Since Jan. 17, the Miami Heat are an NBA-best 21-5.
Correct: The Heat have been the best team in the NBA for more than one-quarter of the season. That is a real fact that is actually real.
Net rating still likes the Golden State Warriors more during this span, according to NBA.com, but the Heat place second there, too. Their net rating at home during this stretch has also paced the league.
They need to be taken seriously.
That much was clear even during their loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night. They missed a ton of wide-open threes and the offense wasn’t making as many quick decisions, but they spent the entire game within striking distance. And they did this without their best player, Goran Dragic, facing a Pacers squad that has been scary as hell at home.
Afterward, Hassan Whiteside expressed a certain fondness for this plucky upstart-turned-playoff-bound outfit, per the Palm Beach Post‘s Anthony Chiang:
Whiteside: “Guys were still playing hard. It would be easy to come in here and make excuses. But these guys didn’t care. I love these guys."
— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) March 13, 2017
Dragic tweeted out support as well:
Proud of my guys tonight….fought hard! Can't wait to get back out there w/ em. No worries…Headed back home now to get the next one. ??
— Goran Dragi? (@Goran_Dragic) March 13, 2017
If seeing a team celebrate itself after a loss rubs you the wrong way, you’re living life wrong. The Heat are operating with found money. They weren’t supposed to be here, within one game of the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot, this late into the season. They weren’t supposed to play like one of the two best teams in the NBA for close to one-third of the year.
No, the Heat won’t upset the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of playoffs. Shoot, despite my own prediction, they might not even get to the postseason. But this team has been playing spectacular enough, for long enough, to earn some additional respect.
Miami isn’t riding a hot streak. What we’re seeing now is closer to its new normal, regardless of whether this year ends with a playoff berth.
