Heat ready and looking forward to bunches of home games. Also, Jimmy Butler fined by NBA
The Miami Heat begins its post-All-Star break schedule on the road, but it will have plenty of time at home during the next few weeks.
The Heat, which entered Friday in second place in the Eastern Conference with a 38-21 record just a half game behind the first-place Chicago Bulls, resumed its schedule Friday night against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden after a week off from games. The Heat is right back at it on Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs at FTX Arena (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) to complete the back-to-back set.
Following Friday’s contest in New York, the Heat will play 15 of its final 22 regular-season games at FTX Arena as a well-earned reward after playing the second-most road games in the NBA (33) before the break. Only the Orlando Magic played more road games (34) than Miami during that time.
“I’ll tell you one thing, I’m going to miss that per diem,” Heat center Dewayne Dedmon joked. “But it’s great, man. To be home and get that home exposure, play in front of our fans and the energy they bring. It’s going to be a fun end to the season. I’m looking forward to it.”
Following next week’s two-game trip featuring matchups against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday and against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, 13 of the Heat’s final 18 games will come at FTX Arena. That includes a season-long seven game homestand that spans nearly two weeks from March 5-18, and a 12-game stretch that includes 11 home games in March.
This is good news for the Heat, which owns the fourth-best home record in the NBA this season at 19-7.
“We’re excited,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said. “We spent a lot of this first two-thirds of the season on the road, so to be able to come back and play in front of our fans. We’re pretty good at home, so we want to continue that.”
Based on combined opponent winning percentage and not considering the road/home factor, the Heat has played the seventh-easiest schedule in the NBA. Miami has the 14th-toughest schedule remaining.
Among the top five teams in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers have the easiest schedule based on combined opponent winning percentage. The Bucks and Chicago Bulls have NBA’s toughest and second-toughest schedule remaining, respectively.
And while the Heat has just seven remaining road games on its regular-season schedule following Friday’s contest in New York, other East contenders like the Bulls have 13, the Philadelphia 76ers have 11, the Bucks have 12, the Cavaliers have nine, the Boston Celtics have 11 and the Nets have 10 road games left to play after Friday.
“Being gone the whole month of November is not easy for any team,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “You think about travel and then you got to play on other dudes’ home court. It’s definitely an advantage for them. But we prevailed, we’ve shown that we’ve been built different for this and now we get our treat.”
Through statistical analysis, FiveThirtyEight.com projects the Heat to finish with the top record in the East at 54-28 and the 76ers to enter the playoffs as the conference’s second seed at 50-32.
“We’ve been on the road for the first half of the season, long road road trips,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “With the opportunity to be at home, I think we should take advantage of it. It’s a good opportunity to get hot before the playoffs.”
BUTLER FINED
Heat star Jimmy Butler was fined $25,000 “for violating league rules governing media interview access and for his noncompliance with the resulting NBA investigation,” the league announced in a statement on Friday.
The NBA added that the fine “results from Butler’s failure to comply with his media availability obligations during NBA All-Star 2022, including following the game on Sunday night.”
Butler finished Sunday’s All-Star Game with two points on 1-of-2 shooting, one assist and two steals in nine minutes as a member of Team LeBron.
DEDMON’S ALL-STAR ‘BREAK’
Dedmon’s All-Star break didn’t include much rest, but it was a memorable and productive one.
Dedmon and his wife, Kayla, announced the birth of their second son, Roman Alexander Dedmon, on social media. Roman was born on Sunday.
With the Heat in the middle of its break, Dedmon was able stay for the full experience unlike when his first son, Dewayne II, was born in 2018.
“It definitely was perfect timing because I was able to stay with them, spend some time with my son, actually drive them home this time from the hospital,” Dedmon said. “When I had my first son, I wasn’t able to do that. I had to fly to the West Coast and meet the team. But to be able to do that and spend time with the family, it was good.”
With the Heat in New York for Friday’s game against the Knicks for a quick one-game trip, Dedmon is already looking forward to returning home.
“I was glad that the timing worked out so perfectly,” he said. “Being able to be home and spend some time after, as well, with the fam. Then it’s just one quick road trip and I’m able to go back home, so just looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ Herro missed four of the Heat’s final five games before the All-Star break because of a right knee injury, but he said after the Heat’s first post-break practice on Thursday that his knee “feels better” with the time off.
How was Herro’s break? “It was good. I was able to spend some time with my family,” he said. “Went to the Bahamas for a couple days and I was able to get back in the gym, get to work.”
▪ Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) traveled with the Heat to New York, but they were both ruled out for Friday’s game against the Knicks.
Dedmon (back tightness) was also unavailable against the Knicks, as coach Erik Spoelstra said he wasn’t “quite ready” after practicing Thursday and receiving pre-game treatment Friday.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 11:25 AM.
