In wake of the Hassan Whiteside storm, the Miami Heat refuse to let it distract them from their most important task.
With five games left in the regular season, the Heat need just one victory to clinch a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The first opportunity comes Tuesday night against the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Coach Erik Spoelstra said that is the focus and not the recent events surrounding Whiteside. On Saturday, Whiteside publicly complained about his playing time but said Monday he regretted making those statements.
"It's about getting the next win to get in the playoffs," Spoelstra said. "That's it. Period."
Heat guard Dwyane Wade said the team would prefer to get the clincher sooner than later. It would create less pressure the remainder of the season.
"It would be great," Wade said. "I thought we've done a good job since I've been back, winning at home and taking care of business. We didn't do that [Saturday] night, but we come back and we've got another opportunity. It would be great to clinch a playoff spot, but even from there we need to continue to play good basketball, hopefully going into the playoffs. It's great to get it out of the way and we'll talk about it when it happens, but we still have to keep working on our habits and continuing to keep playing. We still have work to do."
Added Whiteside, "We got to really clinch it. That's why these games mean so much. You want them so bad, and when you're right there it's frustrating at times."
What the Heat won't focus on potential playoffs opponents. They will deal with that at the appropriate time.
"You can't focus on that," Wade said. "You can't try to dodge a team or all that, you just play it out and at the end of the year whatever your record is, who you match up [against] is who you match up [against]. Sometimes it's good matchups. Sometimes it's bad matchups. It is what it is, you've got to figure it out because after 82 games you are the team that you are."
