Miami Heat: Next 30 Games More Important Than First 52
By Ehsan Kassim
Mercifully, the All-Star Break is here for the Miami Heat. They will have the next eight days off to recuperate and get back to full-health. The most important health being that of their star Dwyane Wade.
The first 52 games of the season didn’t go as planned for the Miami Heat. A hot start at 3-0 had fans feeling good about the team, that despite Josh McRoberts starting the season sidelined, due to his toe surgery in the offseason.
McRoberts appeared in only 17 games for the Heat before tearing his right lateral meniscus, and being ruled out for the season. On top of that, in the first 52 games of the season, Wade and Bosh have only played 28 games together.
Here’s another interesting tidbit from Danny Martinez, who does an excellent job in covering the team.
I think we've only had three games where Dwyane and Hassan both play more than 20 minutes. Wins vs BKN, at LAC and at CHI.
— Danny Martinez (@DannyMartinez4) February 12, 2015
Hassan Whiteside, the Heat’s breakout star of the first half, only started playing major minutes for the Heat just before the New Year. Hassanity started taking over the NBA as the calendar year flipped from 2014 to 2015.
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While Whiteside has been a revelation for the Heat, the revolving door for trips to the Heat trainers and team doctors have taken a toll on the team.
Here’s the missed game count from the Heat’s top players:
- McRoberts: 35 games
- Granger: 22 games
- Wade: 17 games
- Anderson: 17 games
- Bosh: 9 games
- Williams: 8 games
- Deng: 7 games
- Cole: 6 games
- Chalmers: 1 game
So through 52 games, the Miami Heat have had zero players play every game this season. Chalmers is the only player to not miss multiple games, and they only have five players who haven’t hit the double digits in games missed.
While using injuries as an excuse for the first 52 games is a no go for this franchise, it is something that cannot be ignored either. There has been zero continuation for the franchise and team chemistry is hard to build when players are never on the court with each other.
Entering the All-Star break, the Heat currently sit at 22-30, good for 8th place in the Eastern Conference. They have the same record as Charlotte, but lose ground because they lost the season series. The Heat are just one game ahead of Brooklyn, just 1.5 ahead of Boston, and two ahead of Detroit and Indiana.
The Heat have little room for error for the rest of the season. Making the final 30 games of the season a lot more important that preceding 52 games. While the team cannot redo the first 52 games, the next best thing they can do is to forget those games and play the final 30 games as a brand new season, hoping to make up ground in the playoff race.
Chasing the sixth seed is a long shot, unless the team really catches fire, as the Bucks sit at 30-23 in the sixth place, 7.5 games ahead of the Heat.
The Heat chase the division leading Atlanta Hawks by 20 games. That would have been an absurd prediction before the season for anyone to have made.
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Bosh, who has struggled mightily the past seven games without Wade, has a decent feeling of what the Heat need to do differently in the second half, or face the risk of watching the playoffs from home for the first time in seven long NBA seasons for the franchise.
"“I need a break. It’s been tough. It’s been a struggle.”Bosh has struggled with his shot more than usual this season (46 percent from the field) and said this season has been “an adjustment. Still getting used to how teams are reacting to me. It’s a daily battle. They’re really loading up on me, making it tough on me. If I’m not hitting easy ones, it makes it tougher. I know that shooting percentage will go up. When we get Dwyane up, that will help me out a lot.”"
The Heat need to go 20-10 to finish the season to finish with a winning record. They need to go 19-11 to reach the .500 mark for the season. A 15-15 stretch would result in a 37-win season for the Heat.
With the spoils of the past four seasons, none of those records would have appeased neither Heat fans nor the franchise before the season. But if the team found a way to finish with 42 wins this year, after all the struggles they faced, everyone associated with the team would likely call that a major victory.
Fifteen of their remaining 30 games are against teams that are currently above .500 for the season. This includes two games apiece left against the Cavaliers, Raptors, Pelicans, and the Eastern Conference leading Hawks. They play the Wizards, Bulls, Suns, Blazers, Spurs, Bucks, and Thunder each one more time.
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Of the 15 games against teams under .500, they play the lot of Charlotte, Brooklyn, Boston, Indiana and Detroit seven times, all teams that are in a tight competition for the 7th and 8th spots in the Eastern Conference.
So unless the Heat can turn on a switch and keep Dwyane Wade healthy, they are not going to have an easy time in the second half competing for one of the final two playoff spots.
While I fully expect the Heat to make the playoffs, as they are the most talented team of those vying for the final two spots, none of those teams are going to make it easy on the Heat, especially if they take nights off, like they tended to do many times during the first 52 games.
Unlike past seasons, there are not any championship pressures on the franchise, but missing the playoffs would be a major slap in the face to Wade, Bosh, and the Heat franchise, after the team set forward to prove that their championship runs were more than just LeBron James carrying the franchise.
Yes, the Heat are facing a daunting task, but knowing the leadership of the two captains, Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem, I’m willing to bet on the Heat down the stretch.