Miami Heat Have Felt The Loss Of P.J. Tucker All Season

The Miami Heat were beat to so many loose balls and badly outrebounded in Tuesday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

In other words, the Heat fell in a game P.J. Tucker would have had his imprint all over. It was just another reminder how much the Heat miss last year's starting power forward and intangibles player.

This is no disrespect to Caleb Martin, Kevin Love or Cody Zeller but there is a reason the Heat won nine fewer games this season and why they are fighting just to make the playoffs after reaching Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.

It's P.J. Tucker, the lone rotation player who is no longer around.

Sure, some of the Heat's struggles have to do with injuries but what Tucker brings is so invaluable. He is in position to be in title contention with a third team in three seasons. In 2021, helped the Milwaukee Bucks to a title. Last year he played a role in nearly getting the Heat to the NBA Finals.

And now he's doing it with the third-seeded Sixers and they couldn't be happier to have him around.

"I remember last year playing against him," Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey said earlier this week. "It was a particular time he would get maybe a tap-out rebound or grab a rebound and he'll hit a corner 3. He had like eight points and five rebounds but it felt like he had 25 points and 10 rebounds. The impact he was making in every single game that we played against him was huge. Now, I'm just glad he's on our team. I literally just told him, `I couldn't stand you last year."'

And the Heat probably feel the same about his absence this season.

MORE HEAT-RELATED STORIES

Takeaways from the Heat's loss to the Hawks. CLICK HERE

How Heat Twitter reacted to Tuesday's loss to Hawks. CLICK HERE

Charles Barkley's $1 billion bet backfires with Heat loss. CLICK HERE

For a look at some of the latest Heat apparel. CLICK HERE

If you wanna bet on any games at @PrizePicks or PrizePicks.com, use our link and code. They will match your first bet for up to $100. Here's the code: PR-R1YOFY6

Shandel Richardson covers the Miami Heat for Inside The Heat.

TWITTER: @ShandelRich

Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here

For any Heat or NBA questions, please email shandelrich@gmail.com