The Miami Heat were defeated by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. Even in a meaningless game with seeding determined, we learned things.
The Miami Heat faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night in their second to last game of the eight seeding games. This game didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of it all, as the Miami Heat had already locked up their seeding position.
If Pacers hold off Rockets, no meaningful playoff-race games will remain in Eastern Conference. With an Indy win:
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) August 12, 2020
No. 1 Bucks vs. No. 8 Magic
No. 2 Raptors vs. No. 7 Nets
No. 3 Celtics vs. No. 6 76ers
No. 4 or 5* Heat vs. No. 4 or 5* Pacers
(No difference with no home court.)
With the possibilities laid out by Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in his above tweet, this is what happened. Indiana handled their business on Wednesday in defeating the Rockets, which left the Miami Heat toggling between the four and five seed and with no real home court, it doesn’t matter where they end up.
Again though, while it didn’t matter as far as the playoffs are concerned, it was another opportunity for the Miami Heat to go out and get sharper. Here are the three things we learned in that attempt.
Goran Dragic is ready
With Goran Dragic missing time recently with injury, you worried if it might linger along into the postseason. Based on what we have seen over the last game or so, especially on Wednesday, he is just fine and even further, ready for the playoffs it seems.
He came out on fire, both as a creator for himself and others. He had one of his patented personal Dragon runs to open the game. He dropped passes between his legs in this one, found Derrick Jones Jr. for a few lobs, and even dove around a little (to our horror).
That ankle seems to be doing just fine. We don’t need to see any more from him, literally, as we need him as fresh as possible for the postseason.
The Miami Heat lost the game on Wednesday, but that’s alright. We learned things.
Tyler Herro is serious
We theorized some time back that Tyler Herro may be gearing up for “something special” in the postseason. This was based on the way that he played in the restart scrimmage games, but if you take into account this performance and what he did against Phoenix, then you know he is capable of doing some special things when he gets going.
Again, we know, we said it. This game was meaningless, but he still went off.
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He finished with a team-leading 30 points, six rebounds, and two assists. He was 3-6 from deep and 9-16 overall. Tyler Herro is serious and I think he’ll have quite the impact moving forward.
This Miami Heat team is ready for the postseason
For some reason, you can just see it in their play. They have gotten back, gotten their legs up under them, and have shown that intensity you expect this time of year, well, not this year but you get it.
Everyone looks on their games. Bam Adebayo was in early foul trouble in this one, but he has had great performances over the last few.
Neither he nor Jimmy Butler played in the second half, but the first half was mostly Miami Heat, with them getting out to an early 18 point lead. They weren’t able to maintain as big a margin, but every time they took a punch, they threw one right back.
That’s what you like to see. All that combined tells you that they are ready.
The Miami Heat are back at it Friday against the Indiana Pacers for the second time in less than a week. Jimmy’s rival, T.J. Warren, definitely won’t play for the Pacers and who knows how many Heat guys will go. We’ll be right there though, either way it goes.