Miami Heat basketball is back! Well, sort of.
Following the All-Star festivities in Cleveland, the NBA is set to resume, though the Miami Heat won’t return from their own break until Friday. With the rest of the league looking to get back on the court on Thursday though, it’s official.
With 23 remaining games on their schedule, only eight away games, and with one of those being in the state of Florida, their final game of the season against the Orlando Magic, the Miami Heat don’t necessarily have the toughest remaining schedule.
Also still sitting in first place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, though numerically tied with the Chicago Bulls and only separated by their head-to-head tiebreaker(Miami Heat 2-0 against Chicago on the year), their final stretch of games and the circumstances surrounding them should bode well for their chances of maintaining that top seeding as well.
That will be the topic of discussion here, so why not get it started. Here is the latest All U Can Heat Roundtable, taking a look at the final record and seeding predictions across their final 23 games.
Kenneth’s Take (@K_Said_Que)
The Miami Heat don’t have a ton of away games on the schedule in the final games of the year, but they do play quite a few high-quality teams. They’ll split a home and home matchup with the new look Philadelphia 76ers, while they also have the Brooklyn Nets on the agenda two more times this year.
For good measure and not to be outdone, they’ll face their conference-leading counterparts in the Chicago Bulls twice as well. In between, they’ll see the Milwaukee Bucks, the Warriors, the Suns (though without Chris Paul), the Cavaliers, the resurgent Celtics, and a pesky Toronto team, among others.
Even with all of that though, the Miami Heat should be just fine. They’ve played tough all year, winning some big games along the way.
Here’s the record and seeding prediction.
Prediction: 17-6 Across Final 23, 55-27 For Year, Number One Seed In East
With their team starting to fully round into form, from a complete health and lineup perspective, they should be in a good spot to keep competing at the level that they have thus far.