Two topics dominate the discussion among many Miami residents right now: The high cost of tickets to see the Heat take on Jeremy Lin and the Knicks, and the high cost of gasoline.

At $500 or more, tickets for Thursday’s Heat game against NBA phenom Lin and the Knicks have doubled from the cost of a typical game. At $3.77 per gallon, average Miami-area gas prices are up about 16 percent from a year ago, according to AAA.

But here’s the difference: Nobody has to buy NBA basketball tickets. When it comes to fueling our vehicles, most of us don’t have a choice.

We must buy gasoline.

When President Obama takes to the stage at the University of Miami Thursday to discuss energy policy and gas prices, he has the chance to drive us closer to the goal of giving Americans more energy freedom by loosening the ties that bind us without choice to oil and gas.

Contrary to what we’re hearing from some politicians and Big Oil lobbyists, more drilling doesn’t mean lower gas prices. The number of oil rigs in the United States has quadrupled in the past three years. The United States is already producing more oil than it has in nearly a decade.

Yet what has that done for gas prices? They’ve only increased of course — not because we need to even drill more, but because demand is increasing with the improving economy; because countries like China and India are expanding and because Iran is threatening to cut off its oil supply to the rest of the world.

Even if we were to drill every drop of oil known to exist in the United States, we wouldn’t have enough to meet our demand. The cold hard fact is that America consumes about 25 percent of the world’s oil, but has less than 3 percent of the world’s proven reserves. And besides, who wants to see oil wells off of South Beach or face the economic devastation that would follow a Deepwater Horizon-like spill off the coast of Fort Lauderdale?

Forget about getting more oil from our friendly neighbor to the north too. There’s a reason why Canadian companies want to run their Keystone XL pipeline all the way to the Gulf of Mexico: It’s so they can reach worldwide oil markets — not so they can deliver more oil to us here in the United States.

The simple truth is, we can’t drill our way out of our addiction to oil.

Fortunately, President Obama already has put us on the road toward some real solutions and alternatives to oil and gas.

His decision to increase new car mileage standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 will save the average driver $3,500 over the life of the vehicle.

His investments in mass transit and high-speed rail — despite current attempts in Congress to defund such programs — will give more people alternatives to the gas pump, while at the same time taking more cars off our gridlocked roads. Programs that encourage ride sharing, bicycling and walking give Americans more choice too.

We need more game-winning solutions from President Obama when he takes the stage in Miami on Thursday to talk energy. What we don’t need is for him to take his eye off the ball and fall victim to the hallow chants of the Big Oil-backed “drill baby drill” crowd.

As big a basketball fan as he is, President Obama can do little to affect the price of admission at American Airlines Arena to see the Heat-Knicks game.

But with the right policies, he can give us more choices and less expensive ways to get there — and every place else Americans need to go — in the future.

Peter Lehner is executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.