Miami Heat Stay Determined Through Injuries

The Miami Heat walked away with a victory against the Detroit Pistons Sunday while Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson scored more than 30 points each. As a matter of fact, Drummond had 32 points and 14 rebounds, which are Shaquille O’Neal numbers, and they still weren’t able to win. Why?

There is a player who has been doing it in South Beach for a long time, and his name is Dwyane Wade.

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Wade scored 40 points, shooting 14-of-27 from the field and getting to the line an insane 13 times, a stat that has Dallas Mavericks fans wondering if cheating went on. Wade is one of the 18 people in the league that have eclipsed 40 points scored. But it was the way that it happened which is most important.

As a side note: it is important to see that the head coach of the Pistons is Stan Van Gundy, who groomed Dwyane Wade into the player he is now in the beginning of his career. That is, until Pat Riley became the head coach in 2006. Wade scored 19 points in the fourth quarter to hold a surge from the Pistons which began on back-to-back three-point shots from Jodie Meeks.

During the game, the team was missing Hassan Whiteside, Miami’s oversized player in the middle. This affected everything Miami did not only on the offensive end but most importantly, on the defensive end. Drummond was able to get nearly everything that he wanted. The Heat were also missing Chris Andersen, who usually comes in for Whiteside while he rests.

So the Heat were down to the reserve for the reserve big man, which was Udonis Haslem, who showed up in a big way for the Heat. I wrote about him in a piece I did for Hoops Habit, which basically showcased that Haslem was a forgotten Heat player that needed to be remembered for what he does on the court.

Haslem had 18 points and 13 rebounds in the game, and while he wasn’t able to contribute defensively the way that Whiteside would, he did so on the glass and offensively. But then Luol Deng got hurt on his left knee and Michael Beasley hurt his right elbow in the beginning of the game.

So even though the team walked in with few players, and lost even more players as the game progressed, the team still was able to win. This is why I think the Heat will be a team to watch in the playoffs.

They are better than they seem, because injuries have truly killed their season. The Heat are the only team this season where one can say that a player could have died (referring to Chris Bosh’s blood clot). But throughout all of that, the Heat keep finding a way to win and are determined to ride Wade’s back into the playoffs.

If they are able to get healthy before the playoffs start (and possibly sneak past the Milwaukee Bucks), they have a chance at playing the Cleveland Cavaliers, which to be honest, is the only series anybody wants to see Miami play.

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