{"id":696978,"date":"2026-04-04T01:36:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696978\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T01:36:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:36:54","slug":"struggling-heat-eager-to-get-right-vs-woeful-wizards-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696978\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling Heat eager to get right vs. woeful Wizards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hoping to finish strong, the Miami Heat<\/a> will play host to the Washington Wizards<\/a> on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Heat (40-37) have clinched a spot in the play-in round. They entered play on Friday in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, but they have five games left in the regular season and could move up in the standings.<\/p>\n

Miami also has a fairly soft schedule from here on out, including two games against NBA-worst Washington (17-59).<\/p>\n

The problem for the Heat, though, is that they are just 2-8 in their past 10 games, including a 147-129 loss to the visiting Boston Celtics on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Heat players such as Jaime Jaquez Jr. say they have not lost confidence.<\/p>\n

“We know what we’re capable of when we lock in,” Jaquez said.<\/p>\n

Jaquez said Miami is looking for a win “by any means necessary” down the stretch, and it would certainly help the Heat if Norman Powell can play.<\/p>\n

Powell, who leads Miami in scoring (22.1 points per game), missed the game against Boston due to illness.<\/p>\n

Miami’s other big scorers are Tyler Herro (21.4 ppg) and Bam Adebayo (20.3). Adebayo, of course, burned Washington for 83 points on March 10, and that was the second-greatest scoring game in NBA history.<\/p>\n

Since then, though, Miami is just 3-8, which Herro this week called “a terrible stretch.”<\/p>\n

Other Heat players to watch include point guard Davion Mitchell, who leads the team in assists (6.5); Jaquez, who is their top bench scorer (15.0); and Pelle Larsson, who does a lot of dirty work such as drawing charging calls. In addition, Andrew Wiggins averages 15.6 points and Kel’el Ware is a double-double threat (10.9 points, 9.0 rebounds).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Wizards have lost 20 of their past 21 games as Washington fans are no doubt looking forward to potentially having the first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

The team still is fighting hard, according to coach Brian Keefe.<\/p>\n

“Our guys are competitive,” Keefe said. “Even after a loss, they come back the next day ready to work and ready to get better. That’s been our thing all season.”<\/p>\n

The Wizards on Wednesday lost 153-131 to Philadelphia. In that game, Washington received a career-high 21 points from Anthony Gill, who played 35 minutes off the bench, going 3-for-3 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want to disappoint my teammates,” Gill said of his thought process. “They put in so much hard work to get me the ball in a position to score — the least I can do is put the ball in the basket to get them an assist.”<\/p>\n

With stars such as Trae Young (quad) and Anthony Davis (finger) on the injured list, Gill said the final six games are about setting the tone for next season when — presumably — those guys will be healthy.<\/p>\n

“We have an opportunity,” Gill said. “We’re trying to build a foundation to move to something special next season. We have to finish strong no matter who is on the court.”<\/p>\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hoping to finish strong, the Miami Heat will play host to the Washington Wizards on Saturday afternoon. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,295,189,3881,6,468],"class_list":{"0":"post-696978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-heat","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-miamiheat","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-washington-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116343887262053066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696978","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=696978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}