The Stretch 4: James Johnson shines and two ugly defeats

As the Miami Heat continue to make that playoff push, it’s time for The Stretch 4 to take a closer look at their last week of play.

The Miami Heat have been the talk of the town lately. And no longer due to their cringe-worthy 11-30 record.

Instead, South Beach has landed on the radar of basketball fans around the league as a team this close to becoming a postseason contender. Yes, now 29-34, the team is ninth in the Eastern Conference, just one mere game behind the No. 8 Detroit Pistons. And you best believe the guys aren’t stopping till the job is done.

Now, that doesn’t mean mistakes won’t happen along the way. Or that they won’t still encounter hardships.

This past week for example, the Heat went 2-2, both losses being should-win games.

They started the week off on the road, falling 96-89 to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night. And while they got the 125-98 home win against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, Miami once again came up short on Friday evening, 110-99 in Orlando versus the Magic. However, the team closed out the week on a high note Saturday, when they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-92 at home.

As they say though, with every failure comes a lesson learned. So despite a split week, I still have three pros, coming your way.

Can we first talk about James Johnson?

Bloodsport. One half of the Brothers Johnson. JJ. Whatever name you wish to address him by, don’t forget to call his recent performance impressive.

Win or lose, Johnson had a terrific week, on several levels.

For starters, he finished Friday’s matchup against Orlando with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals. All in 34 minutes of play.

This, coming after a 14 point, 4 rebound, 3 assist, 2 block and 1 steal in 26 minutes evening, versus Philadelphia.

But Johnson deserves props for more than just his off-the-bench stat-line.

Because the energy he brings, is unmatchable.

Because that neck tattoo, is truly something else.

Because he doesn’t care who you are, good luck messing with him. Or his teammates.

Having started to get into it with Iman Shumpert, after the Cavalier went after the neck of Goran Dragic, James later ended up teaching him a thing or two anyways. At the cost of a few stitches in his own elbow.

https://twitter.com/Brendan_Tobin/status/838222595585638400

Seems fair enough.

After all, by now guys should know better than to come at Johnson. A second-degree black belt. A play-no-games Wyoming native.

Johnson may be averaging a career-high 12.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 blocks a game this year, but Heat Nation has so many more reasons to love the seven-year veteran.

So here’s to JJ sticking around for a long time coming.

#HeatLyfer

Speaking of playing hard, Rodney McGruder certainly deserves a shoutout.

There’s a good chance you never heard of McGruder before this season.

But halfway through 2016-17 and the 25-year-old has made sure his anonymity is a thing of the past.

In fact, he even has teammate Hassan Whiteside singing his praises. Something that the big man doesn’t often do.

"“Forget All-Rookie team, I think he should be one of the rookies looked at for Rookie of the Year. I feel like we praise losing too much. If you’re a rookie and you’re losing why are we praising you so much? This guy comes in and guards everybody. He guards [Giannis] Antetokounmpo to Kevin Durant to anybody, bro. He guards every team’s best player every night. I feel like we rewarding losing rookies too much. This guy is a winner.”"

Shots fired. But I digress.

McGruder was recently nominated for Rookie of Month in February, ultimately losing to Dario Saric, but still feeling good about the consideration.

"“It is nice to be mentioned.”"

So here I am, doing the same.

Labeled “the Scavenger” by Johnson, McGruder has arguably played some of the scrappiest basketball among the Miami Mafia. Whether he is running after loose balls, taking three-point shots out of the corner or going on his defensive-world-tour, the rookie really does it all.

And what’s crazy, is that the box-score never quite reflects just how vital to the Heat the guy really is.

For instance, over the last four games, McGruder averaged just 6.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists per matchup. But without him on the floor, Miami would have been so much worse off.

Because the guard is a one-of-a-kind defensive powerhouse.

One who, after going undrafted in 2013, has certainly found a system to call home.

And Miami Heat Basketball as a system, definitely worked against Cleveland.

Haters will say the Heat only beat the Cavaliers because LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, JR Smith and Kevin Love were out.

And that certainly helped Miami’s case.

But a win is a win. Good basketball is good basketball. Which is exactly what the guys, as a unit, played.

Leading the way was Dragic, who totaled 23 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists.

(You didn’t really think an edition of The Stretch 4 would go by without me mentioning Dragic, did you?)

Yes, the Dragon bounced back from a lackluster performance versus the Magic, where he shot a ghastly 3-of-14 from the floor (but still had 15 points, mainly off of free-throws), leading his team to victory. And close behind him came Whiteside with 20 and 13, going to work on Mr. Kardashian, Tristian Thompson.

(And I say that as a fan of Khloe, thank you very much.)

Tyler Johnson also found himself with a hot hand though, finishing with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, shooting 50 percent from downtown to boot. As did Wayne Ellington, with 12 points on 4-for-7 three-point shooting.

Really, the only guy who struggled was Dion Waiters, who was held to just 8 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists and 1 steal.

It happens.

However, the Heat can’t afford any more bad losses.

This one is pretty self explanatory.

Miami’s goal is to make the playoffs.

(Sorry to those who are still somehow riding the Tank Train.)

And that can only be done by winning games. All of the games.

(Okay, as many games as possible.)

Which means that when the schedule gods bestow matchups such as Dallas and Orlando upon them, the Heat have to do everything it takes to make sure they are automatic wins. No. Matter. What.

Next: Miami Heat: Goran Dragic red-hot in blowout win over Cavaliers

19 games to go. Let’s do this.