Coming off the terrible defeat at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night, the Miami Heat are gearing up for a back-to-back set of games, starting across the border, before then heading back down a little bit further south than that to the Big Apple.
Heading to face two teams also jousting for NBA Playoff positioning right now, though in different spots with the Knicks sitting comfortably in the top six while the Raptors fight for their NBA Play-In lives, the Miami Heat will certainly need to be on their game.
And they have to look no further than their last game to see just what that means. But coming off of such a terrible defeat and specifically seeing their physicality challenged over the last few games before that one even, the Miami Heat will get a needed boost back into their lineup.
And that boost will come in the form of big man, Cody Zeller, it seems.
With Cody Zeller (broken nose) no longer on Heat injury report, it looks like Omer Yurtseven time might be over (having already been supplanted by Haywood Highsmith).
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) March 27, 2023
The Miami Heat have struggled with size and physicality, coincidentally, since losing Cody Zeller to injury, it seems. Now back, he’ll instantly make an impact.
Not only do you hope that getting their big man and teammate back will give this Miami Heat team a jolt but, again, it’s actually something that they’ve desperately been missing over the last few games while he’s been out.
Hoping to be able to go to Omer Yurtseven as the backup big in Zeller’s absence, he would prove incapable of giving the Miami Heat what they need right now, forcing them to go small in recent games. And when they weren’t going small, they were asking guys like Kevin Love to do a whole lot more than he was effectively able to do for them right now.
Not only would he struggle, at times, with the other stuff they were asking him to do, but it would cause him to sometimes be less effective in his normal role. Needless to say, getting Cody Zeller back right now is perfect for the Miami Heat as they look to continue peaking at the right time down the stretch of the NBA regular season.
And again, coming off of the loss that was them getting run out of their own building on Saturday night, it could not be happening at a better time.