Miami Heat: Three keys to making the NBA playoffs
By Duncan Smith
Win the easy games and the absolute must-wins, and steal one from the best teams
Sounds easy enough, but there really are not many easy games left on the schedule for the Miami Heat. The Heat have the ninth-hardest schedule over the remaining 15 games of the season, and only in games against the openly-tanking New York Knicks and the stealth-tanking Dallas Mavericks should they be considered heavy favorites.
Needless to say, those are absolute must-wins. As for the games with closer margins, those figure to be the games that mean the most. While the Heat are going to be hard-pressed to beat the Milwaukee Bucks in their two remaining meetings or to sweep the Toronto Raptors, Oklahoma City Thunder or Boston Celtics, games against the Magic and Hornets allow them to control their own destiny.
The best teams on this list will likely batter the Heat as they do most teams, but if the Heat can run the table against the tankers and the teams on the lower rungs of the playoff race, they’ll make the playoffs.
Not taking care of business against the lesser and also-rans on the schedule will be devastating, and they could play themselves right out of contention.