The Miami Heat have made the play-in for three-straight seasons. If the season ended today, at 31-28, it would make it for a fourth.
Thankfully for them, the season doesn’t end today — or tomorrow.
With 23 games left, Miami is currently 1.5 games back of the Philadelphia 76ers, who they square off with on Thursday. Asked whether or not it the current margin-for-error puts pressure on the Heat to win after their 128-117 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra delivered another Spo-ism.
“I hope so,” he said. “That pressure is a privilege. I want our locker room to feel that pressure. We need to push our game to a higher level.”
Since the start of the New Year, Miami is a middling 13-13, albeit with the 10th-best NET Rating, outscoring opponents by 2.2 points per 100 possessions over that timeframe. They are 5-4 in February, including four wins over their last six against Washington, New Orleans, Atlanta and Memphis. Those four teams are incentivized to win, but Miami can only beat those who are in front of them — outscoring those teams by an average of 22.5 points per game.
Though the Heat came crashing back to reality against the Giannis-less Bucks, once again showing they’re capable of losing to any team this season. Over half (12) of Miami’s final 23 games will be against teams that own a top-6 seed, including two more against Philadelphia and one more against Orlando, a team that’s bested the Heat already four times this season, including once in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals.
Pressure creates diamonds. Miami is just 10-20 against teams .500 or better this season, the fifth-worst record in the East and 11th-worst in the NBA. It hasn’t shown it can consistently beat good teams, and will have to build some consistency if it looks to avoid play-in territory once again.
And that begins on Thursday.
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Spospeak…we are a very privileged team. And never forget “WE have enough “ !
Pulling in $15M a year for mediocrity is also a privilege.
15 mil daM id work for a mil mickey and guarantee get same results,i would have sent shnozzy to sioux falls 15-20 games into season.just on that im better than eric the fraud.its a players league stevie wonder would be as good as eric,do u think the coaches of okc minn det are the reason there teams are good lol
It comes down to coaches and players.
Milwaukee beat the Cavs last night. Takes a little of the sting out of our loss the night before. But, a closer look reveals the Bucks beat a very depleted Cleveland team. But still, for some reason the Bucks are playing decently without the Freak, even though they don’t have a lot to play for.
Their younger Bucks are carrying the team while gaining valuable crunch time experience. They are also down a few rotation players. Milwaukee should be able to climb up the ladder quickly once Giannis returns in early March.
With a little luck, the Heat might claw their way into the 6th spot or tank their way into the 11th. Check out the standings:
#5 Toronto 34-25
#6 Philly 32-26 1.5gb
#7 Orlando 31-26 2.0 gb
#8 Miami 31-28 3.0 gb
#9 Atlanta 29-31 5.5 gb
#10 Charlotte 28-31 6.0 gb
#11 Milwaukee 28-31 6.0 gb
Miami is 3.0 games behind 5th place Toronto and 3.0 games ahead 10th place Charlotte and Milwaukee, which are tied for 10th place and the final play-in spot. The Bucks are 8-2 in their last 10 games. The Hornets are 7-3. The Heat is 5-5. Do the math.
Same conversation as last year deja vu. It would be in Mia best interest to soft tank for a better pick. Feel like team haven’t had a top 10 pick in 10 years winslow whom I’ve said in an earlier post was only picked so Boston wouldn’t pick him (thanks Pat) No ss coming in free agency because it doesn’t really exist anymore….and we’ve become the leverage team for players and their agents either for more money or just postering never actually getting to go to the dance. Think this is a great draft to get actual talent in the building because no real whale is walking into them kaseya center doors. Not Giannis not Mitchell kd and the new flavor of the week pipe dream teaser ant man.
Get in the playoffs as the sixth seed have to face who NY Bos cle again no thank you team will be out in 4/5 games again but what do I know it’s only been two years of the same ol same ol bullshit
“I mean round and round the mulberry bush”
I agree with everything you say here. Except, not even sure the soft tank would give us much short term help, although it would be a start on our long term return to relevance. We still have too many questions with contracts, including with two of our best players, our best in Powell and our third best, in Wiggins. And then we have the two seemingly unmovable contracts, Jovic and Herro (who knows what is going to happen with Tyler’s upcoming contract), and then there’s the Rozier fiasco. It may be that we will have to go thru a few more lean years before we can put a competitive team together.
For me, the biggest thing to getting started on improving is to face reality and quit the whale watching. Yes, whale acquisition appears to be our only quick and less painful solution. But, it really isn’t because it also becomes more unlikely a great player would come here to play with our roster. I also agree that the whales just use us for leverage because we never seem to learn our lesson.
Hey, I wish we could find a way to keep Powell and Wiggins, get compensated for Rozier, figure out what to do with Herro, and maybe then we could get a whale. But, it’s becoming less likely, not more. I do believe that if we lose either Powell or Wiggins, any hope of getting a great player to come here will be gone.
I totally agree with this! But don’t forget that ‘we can beat any team in the east’. I don’t fault them for their philosophy, but I’d rather take a chance on the lottery. I haven’t delved too deeply in it yet, but it is supposed to be a very deep draft.
maybe there showing the greek there is talent here please stay here rather than go to ny or la where he dreamed about playing as a young buck in greece
eric your team is void a ss wade retired jimmy quit.theres nothing u can do or say that matters.hopefully players play better