The end of the regular season is quickly approaching, and the Heat wasted another opportunity to regain ground in the standings. True to its nature, whenever Miami starts showing a semblance of its former self, the group reminds its observers why it shouldn’t be trusted.

The outfit’s latest back-to-back road trip ended in a split against sub-.500 teams. Chicago struck first blood Saturday, and Miami regrouped for a win over Detroit Sunday.

A Dub over the Pistons, who have 16 wins, is not enough to wash away the Heat’s recent sins. Detroit was down its two finest snipers, Bojan Bogdanović and Alec Burks, and it still found a way to momentarily take a seven-point lead towards the end of the third quarter led by young players and dudes no other team wanted.

For the eight previous games to the weekend tour, the Heatles were converting 40% of its 3-point attempts. In the last two, Miami reverted to misfiring on makeable looks, dropping only 30% of its tries.

Aside from the hopeless shooting return, the defense has lost its bite. For the season, this crew is second of 30 teams in opponent points allowed (109.5). In the last 14 games since coming back from the All-Star break, Miami has dropped to 17th (114.6) in the same category while going .500.

The paint protection hasn’t been as strict for the last 14 games as well. The Heat is giving up 49.9 interior points when the back line was its strongest characteristic on defense all year. The squad has done such a fine job for most of the season containing the square that it is still second in the league in guarding the box.

On the visit to Chicago, Miami suffered its fourth first half giving up at least 70 points since the weeklong hiatus. Each time a rival has gashed them this hard through the first 24 minutes, they lose. Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New York and now the 10th-seeded Chicago outfit ravaged the Heat early in the last encounters. The only one of these nights Miami found its stroke from the outside was against the Knicks on March 3, but the team had to come back from down 15 points.

Enough time has passed this season to understand that the Heat is not a team built to come back from leads or sustain them. The role players are not as precise from deep as last year when the group had the most accurate long-range shooters in the league. This decline is one of the main reasons why the Heat has found itself in so many close games.

Going 2-0 over the weekend would have put them a half-game behind the Brooklyn Nets for sixth place in the East, but the White and Red sit a match back. Hurdling a spot in the standings with that bit of separation and nine games left is feasible. But only for good teams. Three of Miami’s last seven losses have come against below .500 squads. Through 89% of the campaign, the Heat haven’t been more than mediocre.

Five of the last nine games are on the road, where the band’s record sits at 15-21.

It’s still too early to call if the Heat will thwart the sixth seed, but if it grabs it, Miami is likely a first-round exit. Boston or Philadelphia will claim the third spot, and neither is a favorable matchup with how Miami has struggled to defend the point of attack. If it enters the Play-In Tournament, the Heat may go down there.

Miami’s persistent turnovers from Wednesday’s loss to the Cavaliers continued through the first half, accumulating 10.  Any sign of a deep shot vanished as well.

Before the intermission, nobody could restrain Donovan Mitchell from slashing into the paint or force a miss on his contested 3-point makes. Through this period, he logged 25 points, making nine out of 12 shots.

The only other Cavalier with at least three converted field goals in the first half was Caris LeVert (3). He scored on a one-on-one break against Gabe Vincent, hit a four-foot fadeaway over Herro, and a right-wing triple when his defender sagged off thanks to the extra help on Spida’s dribble penetration.

In the first half, Miami made 41.5% of its tries from the field. The role players dropped nine out of 27 baskets, while Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler carried the team offensively. Adebayo glided down the court in transition for two points, swished two fadeaways from the baseline and paint, plus he slammed two dunks running pick and roll with Victor Oladipo and Tyler Herro.

Butler scored on a coast-to-coast layup, he logged two more in transition, hitting a six-footer with Lamar Stevens in front of him, and he finished a soft bank-in under the rim when the defense doubled Adebayo.

In various half-court sets, the Cavaliers sagged off the corners in man-to-man coverage to help on Miami’s rim attacks. As a result, the Heat shot 19.9% below league average at the rim and 5.5% under in the lane non-restricted area in the first half.

Entering the third quarter, Miami was down 59-50. Butler only had 10 points so far, but he quickly became possessed, notching five out of seven baskets in quarter three and recording an untarnished four in the fourth quarter. He attacked Mitchell for multiple baskets and scored at the rim and low post against Jarrett Allen too.

In the last minute of the third quarter, Butler made a triple in the right corner, his lone attempt from deep. His jab step created separation between him and Stevens for the jumper. On Miami’s next possession, he dribbled into the arc, guarded again by Stevens for a long two-pointer.

The Heat was up one point at the start of crunch time. A pick by Adebayo at both wings blocked Mobley from disrupting Butler’s successful drive past Allen and Mitchell. JB also rejected #13’s screen on the left side, defended by Mobley, and got a floater off in the low post over his man. With under 25 seconds left and Miami up one, Caleb Martin’s ghost screen helped Butler get down the elbow for a pull-up jumper in Stevens’ face.

Subsequently, Mitchell was fouled on his next rim gash by Adebayo and made both his free throws. Miami’s turn to the stripe followed, Martin’s first trip of the night. Unemotionally, he made both.

Butler then intentionally fouled Mitchell at midcourt to prevent an opportunity for Cleveland to tie. Spida logged one out of two.  Butler took his last free throw attempts of the night, closing the deal after the purposeful foul.

At the postgame presser, coach Erik Spoelstra said his team usually doesn’t foul when up three points and the opponent has the last shot. This occasion was different because Butler mentioned Miami got burned by Boston and Cleveland, facing the same situation earlier in the season.

Spo said, “It’s a philosophical thing, but when a team doesn’t have a timeout, and then you have the smartest, quickest player making those decisions, you feel comfortable with it. I felt fully comfortable with Jimmy making that decision…”

In the Heat’s 36th game decided by five points or fewer, Miami narrowly skated by the Atlanta Hawks at home. Atypical of its season, the hosts couldn’t miss from beyond the arc. Of course, for this type of uncommon production, there needed to be a trade-off: the ability to defend for most of the game. 

The Hawks seized control of the first half by scoring a few fastbreak buckets, and slicing up the point of attack, converting 19 out of 24 shots in the paint.  Dejounte Murray logged his first four baskets- three maneuvering around Adebayo for pull-up jumpers after the switch and another 15-footer over Gabe Vincent off the dribble.

The rest of the Hawks were soaring through the first quarter too.  The visitors recorded 76% of their attempts in the frame and led by 15 points eight minutes into the game.

Offensively, Miami was in sync, dropping five triples out of seven tries on both wings in the opening quarter.  Max Strus nailed the Heat’s first off a flare screen by Bam Adebayo.  Butler set up the second with Murray momentarily over-helping in the low post, uncovering Vincent at the top of the key. Victor Oladipo canned another when his defender went under Cody Zeller’s pick.  And Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson were both left open when Atlanta sent two at the ball.

After one half, Miami had given up 68 points but shot back into the match, only down five.  Adebayo took charge with 10 points on 80% field goal efficiency, plus four boards and a block.  Butler had eight points, with five dimes and four rebounds. Victor Oladipo also had seven on his scorecard. 

In the third quarter, the Heat had its strongest defensive run, holding the Hawks to 41.7% of its attempts from the floor.  The hosts were quicker to get the ball out of Murray’s hands in half-court sets, and defenders closed out quickly and did a finer job staying in front of their man.  

In response, Butler finished at the cup three times in the third quarter, getting free off a fake handoff and scoring twice in transition. Against Atlanta’s 2-3 zone, Herro drove to the middle and found Strus open at the top for a trifecta.  Facing man-to-man coverage, Oladipo broke down De’Andre Hunter with his dribble in the strongside corner for a banger.  

Heading into the fourth quarter, Miami’s bench was outdoing its rivals’ reserves 41-31 on the stat sheet.  Caleb Martin and Oladipo combined for 28 bench points through 36 minutes.  With three minutes left in the third quarter, Vic challenged three Hawks on the break and hit a reverse layup.  

In the final period, Oladipo stayed hot.  He hit a jumper from the left corner when Atlanta iced Herro’s roll to the rim, splashed another triple over Murray and Hunter on the wing, and then caught a fastbreak lob from Robinson to cap off a vintage night.  He came one-second shy of playing the entire fourth quarter.  The only players who got that credit for Miami were Adebayo, Butler and Martin.  

In the last stretch, the Hawks made 54.5% of its attempts. Murray hit two runners over Martin and a break layup against Herro. Bogdan Bogdanović boxed out Robinson for a tip-in.  Saddiq Bey caught Herro in a mismatch seven feet from the cup. And Young hit a 3-pointer and gashed Miami inside three times. 

But Atlanta went cold for a pivotal stretch late in the game.  With the Heat up five points and fewer than four minutes left, Hunter misfired an open triple behind a pindown on the right wing, and Murray air-balled a three-foot finger roll, horrifying his newly appointed instructor Quin Snyder on the sideline.

The Hawks had a chance to tie with 25 seconds left, but Martin stripped Young on a drive.  Butler got the ball and was sent to the free-throw line, where he made both.  The Heat would take two more trips to the line, knocking down three to close the match with a W, pushing Miami to four wins above .500 and two games behind the Brooklyn Nets for sixth place in the east.

At the postgame presser, Oladipo said he was trying to catch a lob all year and gave props to Robinson for the precise pass.  

On the topic of his efficiency, Oladipo said, “I’m just going to keep shooting.  I’m not really concerned about the past and what the years [have] been and the up and downs. I’m just going to hoop like I know I can… I’m just going to continue to make the most of it and be aggressive.”

If only Paul Revere could’ve warned Philadelphia that Jimmy Butler was coming. Word didn’t get out, and on Monday, the Miami Heat landed a devastating blow to Joel Embiid’s MVP chances.

On Saturday, Butler said he was tired of losing while facing reporters after Miami was overpowered in Charlotte. It was the club’s fourth consecutive defeat, triggering movement across sportsbook lines. That night, DraftKings lowered the odds of the Atlanta Hawks winning the southeast division from +360 to +240.

As has been the case all season, whenever the Heatles start getting serious, the squad takes multiple steps backward. Entering the match against Philadelphia, Miami was back at only three games over .500 (32-29). Over its poor four-game stretch, the Heat converted 29% of its attempts from 3-point range while failing to contain its perimeter.

To the horror of the Philadelphians, Miami was uncharacteristically shooting well from deep in the first half. Gabe Vincent splashed Miami’s first long-distance make off a dribble handoff by Butler on the left wing. JB hit the next one from the opposite wing as Embiid over-helped on Bam Adebayo in the low post, creating the opening. The following trifectas came from Butler’s offensive rebound, then finding Vincent at the top of the key, and again, Butler, attracting a second defender at the nail against the 2-3 zone, uncovering Kevin Love on the left side.

Through 24 minutes, Miami had forced 10 turnovers, three of them steals belonging to #22 as he terrorized Embiid. While Philly’s main man matched up with Cody Zeller at the free throw line, Butler was the spy in the low post, intercepting the pass to De’Anthony Melton. When Embiid fell in the post with the ball, JB slapped it from his grasp. Trying to pass out of a wall at the elbow, Embiid didn’t see Butler on the right side and threw a pick, resulting in a fastbreak slam.

At halftime, the Heat held a 58-50 lead with 14 assists to four turnovers. The reserve crew contributed 19 points in the period. Victor Oladipo was finishing at the rim and hitting outside jumpers. Zeller scored twice in Embiid’s face, and Max Strus and Caleb Martin each splashed a triple and kept the ball moving.

In the second half, the Heat struggled to score, logging 39.4% of attempts. Yet, the 76ers had no counters for Butler and Strus. Each had 10 points on a combined six out of 10 shots. JB dissected the drop coverage for two scores and made one corkscrew layup between PJ Tucker and Embiid. Strus hit a right-wing 3-pointer, courtesy of the dribble penetration provided by Tyler Herro, and canned another triple in the same spot over four arms. He also seized the baseline on a backdoor cut.

On the other end, Miami shut down James Harden, holding him to two of eight made baskets in the second half. He couldn’t dribble past Adebayo on two plays, getting forced to a well-contested elbow jumper and way off miss on the baseline. He also smoked a layup at the rim against #13 too.

The Heat did not have the same success guarding Tyrese Maxey. He torched Miami for 14 of his 23 points in the third quarter. He only had four at halftime but rattled off his next six out of eight. Maxey was first down the court in transition and getting into the lane with two feet in the half-court. In the fourth quarter, Miami slowed him down by closing out quickly to the perimeter when he received the pass, allowing one out of four buckets.

In the fourth, Miami was outscored by a point, but it held Philadelphia to 20.8% shooting in the frame. The Heat recorded four field goals down the stretch, and Butler finished the game with 23 points on 64% efficiency with 11 rebounds and nine dimes.

At the postgame presser, coach Erik Spoelstra said, “Things don’t always go your way in this league, but it’s about how you respond to those moments collectively when you have some disappointments…”

In the locker room, Butler wasn’t too concerned with how the win materialized or excited about beating down on former teammates, but he said, “We got to start stringing these [wins] together. We got them again in 48 hours, and we want to do the same thing.”

The fans and the Miami Heat, except for Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, have eight days off courtesy of the All-Star festivities. It’s the break the outfit needs badly. The team’s closing performance over the last two games was as pathetic as an Amy Schumer stand-up special.

Some key cogs have performed below standards in areas where they once excelled too. And the head instructor is stubborn- he’s keeping Jimmy Butler at a minutes cap in the fourth quarter when the team is running on empty as he watches from the bench. Through 71% of the season, the squad is five games over .500 and a half-game behind the New York Knicks for sixth place.

Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges sent them on a brief vacation by piecing them up for 45 points on Wednesday. At the start of the fourth quarter, he had 28 on the scorecard. When Butler came in, Bridges wasn’t fazed, hitting two shots matched up with him and seven out of nine times against Miami in the period.

As expected, the Heat’s snipers were neutered by the Nets’ length. After missing its first four attempts from deep, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent splashed three. The combustion was short-lived, however. The Heatles shot 24% from 3-point range the rest of the way. Seven of the misses were open-enough looks; the rest were well contested by Brooklyn, beating the screeners to the closeout and staying home on matchups.

Adebayo played all of the fourth quarter and logged 14 points on 67% efficiency, but it wasn’t enough. When he switched from the middle to guard the top and corners, Brooklyn attacked from the opposite sides for access to the lane and a runway on the baseline.

It’s a shame Butler left Adebayo hanging in the fourth quarter. JB finished the frame in seven minutes without recording a field goal attempt, but he did make two free throws. When he checked in, the Heat was down by one possession. Within 59 seconds, Brooklyn’s lead was at nine.

Butler looked as disinterested as the United States is with the poor. If only everyone got the memo that he’d started his recess after halftime.

From behind the arc, the Nets were as deadly as the White Feather sniper, Carlos Hathcock. Even on solid closeouts, the hosts were undaunted and launched over the defense. Cam Johnson buried a triple in Butler’s eye two minutes into the game. Bridges canned one with Caleb Martin’s hand in his space and another over the much smaller Vincent running by in the right corner.

The differential from 3-point land was so vast, Brooklyn made 11 more than Miami in a match the visitors took six more field goal attempts, had five more rebounds and three fewer turnovers.

Following the game, coach Erik Spoelstra credited Brooklyn’s switching defenders on the perimeter as the tactic to limit attempts and efficiency, plus create over-dribbling.

“Throughout the course of the game, I thought there were windows that were open at the point of the pick against the switches,” Spo said. “But we just weren’t able to make the plays in order to keep them honest…”