Miami Heat: With Joe Johnson, The Heat Can’t Be Overlooked In The East

Even though the Miami Heat are without Chris Bosh, with the addition of Joe Johnson the Heat can’t be overlooked in the Eastern Conference

After a stretch in which the Heat lost eight of out 10 days during early January, something clicked for Miami one night in late January in Chicago. Something changed for the Miami Heat January 25, when the Heat pulled out an unlikely victory over a then relatively healthy Bulls team.

Fast forward a little over than a month later, and the Miami Heat are still carrying that same momentum and have won 11 of 16 since that night.

But much has changed since that feel good night in Chicago. For one, the Heat doesn’t have Chris Bosh at the moment, and doesn’t know if they’ll ever get him back. Instead, they’ve replaced Bosh with a determined Joe Johnson, who was bought out just in time to join the Heat as a playoff eligible player.

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Overall, the Heat’s offense looks quite different, too. Goran Dragic is more of the focal point of the offense and the team is running early and often.

Miami, since that night, is 14th in the NBA in pace. In the games up to Jan 25, the Heat were 29th in pace. Interestingly, it wasn’t until the injury to Bosh occurred that forced the Heat to play smaller and faster.

I won’t say that Bosh’s injury was a blessing in disguise, because that’s such an awful thing to say. But to say that it didn’t force Eric Spoelstra to use his roster different would be foolish too.

Spo was forced to play Luol Deng at the power forward position and stagger Goran Dragic’s and Dwyane Wade‘s minutes more, which helps both of them individually. Add in the acquisition of Joe Johnson and the Heat suddenly look like they’re rounding into that team many believed they’d be coming into the season.

Since that Jan 25 night, the only “bad” loss that the Heat have is against the Houston Rockets. Other than that loss, the Heat has only dropped games to the Clippers, Spurs, Warriors and Celtics. None of those would be considered awful.

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While the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to struggle on and off the court and most continue to question the validity of the Toronto Raptors, I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that the Miami Heat can’t make some noise in the East playoffs.

You could probably throw the Boston Celtics into that conversation, too. But their lack of star power makes me wonder whether their roster is made for the playoffs.

With no Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat will definitely suffer in the long run. But let’s remember, the Heat are trying to fill his role with the Michael Beasley‘s and Bill Walker’s of the world as they were last season. Miami is filling his void with Justise Winslow, Joe Johnson and Josh McRoberts now.

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The Heat are not the same team that stumbled their way to a top-10 pick in last year’s NBA Draft. In fact, you can even make the case that they’re gunning for an Eastern Conference Finals matchup with their old friend. Odds aren’t in their favor to get there. But can you really close the door on them?

With the way that they’ve been playing recently, no.