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.
The Miami Heat don’t have any ‘cupcakes’, as every team will be ready for the reigning Eastern Conference champs.
With last season’s playoffs fresh on their minds when they have met this season, the remaining matchups between the C’s and Miami are sure to be just as intense as any.
4. Boston Celtics
The Heat will wrap up their two final regular season matchups on May 9th and 11th with the Celtics, who are just a half-game ahead of Miami at 31-28. Miami defeated Boston in six games in the NBA playoffs last year and since then, the Celtics have played the Heat just once.
The Celtics haven’t been quite as dominant as they were last season, a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference just a season ago. Their ability to play as a team has been left in question, even with the superstar growth of Jayson Tatum and newly-crowned NBA All-Star, Jaylen Brown.
In their last matchup on January 6th, the Celtics escaped the Heat, 107-105, which ended on a game-winning put-back from Boston rookie, Payton Pritchard. The Miami Heat should be the team entering this contest with the last matchup on their minds and Jimmy Butler shouldn’t let them forget how it ended up.
3. Dallas Mavericks
The last time Miami shared the court with Dallas was on New Year’s Day, where they lost 93-83 to the Mavericks on their home floor. The Heat struggled to provide efficiency in their loss to Dallas, shooting 37 percent from the field and going a putrid 7-33 from beyond the arc.
Mavericks All-Star, Luka Doncic, had 27 points, seven assists, and led both teams with 15 rebounds.
As the Miami Heat do in the East, Dallas currently ranks seventh in the Western Conference and are hoping to avoid the play-in tournament, as they’re currently ranked ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, and the San Antonio Spurs.
Dallas is just 0.5 games behind the Portland Trail-Blazers for the sixth seed in the West. They’ll surely be looking to move up.
Can the Miami Heat exert their dominance over their conference again this season?
The Miami Heat had the Milwaukee Bucks’ number in the playoffs last year, but can they dial it up again? There will be a wall, that’s all anybody can be certain of.
2. Milwaukee Bucks
After absolutely dismantling them in last year’s Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, the Heat are looking at a still-competitive Milwaukee Bucks roster, while each team has traded blows in back-to-back outings in late December. Milwaukee defeated Miami 144-97 in their first season matchup on December 29th, while the Heat countered with a 119-108 victory of their own in the following game.
In the past half-year, the Bucks have acquired several veteran assets to help along two-time Most Valuable Player winner, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Those guys are P.J Tucker, Jeff Teague, and Jrue Holiday — who just signed a five-year and $134 million dollar extension in early April.
Milwaukee is hanging on to the third seed in the Eastern Conference and are two games ahead of the New York Knicks. With the East being tight, all of these games are important for every team in the mix.
1. Philadelphia 76ers.
The Sixers won both regular season matchups with the Heat, one of which was a, 137-134, overtime thriller. They’ll play the Heat in their final regular season matchup on May 13th.
Joel Embiid, undeniably a top-two 2020-21 Most Valuable Player candidate, is continuing to make his case in this season’s final stretch by leading the 76ers to a 39-19 record and a top-seed in the Eastern Conference. And even after missing three weeks due to a knee injury, Philadelphia’s superstar big man continues to prominently abuse his matchups.
In his last five games, Embiid is putting down averages of 35.4 points and 12.8 rebounds. Those are beastly figures.
The Heat will need their own All-Star Center, Bam Adebayo, to match Embiid’s intensity. Looking ahead a bit, a postseason matchup between the two dominant interior threats would create marquee television, for the record.
In support of Embiid, fellow All-Star, Ben Simmons, could perhaps bring home NBA Defensive Player of The Year honors, while new additions Danny Green, Dwight Howard, Seth Curry, and Head Coach Doc Rivers have help to cement Philadelphia into a potential championship contender.
The Miami Heat, again, don’t have any cupcakes on their remaining schedule. Every game is an important one and against a team capable of beating them.
They need to know this, remain aware of it, and act accordingly.