The Miami Heat won their last contest. That’s something that we haven’t been able to say all that often this year.
Losing their first matchup against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, to a Washington team without Russell Westbrook in the lineup nonetheless, the Miami Heat were determined to not let that happen again on Friday. They came out and they blew the doors off of the Wizards in American Airlines Arena.
Though a great win for a struggling Heat team and one that they had to have, it’s still nothing to be overly excited about. They did what they were supposed to do.
That stands for Bam Adebayo as well, who was the aggressive player that we need him to be every night. If we’re really being honest, it displayed just how bad the previous game was.
It showed the depths of the tragedy that was Wednesday night’s defeat to that same team. Moving on from that though, they are about to run up on a tough stretch of games.
If you want to be overly excited about something though, here is something you can get excited about… providing they can actually pull it off. With the way that they looked on Friday combined with the necessity to get back in this thing more sooner than later, here is what needs to happen.
The Miami Heat need to win seven of their next 12 games to get back in this thing more sooner than later.
Starting on Sunday, in their first of a two game series against the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat need to win at least seven of their next 12 games. To be quite frank, I really want to say eight of the 12, but seven would be a massive step in the right direction for this team.
The Miami Heat currently sit in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 8-14. Winning seven of their next 12 would pull them back to within four games of .500.
Just using the current standings as a gauge to make an example and with that record of 15-19, a .441 win percentage, that would currently put them slightly behind the eighth seeded Toronto Raptors. Though that still isn’t a playoff berth in itself, with the raptors only having a .455 win percentage right now, that’s practically a tie.
In any situation, the Miami Heat need to win some ball games. With two consecutive games against the Knicks, the Rockets, the Jazz, the Clippers again, the Warriors, the Kings again, the Lakers, the Thunder, the Raptors again, the Jazz again in February, and closing it all with a matchup against Atlanta on the last day of the month, there is no way that the Heat shouldn’t win at least seven of those games.
Again, I still say eight.