Miami Heat Are Falling Out Of The Playoff Race
By Jared Doyle
@outofboundsjay
Soobum Im- USA Today Sports
Things weren’t supposed to be this bad for the Miami Heat this season. Even with the loss of several key players, and injuries stacking up the way they have, fighting for at least a 6-8th seed was still plausible. The reality, though, is that the Heat might not make the playoffs this year, even with a core of Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng.
The Heat were already on the verge on dropping out of the playoff race before last night’s humbling loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Now with this third consecutive loss in tow, the Heat are a half game behind the Brooklyn Nets for the eighth seed, and are only leading the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics by 1 1/2 games. Not a lot of cushion going on there.
There is still half a season left to be played, but there is something to be said for how utterly destructive this team has played so far through 50 games. Even with the emergence of Hassan Whiteside, the Heat’s new cornerstone center, the roster just hasn’t had the pieces needed to make sustained runs of wins, at least not like the true title contenders have so far this season. The protection of the Heat finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference standings seems like a pipe dream now, with the brutal task of trying to get back over the .500 mark the most jarring reality of this season.
Things could turn around, especially once Dwyane Wade returns from his hamstring injury, but will there be enough time? The teams fighting for a playoff seed in the East are only getting better, while the Heat have seemingly only gotten worse. This might be the first time the Heat miss the playoffs since 2002, making them the first team in over 20 years to miss the playoffs after making the NBA Finals the season before. How humiliating would that be.
Jared Doyle is a Miami Heat writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @outofboundsjay, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
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