Jimmy and Bam have the Miami Heat streaking in the Eastern Conference.
The last time the Miami Heat were .500 or better on the season was January 9. The Heat was 4-4 before they would end up losing eight of its next 10 games. The team was largely impacted by the league’s new health and safety protocols and had more questions than answers.
Fast forward to roughly seven weeks later, and the Heat will have an opportunity to get back to .500 Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks. At the moment, as the team has gotten more healthy and more whole, Miami has fought its way back up the standings in the Eastern Conference and is 16-17.
Miami is just a half-game out of the fourth seed in the East and four games back of the Milwaukee Bucks for the third seed.
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The Miami Heat are streaking
Since Jimmy Butler‘s return to the lineup after exiting the league’s health and safety protocols, the Heat is 10-5. Overall, the Heat has won five games in a row and has reeled off nine of their last 12. Over that stretch, Miami has the third-best record in the NBA, the third-best defensive rating, and the sixth-best net rating.
The team’s offense is still a work-in-progress on the season but is starting to show more dividends over the past couple of weeks. Specifically, over the team’s five-game winning streak, Miami has a top 10 offense, defense, and net rating.
To put that ranking into context, the Heat has just the 25th ranked offense in the league – including their improving play over the last 12 games. The encouraging sign for the Heat is that they are winning with their defense right now. Generally, that’s something that is something teams can rely on as the season rolls on.
A team with as much individual offensive talent as the Heat has, along with Erik Spoelstra calling the shots, should be able to figure things out on that side of the floor. Over the last few weeks, the answer has been Jimmy, Jimmy, and more Jimmy.
Since Jimmy’s return back to the lineup (15 games), he’s averaging 22 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists on 44 percent shooting from the field. Bam Adebayo has been great too and is averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists per game on the season.
If Miami can get some added consistent offensive play from Goran Dragic (who recently returned from injury and dropped 26 points in an impressive win over the Utah Jazz ) and/or Tyler Herro (who is currently out with an injury), then perhaps this Heat team will begin to look more like that team we saw in the restart bubble than the sub-.500 team that we’ve seen for the majority of this season.