The Heat (30-13 Overall, 19-6 Conference) narrow the game for first in the conference defeating the Washington Wizards, 134-129. According to ESPN.com, Tyler Herro led the Heat with 25 points, three rebounds and two assists in the game. Wizards star guard Bradley Beal led all scorers with 38 points in the game. It was a high scoring affair that ended with Heat Forward James Johnson hitting the game-tying three and coming up with a clutch block to send the game into overtime. From there, Miami outscored the Wizards 16-11 to hold on to the win and extend their home record to 20-1.
Just a few nights earlier, Miami was able to hold off the Sacramento Kings (15-28 Overall, 7-15 Away) in overtime, 118-113. Kendrick Nunn led the Heat with 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the game. It was another high scoring game that ended with Kings Forward Nemanja Bjelica and Heat Center Bam Adebayo trading buckets to send the game into overtime. Miami stepped up and outscored the Kings 13-8 to send Sacramento back home.
A very large part of Miami’s success comes from their home games. By how the Heat has performed this season they could go to the finals if all their games were played at home. They have the second-best home record in the conference with Milwaukee having a better record. At home, Miami was able to beat many projected title-contending teams like the 76ers, Rockets, Raptors en route to being the second-best team in the conference. Not to mention having a positive record against teams that are both above and below .500, shows show consistency the Heat has maintained. The last time the Heat suffered a loss at home came over a month ago when they were defeated 113-110 by the Los Angeles Lakers. Since then, they have won nine straight home games.
As All-Star Weekend approaches, Miami has shown no signs of slowing down. Being just halfway done with the season I’m am surprised we continued to maintain a top 3 position given the opposition we faced from the beginning of the year. Miami’s success this year is a credit to the plan put in place by Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra. Ladies and gentlemen this team has slowly been revamped, piece by piece, starting from two years ago and now they are only a person away from being an outright title-contending team. Although this current squad has massively outperformed there expectations for this year. It is safe to say Riley want to rebuild another title-winning team and one that will last for multiple seasons.
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