The Miami Heat have had the best in-season turnaround this year. In their first 41 games, they owned an 11-30 record. Since then they have accumulated 26 wins and only lost 10 times. However, they are currently missing one major component to their success -- Dion Waiters.
Without Dion Waiters
The Heat have been awful without Waiters this season. In fact, they are 10-21 without the 25-year-old two guard. With the season winding down and Miami only a half game out of the playoff picture, they are going to need a healthy Waiters in their final four games especially since they are going to face tough competition.
Waiters has been having himself a career year, slowly transforming into the player everyone hoped he would become when drafted fourth overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2012. He has been averaging 15.8 points 4.3 assists, and 3.3 rebounds. The Heat mainly miss his scoring prowess. In recent games, Waiters displayed his ability to knock down clutch shots, leading the Heat to a couple of crucial victories.
Without Waiters, there has been a lot of pressure on point guard Goran Dragic, who leads the team in scoring, assists, and steals. With Waiters in the lineup, Dragic had a trusted scorer alongside him to dish the ball to. Aside from scoring, Waiters was also doing a terrific job of ball handling and playmaking, which are the two most underrated aspects of his game.
His ability to create for others opens the game up for Miami and helps the offense flow much better.
Miami's playoff aspirations
The last four games for the Heat are brutal. They will play the Toronto Raptors in Canada on Friday, and then travel to Washington to play the Wizards the next day. Then they return home for a bout against the Cleveland Cavaliers and close out the season with another home game against the Wizards.
With Waiters currently nursing an ankle injury, Miami’s likelihood of making the playoffs seems low. Waiters’ injury status is being updated on a day-to-day basis, which is an encouraging sign, but the team desperately needs his services as soon as Friday.
