The Miami Heat are doing well.In retrospect, during a shocking seven-game losing streak that lasted nearly a month, the Heat won six of eight games before the All-Star break.
Bam Adebayo and Jaime Jaquez Jr. didn’t rest much. Instead, they attended the festivities of the weekend, but their teammates.Now they are getting ready to run. It begins with a warmup on Thursday before a four-game stretch against the Pelicans in New Orleans on Friday.With 27 games remaining, the Heat (30-25, sixth in the Eastern Conference) believe they are playing their best basketball. . is ahead of them.”
You want to dominate the highs of the season, but they will come regardless,” Tyler Herro said after Miami’s last win in Philadelphia before the break. “I think we’ve handled it well and there’s no better time to take a break than now.”Of course, feelings mean so much. There are some lingering questions and stories to follow in this final phase.
Here’s one way to look at it.Can everyone get healthy and then stay healthy?Some teams have dealt the Heat this season with injuries. Only the Grizzlies (311) and Trail Blazers (191) have missed more games due to injury, and neither team is in the playoff picture. The Heat have missed 190 games due to injury this season, by far the most of any team in the playoffs.Injuries to Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson will add to that total after the break.
Rozier, who has a sprained right knee, could return in the coming weeks after avoiding a major injury.Richardson’s timetable for his return from a dislocated right shoulder is more uncertain. Players have missed weeks, even months, with similar injuries. But any timeline at this point would be speculation.
The Heat did well with the addition of Delon Wright in the offseason. Wright, 31, is a reliable veteran who can defend, handle the ball and make open threes. He provides much-needed depth in the backfield and could even claim a rotation spot depending on how the next few weeks go..
Jimmy Butler is expected to return to the New Orleans lineup on Friday after missing Miami’s last three games to attend to family matters. Before the unexcused absence, Butler played his best two-way basketball of the season.In his previous seven games, Butler scored at least 20 points in six consecutive games for the first time all season and finished with 17. -point, 11 rebounds, 11 assists triple double.
The Heat are 12-6 with a 24% Butler usage rate, so expect the stars to carry the load.Injury issues aside, the Heat don’t have much else. Jaime Jaquez Jr. returns to form after missing six games in January with groin soreness. Bam Adebayo has been dealing with a sore hip for most of the season, but the All-Star break should provide some much-needed rest.With less than two months left in the regular season, the challenge is to avoid a major one. events injuries The Heat’s strength has been their depth, but they will need their best players to make another deep playoff run..
