Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Season of close games continues at a record pace
MIAMI — It has become a cut-and-paste season for the Miami Heat.
Close games now, then and seemingly forever.
Of the 70 games played by the Heat going into Wednesday night’s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies at Miami-Dade Arena, 50 have fallen into the NBA’s definition of clutch — a game within five points at any point in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
In other words, only 20 Heat games all season have not carried the designation. The Heat are 28-22 in those games. Further, by holding off the visiting Utah Jazz 119-115 Monday night, the Heat improved to 24-15 in games decided by five or fewer points.
That victory total ties the league all-time record for wins by five or fewer, set by the 1999-2000 Philadelphia 76ers, with the 39 overall five-point games two off the record of the 41 such games by the Denver Nuggets in 1977-78.
As a matter of reference, those 19992000 76ers finished the regular season in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Those 1977-78 Denver Nuggets finished in second place in the Western Conference and lost in the Western Conference finals.
As a matter of perspective, only once since Jan. 22 have the Heat won a game by more than five points.
“I think it’s like a norm for our team at this point,” guard Tyler Herro said. “Fifty games, so we’re used to it. For me, I think you’d rather play in clutch games than blowouts, right? You want to get that experience, have everyone go through those experiences, so when we get to the playoffs, we’ve been through different situations, different scenarios that we are prepared for and ready.”
Or the Heat actually could exhale.
“It’s great to win the pressure games,” guard Gabe Vincent said. “But I think we’ve got to do a better job of extending our leads when we get ’em, not putting ourselves in
these positions constantly.”
If nothing else, the Heat have shown they can win such games.
“I hope so,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Certainly from a comfort and confidence standpoint, when it gets in those moments of truth, I’ve said this before, at least we understand what our package is, what we’re trying to do, how we want to execute.
“We’ve had so many reps and film sessions and teaching points and walkthroughs and practices and shootarounds dealing with a lot of those two-minute drills. I think we’ve all gotten better from that, including the coaching staff. We just have to continue to grind and figure out how to win some other skirmishes during the course of the game.”
For now, the notion of building on a lead seems practically abstract.
“As long as it’s a close game we wind up winning in the end, I’m happy and content with that,” forward Jimmy Butler said.
Cain to G League: With the Heat roster mostly whole and healthy, the Heat have sent two-way forward Jamal Cain to their G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, who are in the midst of a playoff race, with five regular-season games remaining.
Already with the Skyforce are 2022 first-round pick Nikola Jovic and two-way center Orlando Robinson.
The only other players on the Heat injury report for Wednesday night are center Cody Zeller, who is out with a nasal fracture sustained in Saturday night’s road loss to the Orlando Magic, and point guard Kyle Lowry, who again is listed as questionable as he works he way back from a month out due to knee soreness. Lowry is expected to be available for what would be his third game back.
The Grizzlies’ injury report is limited to five players who all are listed as out: Steven Adams (knee), Brandon Clarke (Achilles), Jake LaRavia (back), Ja Morant (not with team) and Vince Williams Jr. (shoulder).
Dealt out: With almost a full deck of options, Spoelstra dealt out Max Strus from Monday night’s second-half rotation, after Strus played 7:23 in the first half against the Jazz and played as a closer in Saturday’s loss in Orlando.
“I need a little bit of time to figure this out,” Spoelstra said. “We haven’t had a lot of these games when we’ve got so many guys available. We’ll see. In the second half, I didn’t go to that and I understand who had to sacrifice for that.
“It might be game to game. I’m not totally sure yet. And right now I have a mindset as coach of this team that there’s no other thought than just winning games.”
Also available and not playing Monday were Cain, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith and Udonis Haslem.