Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving described Dallas’ playoff state of affairs in simple — if vulgar — phrases after a loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday.
“It kind of looks like a bit of a [mess], to be honest with you,” Irving mentioned, “because we’re 37-40 and we’re trying to fight to get into a play-in game.”
The Heat’s state of affairs isn’t far off. Miami has dropped three straight video games to Brooklyn, Toronto and New York, touchdown in seventh place within the hotly contested Eastern Conference. Miami is only one 1/2 video games forward of Atlanta and Toronto and three 1/2 video games forward of Chicago with 5 video games left.
But with the stress mounting, Heat middle Bam Adebayo has confidence that the staff will persevere.
“There’s a lot of dudes in here that have been against the odds a lot more than just a couple of games,” mentioned Adebayo, who’s listed as questionable for Saturday’s sport. “So it’s easy to keep confidence when you see guys in the gym every day working to find a solution.”
Clues pointing towards upcoming Heat success haven’t been seen on the courtroom recently. Miami misplaced to Brooklyn by 29 factors on March 25, the evening it honored retiring veteran Udonis Haslem. Next got here back-to-back street losses to the Raptors and Knicks, who’re sitting comfortably within the fifth spot within the East.
If the season ended now, the Heat must get by means of the play-in spherical to maintain their season alive. But Miami has to battle Dallas, which is combating for its playoff life, earlier than happening the street for 3 video games in 4 days towards last-place Detroit, third-place Philadelphia and Eleventh-place Washington. The Heat then finish the season with a house sport towards the Magic.
“They all matter,” mentioned Adebyayo. “That’s pretty much all I can say.”
But just like the Heat, the Mavericks come to Miami on a downward development, dropping 5 of their final six video games and at the moment sitting outdoors the playoff image. They even have 5 video games left, so they may attempt to benefit from the Heat’s struggles.
“We would love for it to be easy,” ahead Caleb Martin mentioned, “but this is the reality of the NBA and how good teams are.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com