Clearly the Feb. 4 street recreation towards the Milwaukee Bucks was a glitch, that Miami Heat loss in some way determined by a sturdy eight factors.
Otherwise, hectic, harrowing, hair-raising.
With Saturday night time’s 107-103 time beyond regulation street victory over the Orlando Magic, 9 of the Heat’s final 10 video games have been determined by 5 or fewer factors.
“It feels like 10 out of 10,” guard Gabe Vincent mentioned with a smile, with the Heat’s highwire act now transferring on to Monday night time’s recreation towards the Denver Nuggets at Miami-Dade Arena.
It is also nothing new, the Heat’s 32-25 total file largely constructed off a 19-11 file in video games determined by 5 or fewer.
“It feels like we play a playoff game every night,” heart Bam Adebayo mentioned.
The numbers agree.
Of the Heat’s 57 video games this season, a league-leading 40 have been outlined as “clutch” video games, the NBA time period for video games that stand inside 5 factors at any stage of the ultimate 5 minutes. The Heat have a league-high 23 victories in these video games, at 23-17. Further, the Heat have performed a league-high 169 clutch minutes this season, when these video games have stood inside 5 factors.
“It’s must see and it’s going to be a close game,” coach Erik Spoelstra mentioned of the 2022-23 Heat-coaster. “It’s going to be a possession game. There’s going to be some crazy things that happen in the last three minutes.”
But whereas their coach is caught up within the second to the diploma of working on the courtroom amid play to name a timeout within the last seconds of regulation (sure, it occurred once more with the surprisingly fleet-of-foot Spoelstra on Saturday night time), to his gamers it has grow to be simply is one other night time on the workplace.
“They’re not afraid of the moment,” he mentioned. “My stomach is turning, and they love it. They love these kinds of games as competitors. That’s when they feel most alive.”
Not that it essentially is the sport of alternative, Saturday’s recreation requiring Jimmy Butler to play past the 28-minute restrict he had established amid the choice to play on back-to-back nights for the primary time since October, on Saturday night time going 33:44, together with all 5 minutes of time beyond regulation.
“It’s difficult,” Butler mentioned, “however I believe that’s the kind of squad that we’re. We prefer to make issues troublesome, I suppose placed on a present, I don’t know what you’ll name it.
“It could be a lot easier. But we take them as they come.”
Part of the difficulty has been the shortage of a knockout punch after pushing to giant leads. The converse, although, additionally has been true, with the Heat having proven a penchant for preventing again into video games, together with overcoming a 91-81 deficit with 6:41 to play within the fourth quarter of Saturday’s victory.
Largely, it has been an element of the Heat’s struggles to attain, the Heat exiting Saturday’s recreation final within the NBA at 108.4 factors per recreation, the league’s lone crew averaging fewer than 100.
“So many of our games be 98-99,” Adebayo mentioned. “It simply reveals the grit that we play with. We prefer to sluggish the sport down and win it within the mud.
“When we get in the playoffs, that’s when you start to really get those 98-99 games. We’ve had how many games decided by five points? So looking at that, we’ve all been comfortable in those situations.”
Through all of it, the Heat exited Saturday with the NBA’s ninth-best file, simply 1 1/2 video games behind the Brooklyn Nets for the No. 5 seed within the Eastern Conference.
“There’s great opportunity for us in the East and our plan is to take full advantage of it,” guard Tyler Herro mentioned.
So struggle to the end.
Of video games.
And of the season.
“We’re showing a lot of character,” Vincent mentioned. “We’re rising day in and time out. It’s unusual how comfy we’re with these shut video games. It’d be good to have a blowout from time to time, once we simply blow anyone else out.
“We compete, man. We compete. We might get down, but we pick ourselves up, we compete as a team and come together.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com