Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Time to double down in playoff race
CHARLOTTE — Tiebreakers have proven knotty to the Miami Heat this season. There are 1-2 records against the Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons and an 0-2 mark against the Charlotte Hornets.
In a playoff race setting up as one that will go to the final hours of the season, Erik Spoelstra’s team isn’t exactly in the best of places.
But they will arrive in position Wednesday to starting making a difference, when they face the Hornets at the Spectrum Center.
“We’ve got a huge one coming up,” guard Justise Winslow said. “I love the big stage. And a tiebreaker seems like a pretty big stage.”
Even if the Heat win Wednesday and then March 17 against the Hornets at AmericanAirlines Arena in the teams’ final meeting of the season, the Hornets likely still would win the tiebreaker based on superior division and conference record.
But it is games such as these, as well as the remaining games against the Magic, Pistons, Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards that effectively will count double for the Heat, with 19 to go.
“It’s a playoff game and you have to treat it that way,” guard Rodney McGruder said.
Having made his playoff debut against the Hornets in a seven-game series in the 2016 first-round, Winslow appreciates the rivalry with the Charlotte.
“I remember playing them my rookie year in the playoffs. It seems like every game, including that series, has gone down the wire,” Winslow said, with the Heat escaping before falling in the second round.
That, of course, is the series that produced Purple Shirt Guy, the Charlotte heckler who provoked Dwyane Wade to a higher level of playoff consciousness. But forward Josh Richardson said the Heat also are at the point where any and every game holds meaning, a time when the Heat can’t get too hyped by this recent run of three victories in their last four games, can’t look past games without direct impact on potential tiebreakers at the bottom of the Eastern Conference race.
“We’ve got to treat every game the same,” he said. “We can’t start to over-estimate, under-estimate games.”
Minute man: Coach Erik Spoelstra said the goal wasn’t to get Wade up to 31 minutes in Monday’s 114-113 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena. It just turned out to be what was needed from the 37-year-old guard.
“Yeah,” Spoelstra said, “I was thinking about taking him out in the fourth. When we got it to 10, I actually thought, ‘If we can really just clamp down and get that thing to 12, 14, 15 points,’ then I would have been able to take him out earlier.”
Wade played all 12 minutes of a fourth quarter for the sixth time this season and the second time in the last five games.
“So be it,” Spoelstra said. “He’s doing a great job of taking care of himself.”
Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said he is hopeful for even more.
“You love watching him and competing against him and I’m happy for him,” he said. “I hope they make the playoffs so that I can see him stretch his last year out even more.”
Bam bonus: Even with Hassan Whiteside back from his hip injury, it appears that Bam Adebayo will continue to start at center.
Wade said he has seen a considerable growth curve from the second-year big man.
“I’ve watched Bam from when I got back last year to now,” Wade of rejoining the Heat at last season’s NBA trading deadline, in the midst of Adebayo’s first season. “He’s a different player — his IQ of the game, and the things he’s seeing, his passing ability, and a lot of things.”
Adebayo, is averaging 11.2 points and 8.6 rebounds in his 10 starts this season.
Scoring binge: The Heat have scored at least 114 points in five consecutive games for the first time in the franchise’s 31 seasons . ... Forward Kelly Olynyk has made at least one 3-pointer in nine consecutive games. His career best is 10 straight games, accomplished three times.