The Miami Heat's month of March has been largely up-and-down. The team reached a high point with their seven-game winning streak along with Bam Adebayo's historic 83-point performance on March 14. However, with Saturday night's heartbreaking loss to the Houston Rockets, the team has lost four straight and have fallen out of the playoff picture. Currently, the team sits as the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference standings, which is good for a Play-In spot, but the team will have to fight for a top 6 seed to make the playoffs outright.
Bleacher Report released an article, asking the biggest question out of every NBA team as we reach the final stretch of the regular season. The Heat's question: "How do we get the most out of our star guards?"
"When the Heat aren't getting 83 points out of Bam Adebayo, they're often not getting enough out of their offense to be taken super seriously as contenders," the article wrote. "You might assume, then, they'd be looking for all the shared floor time they could find for star guards Norman Powell and Tyler Herro, the first and second-highest scorers on this squad, respectively. Yet, they actually yanked Powell out of the opening group recently, seemingly to help both him and Herro more easily find their comfort zones. They share a few too many strengths and weaknesses, so when they are playing together, they're often stepping on the other's toes and not having each other's backs."
Norman Powell started the season as one of the strongest scorers in the entire league and helped the Heat to a strong first month but has dealt with injuries over the last few weeks. Tyler Herro has missed most of the season but since his return to the court following his rib injury, he has surpassed the 20-point marker in seven of his last eight games. For the Heat to make a playoff push, they need both players to be healthy and scoring at the elite levels they've been producing this year.
Other guys like Davion Mitchell, Pelle Larsson and Kasparas Jakucionis have played well in their roles as well. Mitchell was a strong option off the bench during last year's playoff series and Larsson and Jakucionis have played a lot as their roles have increased in recent weeks.
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