Heat on historic pace with close game after close game. A look at the eye-opening numbers
.JPG "Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro (14) makes a shot over Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero (5) during overtime of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, in Orlando.")
Through all of the ups and downs of the Miami Heat’s season, one thing has held true.
More often than not, the Heat is going to find itself in a close game that’s decided in the final minutes. Close games featuring nerve-wracking endings have become the theme of Miami’s season and a source of pride for Heat players and coaches.
“You just have to travel and follow the Miami Heat,” coach Erik Spoelstra said after the Heat rallied from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to escape with a 107-103 overtime win over the Orlando Magic on Saturday at Amway Center to add another thriller to this season’s long list. “It’s must-see and it’s going to be a close game, it’s going to be a possession game, there’s going to be some crazy things that happen in the last three minutes.”
Not only has the Heat played in more close games this season than any other NBA team, it’s also on pace to be part of more close games than any other team in league history.
▪ The Heat has played in an NBA-high 31 games decided by five points or less this season and the Dallas Mavericks are a distant second with 23 of those games. The Heat’s franchise record is 32 such games in 2001-02 and it is already just two away from surpassing that mark.
▪ The NBA’s all-time team record for the most games decided by five points or less during a single season is 41 by the Denver Nuggets in 1977-78. With 31 such games through the first 57 games of the schedule, the Heat is on track to finish with 44 games decided by five points or less to set a new league record this season.
▪ Saturday’s comeback win in Orlando went down as Miami’s league-leading 40th clutch game (one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter) of the season. That puts the Heat on pace to play in 57 clutch games this season. The only team that has closed the regular season with 55 or more clutch games since 2010 was the 2016-17 Washington Wizards that played in 55 clutch contests that season.
“You love to see your team develop some fortitude, collective grit, going through tough things together and finding different solutions to get wins,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat returning to Miami to host the Nuggets (39-18) on Monday (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and NBA TV). “That’s what this league is all about. Can you come together and gut things out when things are tough, and win. I think these are good lessons for us. Our guys don’t get really rattled in these close games. Hopefully, based on our experience, that tends to mean something when you get to the postseason.”
The positive news for the Heat is it has won more close games that it has lost this season. Miami is 20-11 in games decided by five points or less and 23-17 in clutch games.
Those narrow wins have the Heat in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 32-25 record and just 1.5 games behind the fifth-place Brooklyn Nets. This marks the first time Miami has stood seven games above .500 this season, as it entered Sunday with the NBA’s ninth-best record despite holding the 17th-best net rating (outscoring teams by 0.2 points per 100 possessions) because of its slim margin of victories.
Following a slow 12-15 start, the Heat has won 20 of its last 30 games and 12 of those 20 wins have been decided by five points or less.
“I feel like we talk about this after every game, how we’ve always in close games, and that’s insane,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “As long as we win. You could say it helps us, you could say you want to win. You want to rest, but we just want to win. We want to practice winning habits. We want to practice winning games, get on a roll. Win as many as possible as we go into what I and most people call the season that matters. We’ll see where we end up. But whether it’s a close game or not, we just got to continue to win.”
The problem is that NBA teams that are part of this many close games usually don’t end up as champions. The last team to win a title when closing the regular season with more than 30 games decided by five points or less was the 1981-82 Los Angeles Lakers that finished with 32 such games.
That’s because the NBA’s best teams are often dominant enough to avoid a high number of these types of situations. The team with the league’s top record, the Boston Celtics, has played in just 14 games decided by five points or less this season.
The glass-half-full perspective is that playing in a lot of close games means the Heat usually has a chance to win. Miami has just six double-digit losses this season, which is fewer than the league-leading Celtics’ eight double-digit defeats.
But the bottom line is there’s only so much control teams have over the result of games when they come down to a handful of possessions in the final minutes. The preferable route is to avoid those situations, which could sometimes be decided by chance, by holding a bigger lead down the stretch.
“We’re battling,” Heat guard Gabe Vincent said. “We’re showing a lot of character. We’re growing day in and day out. It’s strange how comfortable we are with these close games. It’d be nice to have a blowout every now and then, when we just blow somebody else out. But we compete, man.”
Nine of the Heat’s last 10 games have fit into the clutch category and also have been decided by five points or less.
“It feels like 10 out of 10,” Vincent said.
“Man, it feels like we play a playoff game every night,” Heat center Bam Adebayo added.
Miami is 7-3 during this stretch.
“That’s what our guys do,” Spoelstra said. “They’re not afraid of the moment. My stomach is turning, and they love it. They love these kind of games as competitors. That’s when they feel most alive. And we have a ton of experience.”
INJURY REPORT
The Heat’s injury report for Monday’s game against the Nuggets includes 11 players.
Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction), Kyle Lowry (left knee soreness), Victor Oladipo (right ankle sprain), Duncan Robinson (finger surgery) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery) remain out for the Heat.
Udonis Haslem (personal reasons) is listed as doubtful.
Tyler Herro (left knee contusion) is questionable.
Adebayo (bilateral knee soreness), Haywood Highsmith (right elbow sprain), Max Strus (right shoulder irritation) and Vincent (right ankle inflammation) are probable to play.
This story was originally published February 12, 2023 at 11:20 AM.
