Q: Ira, I vote Davion Mitchell for the Heat\u2019s best eight-point game of the season. That late steal was huge and his 11 assists went overlooked. I didn\u2019t like seeing Dru Smith having to sit out with his fifth foul, but I\u2019m glad Davion was in there to step up. That was big. \u2013 Johnny.<\/p>\n
A: It was interesting that two of the game\u2019s most influential players led their teams in turnovers on Thursday night, with Davion with five for the Heat and Cade Cunningham his seven for the Pistons. But it also showed that the two were involved, on the ball, willing to step up to the biggest moments. While Davion\u2019s eight points fell well short of Cade\u2019s 31, I agree that the Heat might not have escaped with the victory<\/a> without Davion\u2019s presence. He was as much a factor on the defensive for the Heat end as Cade on the offensive end for the Pistons. It was a meaningful moment for Davion.<\/p>\n Q: The Heat have the fourth easiest remaining schedule and injuries can change things fast. It\u2019s way too early to say Heat can\u2019t get a Top 2, 3 or 4 seed in the East. \u2013 Tom.<\/p>\n A: Going into Thursday night in Detroit, the Heat\u2019s remaining strength of schedule was fifth easiest according to Tankathon. But also consider that NBA.com noted on Thursday that the Heat have the league\u2019s\u00a0 ninth toughest schedule for January, with both calculations based on the winning percentages of opponents. So it\u2019s not as stacking wins is necessarily going to be simple in the short term. But to move up, you have to beat the teams above, which made Thursday night in Detroit meaningful<\/a>. Now the Heat have to back it up, with a pair of upcoming games against the Timberwolves on Saturday and Tuesday. To make up ground, you have to beat the team above, with the Heat 0-1 against Boston, 0-3 against Orlando and 0-2 against Toronto so far.<\/p>\n Q: This year has been a rollercoaster ride. Before the season, play-in seemed the most we could hope for. Then the great start and maybe a top-four finish. Then the losing streak and back to being a play-in team. Now four wins in a row and closer to third than ninth with 40% of the season gone. I\u2019m getting whiplash. Which Heat is the real Heat? \u2013 Howard, Hallandale Beach.<\/p>\n A: Not sure I know and not sure the Heat know. Remember, we have yet to fully assimilate the Tyler Herro factor, with that return expected over the next week. To this point, the only consistency has been inconsistency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: Ira, I vote Davion Mitchell for the Heat\u2019s best eight-point game of the season. That late steal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3778],"tags":[3879,7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-511663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-ask-ira","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-heat","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-miami-heat-blog","15":"tag-miamiheat","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115825331630531365","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}