Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Heat’s hunt for the sixth seed intensifies and more NBA notes

Call it luck, or the Orlando Magic being an unserious team, but the Miami Heat’s quest for a postseason spot to avoid the Play-In Tournament is not over. Both Southeast division rivals have lost two in a row, and they have to be careful since the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets want the same thing, too. 

The worst thing the Heat could do is fall into the mental trap of believing they are world-class, like they did in mid-November. They recently put a target on their backs after winning seven in a row and it will last until the regular season is over. 

Fortunately for them, Bam Adebayo is having the most productive offensive stretch of his career. He’s played in 31 games since Jan. 10 (37.8% of the year), averaging 23 points on a 49.8 effective field goal percentage. The team can live with a dip in efficiency because he puts pressure on the defense by going to the line for seven shots a night (77.9%) during this stretch. 

Keeping it up is vital when he returns from his brief layoff caused by calf tightness. The next thing is making sure Tyler Herro and Norman Powell get into a groove while staggering them. Coach Erik Spoelstra started them when the team was slaughtered in Charlotte on Tuesday, and they are not a dependable defensive combination, but Adebayo’s absence was a big factor in the lack of synchronicity.

Powell had been the team‘s best player until the All-Star break. It’s not his fault he got injured and missed the entire seven-game win streak, but circumstances change things, and the Heat should keep rolling with Herro as a starter because of his advantage as a playmaker for others. It also gives the offense more versatility if he is next to Davion Mitchell, who is the team’s leader in assists (6.6).

Leadership is also measured with sacrifice. The only way this team will be able to do anything memorable is with some outside-the-box thinking.

Moreover, the biggest defensive adjustment they have to make is to stop giving up open 3-pointers. It can happen if they don’t get stuck in no man’s land too often. 

The Heat are the seventh seed and a half-game behind the Magic. Keep in mind that the Magic own the tiebreaker after beating them five times this year. Additionally, the Toronto Raptors are the fifth seed, being only 1.5 games ahead of the Heat. The team will see them twice more, but the Raptors have won the first two outings.

The Heat’s next game is at home against the Los Angeles Lakers, who are on a seven-game win streak, on Thursday.

Quick Hits:

• Last year’s Most Improved Player race was an example of the voters getting it wrong by choosing Dyson Daniels over Christian Braun. It’s too early to tell how the votes will go for the Coach of the Year award, but the Boston Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla is the most deserving. The Celtics were the second seed before Jayson Tatum returned from an Achilles tear suffered in last year‘s second round, and they replaced two starters. The team is currently on a 54-win pace.

• Adebayo’s historic 83-points, which is now the second-highest scoring output in NBA history, scrambled the brains of many observers and exposed some haters. Gordon Hayward preposterously said it’s bad for the league that someone who isn’t regarded as a natural scorer did it. Adebayo not having that reputation is actually the best part about the story since it made it totally unexpected. 

• Spoelstra is seven wins away from tying Cotton Fitzsimmons (832) for 16th in all-time NBA regular-season coaching wins. The only head coaches ahead of him are Rick Carlisle (11th, 1,008) and Doc Rivers (5th, 1,190).

• LeBron James has said in the past that NBA ownership is the next frontier, but he appears to have changed his mind when asked about it after the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Rockets in Houston on Wednesday.