It has been a tumultuous season for the Miami Heat to say the least as they are currently in the home stretch of year ahead of a crucial matchup against the Denver Nuggets Wednesday night. It's important for a lot of reasons as despite every game being a must-win because of seeding, the team hasn't had that many quality wins against tough opponents as pointed out by Heat stars Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin.
Even with all the hurdles and walls placed in front of the team, Adebayo still has one goal in mind and that is winning a championship with Miami according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Having been in two NBA Finals with the team, they just recently lost to the Nuggets last season, their opponent Wednesday night.
“For us, we still have something to prove because we haven’t won anything,” Adebayo said. “For us, our ultimate goal is getting to that championship and winning it. Nobody wants to say we got this far and it was a great run. Because at the end of the day, you still have that bad stomach feeling of we didn’t get it done.”
Caleb Martin on Heat's performance against quality teams
Per Chiang, the Heat are 14-20 facing teams with a winning record at the current moment and a whopping “0-10 (0-3 vs. Boston Celtics, 0-2 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, 0-1 vs. Nuggets, 0-2 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves and 0-2 vs. Los Angeles Clippers) this season against the teams currently with the NBA’s top five records.” Martin had no hesitation when asked if the game against Denver has more weight than most contests and if injuries had a part to play in their performance.
“It definitely does,” Martin said. “Just because we haven’t done that great with the top teams in the league right now and having a rematch like that.”
“This year, we’ve had a lot of guys out, including myself, early on against top teams,” Martin continued. “So you can try to look at how those games have played out. But if you go down the list of who has been available, who just returned, there’s a lot of type of different stuff. That is the reality of the year, people are going to be out. But that’s just what it is and I’m not one of the ones who likes to make excuses and say, ‘Guys have been out, guys have been hurt.’ We can still win games.”
Martin believes Heat are a “championship-caliber team”
With only 18 games left in the regular season, the Heat are still trying to prove that last postseason wasn't a fluke. For Martin, he firmly believes that Miami is a “championship-caliber team.”
“That we’re a championship-caliber team,” Martin said. “At the end of the day, it’s a tremendous accomplishment with what we’ve been able to do [in past seasons], especially with the type of team that we put together and the injuries we had during those important times.”
Miami is 35-29 on the season which puts them eighth in the tightly packed Eastern Conference. After the disappointing loss to the Washington Wizards last Sunday, the Heat are looking to snap a three-game losing skid against Denver before heading on a four-game road trip right after.
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