Before we get to the weekend, a quick word on the Miami Heat and the “statement game.” Clearly, last night’s inability to overpower the Chicago Bulls’ bench unit is not going to look good on the resume, seeing as how they may need to defeat these Bulls — with a probably more lethal Derrick Rose — in the postseason again. Miami’s offense continues to go through stretches where they’re just, for the guys on that roster, shockingly dull and ineffective. And they’ve struggled on the road against good teams too; there are real problems to go along with all the potential and pressure to win, but with all that, there are two ways I find myself looking at the idea of statement games and the Heat:
1. Every game they play, whether it turns out good or bad, gives us some kind of a statement to make on the Miami Heat. That’s just how it is. They are too important of a team not to pay mind to, and their lows still don’t seem to make sense just as their highs can make them feel impossible to challenge on some nights.
2. These regular season showdowns are crucial right now, but maybe more-so because it’s right now than anything else. The true statement games, where the Miami Heat’s story of failure or triumph will be written, come in the postseason. Maybe these losses to the league’s better half will turn out to be a sign of future faults, but if the Heat run through the East again, few will remember either way.
It’s hard to know how to gauge outcomes like last night’s at this point in the season, but what we do know is that the Heat are worth keeping track of regardless, and that it’d be nice if the playoffs just hurried up and got here already, yes?
Anyway, on to the weekend.
Friday.
Atlanta at Orlando.
The fifth and sixth squads in the Eastern Conference right now will likely end up jockeying for position with Boston and Indiana for those middle seeds. As long as these two teams can somehow manage to avoid one another in the first round, as it seems like they square off every year in the NBATV Series Nobody Watches, I think everyone wins.
Phoenix at Houston.
Big ol’ postseason implications here, with the Suns two games back in the race for the eighth spot out West. The Rockets are currently seventh but also tied with Denver for the last spot, record-wise. Essentially a must-win for Phoenix to keep themselves within striking distance.
Denver at Los Angeles Lakers.
Sort of on a string with the Suns/Rockets tilt, the Nuggets are in L.A. facing a tough Lakers team and Andrew Bynum going out of his mind, of late. If Denver slips up here, that’s even more potential ground to move in on for the huddled masses at the bottom of the Western Conference bracket.
Saturday.
Utah at Memphis.
Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors: There will literally be no room in the paint for anyone else.
Indiana at Milwaukee.
A rolling Pacers team comes in for the Bucks, but it’s a game at home that if Milwaukee can pull off could be nice to have in the back-pocket as the weaker part of their schedule still awaits. Plus, you should probably have to beat some playoff teams to actually make the playoffs, right?
Phoenix at San Antonio.
Tough back-to-back for Phoenix, first in Houston and now this one against the Spurs. The key, still, would be getting that win over the Rockets, as a loss in San Antonio with the Spurs shifting into postseason gear in earnest makes more sense and doesn’t hurt as directly in the standings. Suns-Spurs just brings you back, doesn’t it?
Sunday.
Miami at New York.
As big regular season wins go, this is probably not exactly what the Heat would have in mind, but facing a Knicks team feeling a bit better about itself after winning the eight seed showdown in Milwaukee, and still desperate for as many wins as they can rack up, should provide a worthy test. This would also be an excellent first round matchup, by the way.
Dallas at Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers look for the regular season sweep to pair with the Mavericks’ postseason sweep of last spring. Well, they don’t exactly pair up, but the Mavericks need to win games like these against the contenders to A) try and drum up some momentum, some consistency, as the postseason gets closer and B) oh yeah, qualify for said postseason in the first place, which is still kind of in doubt at the moment in Dallas, strange as that sounds.
Houston at Denver.
We don’t know exactly where they’ll be come Sunday, but right now the Rockets and Nuggets are in the playoffs, sharing the same record. With all these Western Conference teams fighting for postseason berths tangling up with each other this weekend, how it all looks on Monday morning should be rather interesting.
Enjoy the days, everyone.
Griffin Gotta contributes to The Hoop Doctors and is a co-managing editor of Straight Outta Vancouver. The story arcs and infinite weirdness of the NBA are addictions he deals with every day. Email him at griffingotta at gmail dot com.
