Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Finding road to success
Heat must improve on the worst road record among Eastern playoff teams
“I don’t know if there’s a team right now in the league more battle-tested than us.” Erik Spoelstra, Heat coach
Their recent record indicates the Miami Heat have played poorly on the road.
They are just 2-12 away from home since Jan. 31. For coach Erik Spoelstra, it’s hardly a measure of their effort. Regardless, the Heat have to cure the road woes in a hurry if they are to defeat the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say we’ve struggled,” Spoelstra said. “That’s only if you’re looking at the result. We felt we were getting better and stronger and building some resilience. That’s the tough thing about this league if you’re only judging the wins and losses during the regular season. You can’t see the progress.”
The Heat, the No. 6 seed, open the best-of-7 series tonight at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. As the lower seed, they have to win at least once on the road to have a chance of advancing to the second round.
It hasn’t ended well for the Heat in the past when in this situation. The franchise is 0-6 in first-round series as the road team. It last occurred in 2010 when the fifth-seeded Heat lost a series 4-1 to the No. 4 Boston Celtics.
“It’s big,” center Hassan Whiteside said. “You know you’ve got to get one on the road.”
At 18-23, the Heat have the worst road record among the Eastern Conference play-
off teams. Only the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves have played poorer on the road among all postseason teams. The Los Angeles Clippers, who missed the Western Conference playoffs, finished with 20 road wins.
The consolation for the Heat is they were competitive in most of the defeats. Still, the only two road wins in the past three months were against the Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Lakers, both sub-.500 teams.
The hope is an encouraging victory against the top-seeded Toronto Raptors in the final regular season game (at home) and a facing an inexperienced Sixers team can lead to a better outcome.
“We saw progress,” Spoelstra said. “Now there was frustration. There were things to work through. We had a lot of close games, a lot of those road games were tough losses where we had tough losses or where we were in the driver’s seat in the fourth quarter. But those were teaching moments for this team.”
Of the 12 losses during the stretch, the Heat lost four road games in overtime. Six others were by fewer than eight points. The only games that got away from them were a 24-point defeat at the New York Knicks and a 16-point loss against the Portland Trail Blazers.
“We had that road warrior mentality in the beginning of the season,” forward James Johnson said. “We definitely want to get back to that. Tough games, we were in a lot of clutch situations, and I believe that prepared us for the playoffs.”
The Heat can only hope the games can help them against a hot Sixers team. They have won 16 consecutive games and haven’t lost in more than a month. Their 30 wins at home were tied for fifth in the league. The only teams with more victories were the Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets.
“We feel we’re battletested,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t know if there’s a team right now in the league more battle-tested than us in close games.”