Having won 17 of their last 20 games, the Miami Heat find themselves in the middle of a tight race for the final playoff spot. As a result, some of the Heat players have found themselves watching games of teams in the playoff hunt, rooting for every advantage they can get.
Goran Dragic, who has been instrumental during the Heat’s run, admits that he checks the scores from other teams also in the playoff hunt, like Detroit, or Chicago, or Milwaukee:
“I check how the other teams play. My only concern is how we’re going to play,” said Dragic. “I feel like if you’re going to be 100 percent every day come in and do our job, put in a lot of work, we’re going to have a lot of good games that we can make the playoffs.”
In addition, his backcourt partner Dion Waiters might be keeping an even closer eye on the standings:
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“I watch every game (so) it’s not about just that,” Dion Waiters said. “You keep an eye on it, can’t say we don’t. If we keep moving forward and keep getting better each game I think we’ll be fine.”
Even head coach Erik Spoelstra, who usually shies away from putting attention on other teams, conceded that his players are well aware of the opportunity they have:
“Our guys are aware,” Spoelstra said. “But I don’t want guys over obsessing – certainly about other teams. It’s about what we have to do and getting consistently to our game.”
Most Heat fans are religiously monitoring the Eastern Conference standings but the players will need to take care of business on the court for the remaining season for it to even matter at all.
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