After another thrilling finish, the Miami Heat knocked off the New York Knicks 115-113 to get revenge for last Friday's loss and move to 8-6 on the season. The win moves Miami into 7th place in the Eastern Conference and has them currently in a familiar spot in the play-in round.
But considering the stretch of schedule the Heat are going through, combined with the injuries they have had to face, the fact that Miami is squarely in the hunt for a top-four spot in the East is a massive victory within itself.
Miami is overcoming injuries to stay in playoff hunt
Prior to the season, the first 20 games for the Heat looked like a daunting task. Miami has had to play New York three times, Cleveland twice, all on top of a West Coast trip against the top half of the Western Conference.
Now factor in that Miami has had to go through this stretch of the season without Tyler Herro for all of it and without Bam Adebayo for a good chunk of it, combined with rookie Kasparas Jakucionis getting hurt and then getting sent to the G-League, and it wouldn't have been shocking if Miami was sitting here at 4-12 at this point in the season.
But despite a lineup without a true superstar, the Heat keep finding a way to win its fair share of games to keep contact before it tries to make a move in December.
When the calendar rolls over next month, the Heat get the Clippers, Mavericks, Kings, Nets, Celtics, and Pacers, among others. Add in a roster that might finally get healthy, and we could be sitting here once January 1 hits, starting to dream of how deep a run Miami really could make this year.
Find a way
After getting torched by New York on the defensive end on Friday night, the Heat clamped down, and the biggest difference was that they limited the damage from three. On Friday, New York was 21-53 from deep. On Monday, New York was just 9-36 from deep.
The end result is that even though Miami didn't have a single player top 20 points, they were able to get just enough contributions from everyone to win a game where they were once again out-rebounded (New York had 11 offensive boards to Miami's seven) and with a massive free throw disparity (New York shot 24 free throws to Miami's 13).
With Golden State, Chicago, and Philadelphia all up next, all of whom are above .500, the Heat are going to continue to get tested through November.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the Heat haven't been buried just yet.