Miami Heat: Nothing ‘Polite’ About Them, But Could Be Ruder

The Miami Heat have a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series with the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday evening.

Losing Kyle Lowry in the midst of their last game on Friday night, the Miami Heat’s starting point guard is listed as questionable heading into the contest with the hamstring injury that caused him to go down. If it means anything, he finds himself a part of a list of questionable guys that will, surely, all try to give it a go.

While it’s still hard to say what that might mean for Lowry’s status, that is information to consider. The whole Victor Oladipo of it all makes this an interesting scenario as well, with him staying ready to go if called upon.

While all of that goes on along the Miami Heat side of things, there are certain opinions emanating from the Atlanta Hawks side of things that could stand to serve the Heat well, regardless of if Kyle Lowry goes or not. Here is that thought, from John Collins of the Hawks.

Exactly! Why would they?

The Miami Heat don’t play the game politely, as noted by John Collins. However, they could be a little less polite when it comes to him.

Being more physical, intentional, deliberate, gritty, and hard-working than teams is their calling card. Of course, they don’t have a “polite” way to do it.

If you really want to be fair, they could be less polite when it comes to Collins. Coming into this series, not having played in their final 16 games to close the year, Collins would finally get back into the lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs.

While he would only play 21 minutes in that contest, following that one up with 29 in Game 2, and nearly 24 in Game 3, he hasn’t looked quite right in either. He doesn’t have the spring in his step nor the bounce in his legs that he typically does.

And even with all of that, the Miami Heat have failed to test him properly.

With upper body and lower body questions, the Miami Heat haven’t challenged the upper body strength by attacking the ball when he has it, nor have they tested the endurance of the lower body with hard boxouts or letting him feel them every chance they have had.

So, while they haven’t, won’t, and don’t play the game “politely”, there is still an extra level of crude and rudeness that they can get to. Hopefully, they unleash the full repertoire of impoliteness on Sunday evening to try and help close the series, once and for all.

Specifically, further testing the limits of Collins’ physical condition would, perhaps, go a long way.