Dragic forced to be a real night owl

Because it is a bubble, and you basically can’t go anywhere in the quarantine setting, there is no curfew for the Miami Heat at Disney World.

That helps because Goran Dragic, even when he isn’t working late, is up late. That’s because of son Mateo and daughter Viktoria.

With his family back in his native Slovenia, getting the kids off the school, even if by phone, means being up at 1 a.m.

“It’s a six-hour difference,” Dragic said amid the Heat’s playoff run that continued with Tuesday night’s Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“So usually I don’t go to sleep until 1 a.m., so I can talk to the kids before they go to school. And then, when I wake up, it’s already six hours ahead, so over there it’s already 4 or 5 p.m.”

So basically it’s, ‘Have a good day at school,’ followed by, ‘How was your day at school?’ It’s different.”

As is everything for just about everyone amid the new coronavirus pandemic.

“Everything right now is crazy,” the veteran point guard said, “this entire world with what’s going on, with this virus, with the racial injustice, the bubble. Everything.

“If you look, everybody’s life’s changed. Everybody needs to adapt. And I did the same thing.”

Starting with getting his family in what Dragic felt was a better place.

“When I went to the bubble,” he said of the Heat’s July 8 arrival at Disney, “my family, they went home to Europe because we felt it was the smart thing to do.

“There’s less cases there. And my wife, she has[to] help with our grandparents.”

That decision, he said, has made it easier to concentrate on the Heat’s playoff run.

“I’m totally focused,” he said. “I know that my family is safe when I talk to them. This is a business trip, like Jimmy [Butler] said. It’s exactly the same for me.”

But Dragic, 34, also is not too lost in the moment to realize how distinctive a moment it is.

“I have to say everything feels different, including basketball,” he said. “First of all, you’re not playing in front of the fans. You’re in the bubble. You see the same teams every day. Everything is different.”

The biggest change, Dragic said, has been the shift from regular season to the playoffs.

“We know there are no fans, but we know it’s playoff time,” he said. “The games have been so physical.

“I only imagine how it would feel if you were playing in Milwaukee. That would be a totally different experience, probably be tougher. And same thing for them if they would play in Miami.”

So it’s bed at 1 a.m., up early enough for the final school bell in Slovenia, and then another day in a Disney daze.

“It’s a totally different situation,” Dragic said. “But basketball-wise, I feel like it has that feel like the playoffs because the game is so physical, and we know what is on the line.

“But definitely we miss the fans. It would be a totally different atmosphere [with them].”