The Miami Heat entered the All-Star break with losses in four of its past five games. But as the Heat prepares to resume its schedule Thursday with a road matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, there's reason to be optimistic about its chances at a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference.
Not only does the Heat currently stand in fourth place in the East with a record of 35-19 despite its recent struggles, it also holds a 1.5-game lead over the fifth-place Philadelphia 76ers and a 3.5-game lead over the sixth-place Indiana Pacers. In addition, the Heat plays a favorable schedule the rest of the way.
"I think we still got a little bit of work to do, but I think we'll be OK," Heat wing Jimmy Butler said during All-Star Weekend in Chicago. "We got some new pieces in the mix. Everybody's getting used to everybody still. In the second half of the season, we got some business to handle."
With 28 regular-season games remaining, Miami plays 16 of those at home and only 12 on the road. That's a good thing for a Heat team that has been dominant at AmericanAirlines Arena this season with a 22-3 home record and just mediocre everywhere else with a 13-16 road record.
Among the top six teams in the East, Miami has the most home games remaining to play _ No. 1 Milwaukee Bucks (13 home games to play), No. 2 Toronto Raptors (13), No. 3 Boston Celtics (13), No. 5 76ers (14) and No. 6 Pacers (12).
And many of the road games left on the Heat's schedule are winnable ones. Only three of Miami's 12 remaining road games come against opponents that currently own a winning record (at Bucks on March 16, at Pacers on March 20, at Celtics on April 1).
In total, just 10 of the Heat's 28 remaining games come against opponents currently with a winning record.
So, it's not surprising the Heat has the fifth-most favorable remaining schedule, according to Tankathon.com, based on the current combined winning percentage of teams left to play. Among the top six teams in the East, only Philadelphia has a more favorable remaining schedule than Miami using this metric.
"Winning," center Bam Adebayo said when asked what the Heat needs to do when it returns from the break. "I feel like this past road trip, we were slipping a little bit. We slipped a lot. We need to get back to winning now and how to build winning habits."
