Heat overcome ‘scheduled loss,’ now enter crucial stretch ahead of All-Star break

After the Miami Heat had a bounce-back game against the Utah Jazz last Saturday, the team had a quick turnaround for Sunday’s matchup, visiting the Phoenix Suns in the second contest of a back-to-back. As the Heat had a concerning trend in all of January in not winning consecutive games, that was put to rest with the 111-102 win on Sunday.

While winning the second game of a back-to-back doesn’t appear to be extraordinary, context matters for Miami here, as it was the fifth road game in seven days, plus the team’s flight after the Utah win to Phoenix was difficult to say the least. The team’s flight would be delayed by more than three hours, leading the Heat to land at around 4:30 a.m. (Mountain Standard Time).

Still, the lack of sleep didn’t stop Miami from putting in an impeccable effort in the win over the Suns, which head coach Erik Spoelstra admitted could have been seen as a “scheduled loss,” according to The Miami Herald.

“This was a tough turnaround, and I’m not making an excuse for it,” Spoelstra said. “I’m just saying when we got to bed at 6 a.m. and have two games in less than 22 hours, it’s fun. It’s fun to try to rally around the challenge. This oftentimes could be a scheduled loss, and everybody just absolutely rallied around the opportunity.”

It was a crucial win for the team as they went 3-2 in the five-game road trip that started disappointingly, and now they return home for Wednesday’s game against the Orlando Magic.

“We knew how important this win was,” Jaquez said. “We know how important this next stretch of games is for us going into All-Star break. So we’re just taking that to heart, and we’re done talking about it.”

Heat’s Norman Powell could use the break

Another reason for the road trip being frustrating was the Heat dealing with a bevy of injuries, such as Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, and Davion Mitchell missing key contests in that span. Now, Miami is in the midst of a two-day break ahead of Wednesday’s game, and there’s no doubt they could use it, even the players that were active in all the games, like Bam Adebayo, Norman Powell, and others, as Spoelstra mentioned.

“I’m sure everybody could use it,” Spoelstra said of the break. “But the guys who really need it the most will be Norm, Bam [Adebayo], and [Andrew Wiggins]. Probably, Jaime could use some extra time as well. We’ll try to maximize that as much as possible.”

If there is someone who emphasized needing the rest, it’s Powell, who had been playing through lower back tightness during the road trip.

“I definitely need the rest,” Powell said, who leads the team, averaging 23.1 points per game. “And hopefully with these two days, I can get everything to calm down and be ready to go for Orlando.”

The Heat are now 25-22, putting them eighth in the East ahead of Monday against Orlando.

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