As the Miami Heat are 41 games into the regular season, it is officially the halfway point. How time flies as fans must remember last season like it was yesterday as the team went on a miraculous quest to the NBA Finals.
Like last season though, despite the 24-17 record, the Heat have had a tumultuous run dealing with constant injury problems and unusual performances like Wednesday night as they lost in ugly fashion to the Toronto Raptors. In the loss, Miami would go down 35 points at halftime, the largest deficit in franchise history.
However, the first half of the season is in the rear view mirror and the second half is ahead as it starts Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is excited for the rest of the season and warns the NBA and fans to “buckle up” as they are not hiding from any team that is in their way according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“Buckle up,” Spoelstra said. “We’re not hiding from anybody, so we’re looking forward to the second half of the season.”
Talking about those aforementioned injury issues, aside from the likes of rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kevin Love whose statuses are unknown for the near future, the team has their “Big three” in Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and Tyler Herro all healthy. The trio played the last two games together which combined, it has only been 10 contests played.
Butler is cool and collected about where Heat are
Butler was asked by the media in Toronto about where the Heat are placed in the Eastern Conference and if they are satisfied with that position. Currently, Miami is in sixth place which the star acknowledged can be better, but has a silver lining about their placement.
“We’re cool. Obviously, we can be better. But we’d rather be seven games over .500 than seven games under .500. So we’ll be just fine…,” Butler said. “I’m not too worried about that. There’s still time to get six and above. I don’t know where we are right now. There are plenty of games left.”
The 33-year old made his return in Monday's gritty win against the Brooklyn Nets and didn't seem to lose a step as he scored a game-high 31 minutes, playing in 40 minutes. Before that contest, he missed the last 11 of 12 games with calf and toe injuries.
Kyle Lowry said it's “hard to say” where the Heat are
Starting point guard Kyle Lowry admits that it is “hard to say” where the Heat stand at the midway point through the season. He mentions the time played with the three stars and even the other pieces that are still trying to work cohesively. However, the 37-year old is confident and says “we'll figure it out.”
“It’s kind of hard to say, all right we’re here or we’re not here,” Lowry said. “We haven’t had our three guys play together, just 10 games total. That’s not a lot of repetitions together. But even though they’ve been together for the whole last five years, everyone is getting better, everybody is getting different. So it’s challenging to try to figure out how to make sure that we get those guys going. They’re professionals and we’ll figure it out. So I don’t know where we are.”
Herro missed the majority of November with a Grade 2 right ankle sprain as he was one of the many on the team to miss significant time due to injury. However, he still leads the team in points per game with 22.4 and is in the midst of a career-best season as he said that the team knows their standard they can get to.
“I think we know what we’re capable of, we know what we need to do,” Herro said. “I think at this point, it’s just about getting consistent and bringing the right mindset and the right effort night in and night out.”
Miami will come back home for a short one-game stint Friday as they face the Atlanta Hawks in what should be another celebratory night as they retire Udonis Haslem's jersey. The team is 24-17 on the season which puts them sixth in the Eastern Conference.
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