The Miami Heat are 31-28 and currently find themselves holding on to seventh place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings. With the regular season winding down, the Heat look to distance themselves from the league’s newly-installed play-in tournament, a wildcard style situation to determine the final seeds for each conference and to potentially secure a guaranteed spot in the upcoming NBA postseason.
The Heat have battled all season to remain in postseason contention, but they have a tough road ahead of them as we enter the final stages of the 2020-21 regular season. Here’s a quick look at the five toughest matchups for the Heat in their remaining 15 games.
5 . Minnesota Timberwolves
This may be surprising to many, but it’s without question that the Miami must circle their calendars against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who Miami hosts on May 7th. After losing to the Timberwolves in embarrassing fashion, the Heat appeared to have reached a new low in the season, giving up 119 points to one of the league’s bottom-worst franchises.
Given that the Timberwolves are situated to miss the NBA postseason for the 17th time in 18 years, they haven’t allowed their abysmal record to deter them from competing every night. With the remaining games Minnesota has on their schedule, they’ll look to fully embrace their youth, including 19-year old Anthony Edwards.
After struggling for most of the season, record-wise, much could be said for the shooting efficiencies of Edwards, Minnesota’s first overall selection in the 2020 NBA Draft. However, in the last 15 games, Edwards has seemingly shown resistance towards the rookie wall and has shown more consistency in his game.
In the last 15 outings, he’s averaging 22.5 points per game on 45 percent shooting from the field. The Heat must contain Edwards, as well as Timberwolves All-Stars Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell.
While being one of the worst defensive teams in the league, the Timberwolves still look to score heavily, as they outrank Miami in points per game. As, mostly, always with the Timberwolves, they might not be that good but they can still fill it up.