Wednesday night. Miami at Cleveland. The Heat’s epic win streak in serious jeopardy, as the lowly Cavs surged to a 27-point third quarter lead.
And you could almost see the relief on Erik Spoelstra’s face.
Miami’s coach would have been perfectly content to end the streak, to take all pressure off his team as the playoffs approach and to give him the opportunity to rest key players down the stretch. After all, the Heat have already clinched the Southeast Division. They’ve got an 11.5 game lead over second-place Indiana for the top seed in the East … with 15 games remaining. It would take a disaster of Hindenburg proportions to knock them out of the top spot. And while LeBron James is only a little less durable than Wolverine, the other two thirds of Miami’s “big three” – Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh – have extensive injury histories.
Given the choice, I’m sure Spoelstra would be very happy to take a loss, and then put Wade, Bosh, and Ray Allen on modified duty for the rest of the season. Not that he’d admit that with Miami chasing the Lakers’ all-time NBA record for consecutive wins. But LeBron and company took that option away. In the second half, they played like the squad we’ve come to know and love or is it fear, erasing the deficit and surging to a 98-95 win.
It seems likely that they’ll make it 25 straight on Friday in Detroit. And with Charlotte, Orlando, Chicago, and New Orleans on the schedule after that, odds are good that the streak lasts for at least another week.