According to NBA analyst Couper Moorhead, the Heat played "zone" 37 percent of the time against the Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets, and Detroit Pistons. In those sets, the Heat allowed just 0.82 points per possession. To put that number in perspective, the NBA's best defense, the Oklahoma City Thunder, allows 1.05 points per possession this season.
Miami entered the break just two games above .500 at 29-27, including just a 4-5 record over its previous nine games. Hoping to avoid its fourth-straight play-in appearance, the Heat are 1.5 games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for the No. 6 seed in the East. Though they're also one game back of Orlando, who owns the head-to-head tiebreaker, having beaten the Heat in all of their meetings this season.
There has now been nearly two weeks passed since a 2026 NBA trade deadline that left the Miami Heat completely empty handed. With rumors that linked Miami to both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant, they ended up with neither. Instead, a Heat team hovering just over the .500 mark and back in their fate of play-in territory for the fourth straight season was the only team in the Eastern Conference to not make a single deadline move.
The odds of the Miami Heat losing Andrew Wiggins for nothing this offseason just might've grown exponentially. The Heat's decision to keep Andrew Wiggins on the roster beyond the NBA Trade Deadline only looks worse after a recent rumor. According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, the Los Angeles Lakers are already having discussions about targeting Wiggins in free agency. This type of backchanneling could make way for Wiggins opting to test free agency in an attempt to secure a multi-year contract,
If the Miami Heat end up pivoting away from a Giannis Antetokounmpo chase this offseason, Donovan Mitchell is likely going to emerge as the next superstar trade target they're going to strongly pursue. As a star player whom the Heat have been interested in before, it'd be surprising if he wasn't already on their current radar. That's because Mitchell just has one guaranteed year left on his contract before he can opt out of his deal (after the 2026-27 season) with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
A new dunk contest champion was crowned on Saturday night, and for the fourth time in NBA History, it was a Miami Heat player. Heat second-year forward Keshad Johnson took home the award, besting Spurs rookie Carter Bryant in the final round. Johnson's final round score (97.3) bested Bryant's (93.0), even though Bryant recorded a perfect 50 for one of his dunks.
Pat Riley saying that he doesn't like today's game, and that he's had to adapt to it, should make fans extremely nervous about where the Miami Heat franchise stands, and where it's headed. Because if Riley is having to change who he is, it makes you question whether he's the right person to be leading the Heat right now. The value that Miami gains
