After starting the season 11-30, no one in the league expected the Miami Heat to win anything, besides maybe the first overall pick in the draft lottery. Then, the team went on a 13 game win streak, leading them to where they are now: seventh in the Eastern Conference, one game below .500, and just two games back of the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks for the five and six seeds. James Hebert of CBS Sports talked to two of the team’s oldest players, Goran Dragic and James Johnson.
“It was kind of devastating because we were losing a lot of games,” Dragic said. “But then when we switch and we start winning, then you’re like hyped and you’re like, OK, this is going exactly how we imagined at the beginning of the season. I mean, it’s awesome.”
It didn’t look good for the Heat after Dwyane Wade left and Chris Bosh had to sit the year out. However, Goran Dragic, only behind Udonis Haslem in age, has helped lead the team to the record they currently sit at. He’s averaging 20.1 points, 5.9 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.2 steals while shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 40.8 percent from three (tied for a career high). After going back and forth between the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, Dragic seems to have found a place where he fits in.
“Everybody was counting us out — oh, we’re going to win 16, I don’t know, 18 games,” Dragic said. “Most of the players, they bounce around, they play for a lot of teams. And we finally feel like that most of those players, they found a home here in Miami.”
James Johnson, on his fifth team in eight years, is putting up career numbers by a good margin. In just under 27 minutes per game, Johnson is averaging 12.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, all of which are career highs. He’s also chipping in 1.2 blocks and 1.0 steals per game. On the shooting side, he’s posting a career-best three point field goal percentage while also shooting two more threes per game than what he’s used to.
“Everybody here is a grinder,” Johnson said. “Everybody here is from the jungle. They want it. We got it out the mud and they’re not going to let it go. They know how hard it was to get here and we’re working harder to stay.”
The Heat have seven games remaining, and they will look to build on their one game lead over the Chicago Bulls to stay in the playoff race.
