Miami is slowly but surely starting to click at the right time.
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Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
The Miami Heat pick up arguably one of the biggest wins of the season, beating the New York Knicks 127-120 at home. Miami improves to a record of 40-34, have won 4 out of their last 5 games, and make the Eastern Conference playoff race much tighter. They are now tied with the Brooklyn Nets for the 6th seed, although Brooklyn owns the tiebreaker so there is still more work to be done. That work can come immediately as the Heat’s next game is against the Nets in Miami on Saturday night. They are now also 2 games behind the Knicks for the 5th seed.
The shooting was outstanding across the board tonight for the Heat. They shot 57% from the field and from 3 point range to go along with 81% free throw shooting. They limited their turnovers and won in that department 16-10. Even with losing in the rebounding department, the Heat’s shooting and composure with keeping the basketball was enough to secure the victory.
Jimmy Butler had yet another masterclass performance on outstanding efficiency, like he so often does. Playoff Jimmy has arrived early this season, as his post All-Star break tear continues. He was even able to knock down 2 threes in 2 attempts and disrupt the passing lanes with 4 steals. All throughout the night, Jimmy was talking his talk. With screaming statements like “I’m that guy!” and “I’m like that!”, as his close friend, former teammate and Miami Heat legend Dwayne Wade was in attendance sitting court-side.
It wouldn’t be a Jimmy Butler lead night without a clutch shot, and he did just that.
He wasn’t the only one to come up clutch though, as Tyler Herro exploded in the 4th quarter to score 14 of his 22 points. Herro, although didn’t make an huge impact offensively to start the game, also shot the ball with great efficiency himself. He made sure to get in on the party down the stretch once again, hitting big shot after big shot.
Bam Adebayo also did his thing with a solid 15 points, but it was the other guys in the supporting cast who had huge contributions and made a strong impact. Kyle Lowry and Max Strus were extremely solid off the bench. Lowry looks like he’s getting healthy and comfortable in a bench role, and is now shooting over 60% from 3 point range since returning from injury.
Gabe Vincent started off hot, giving the team an early spark to begin the night. Vincent finished with 19 points on 8/12 shooting and 3/5 from long range, 15 of those points came in the first half.
As mentioned in the beginning of the article, the Heat are now tied in the standings with the 6th seeded Nets. They are both 2 games behind the Knicks who are just in front of them in the Eastern Conference standings. Not only do the Heat have a golden opportunity to leapfrog the Nets next game on Saturday with a win against Brooklyn, but they play the Knicks again next week. Another win against them can tighten the gap even closer to potentially snag that 5th seed. The Heat are gaining lots of momentum at the most perfect time, and are starting to look more and more locked in as these games have gone by recently.
A lot can still happen from now to the end of the season, but with 8 games left there’s certainly room for optimism with the position Miami is in after a frustrating up and down season thus far.
