell 11pts/10ast - Thompson 10pts The Heat are now 0-1 this season. Antetokounmpo put up great numbers, but Miami just didn't have any answers defensively.
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Heat Central: Stan Van Gundy is OUT on the Miami Heat and says Bam Adebayo is overrated. “I’m not as high on Miami as people are… The shooting they added compromises them badly on the defensive end of the floor. Even though he was great last year, I’m not sold on Davion Mitchell as a full time starting PG… I’d actually be surprised if they were in the top 6… I’m not a fan of their roster. — I think Wiggins is underrated but I think Bam is a little overrated, particularly at the offensive end of the floor. I’m not sold on them.” Damn.
Davion Mitchell: "My individual goal is to win Defensive Player of the Year. It is all I got. No statistical goals, Defensive Player of the Year is just one of my goals."
But when the Heat took the floor against the Raptors, Antetokounmpo set multiple screens for Davion Mitchell in semi-transition to initiate pick-and-roll actions between the point guard and big man. Antetokounmpo’s second of seven assists came on a set where he found Andrew Wiggins for a corner 3 as the roll man in a middle pick-and-roll with Mitchell. Overwhelmingly, the Heat still played at the same fast pace as last season and created most of their space through cutting and movement, but Antetokounmpo was setting on-ball screens for his teammates and trying to use his gravity to create for his teammates. And that was, well … different. “I think that’s something to get used to because last year, we didn’t run that many ball screens, especially in transition,” Mitchell told The Athletic after Miami’s practice Wednesday. “So, I gotta kind of get used to it just because of how much gravity (Antetokounmpo) brings and how much everyone knows he can finish at the rim.”
Heat Central: Davion Mitchell on Giannis and Bam matching up in training camp: “Iron sharpens iron. They one of the two best front courts in the league. There’s no better defender than Giannis for Bam and vice versa.”
