The Miami Heat may have figured things out in their win against OKC on Monday, but Boston is the real test.
The Miami Heat got a much-needed victory in their last contest over the Oklahoma City Thunder. While Jimmy Butler coming back certainly helped them as a whole and their case in that game, we wondered what exactly was it that caused them to look as good as they have looked all season.
To be frank, I could argue that Monday’s game was their most well-played game of the year. As mentioned though, we pondered upon the four possible reasons for the performance.
They were: the return of Jimmy Butler, as he had missed quite a few games with a tweaked ankle, Kelly Olynyk‘s addition to the starting lineup, as they hadn’t been able to find a consistent guy there, the Oklahoma City Thunder, as they don’t appear to be the team that they were last season, and lastly, the cutting down on the turnovers, as they only had about half as many turnovers when it mattered the most.
The Miami Heat will get to see if their tinkering has really paid off on Wednesday.
We ultimately concluded that it didn’t really matter which one of those was specifically responsible but that what’s most important is if they can continue to do what they did on Monday on the regular for the remainder of the season. They have an excellent opportunity to see if they can keep it up on Wednesday.
Facing the Boston Celtics, a team that just came off of a good win over Detroit and another over Toronto, the Miami Heat will have the ultimate opportunity to test the depths or the reality of that progress against a team that should be itching to face them after they were handled in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. You should all remember that, you know, the one with the big Bam Adebayo block over Jayson Tatum.
With that being said, this is the perfect game for this type of situation. It’s against a good team and coming off a game in which you were in total rhythm.
There is a good chance for carryover and with carryover should ultimately come a continuous building of confidence. If they can continue to develop that swagger and chemistry among that starting lineup that we saw on Monday, then this Miami Heat team might have a chance to do something special all over again.
That’s why the Celtics game on Wednesday should be a great test of their progress. It’ll be a pretty good game to watch too!