The advantage of seeing the finish line, or at least the regular-season finish line, Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin said Wednesday, is that the marathon is now a sprint.
“We’re in single digits with the season left, with the regular season left,” he said ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the New York Knicks at Miami-Dade Arena, with only eight regular-season games left to follow. “And it’s just kind of the time to start emptying the tank and to start to figure out what type of team you’re going to be for the postseason.
“So we’re ready.”
It is a somewhat daunting schedule, with Wednesday night’s game followed by a key Eastern Conference seeding battle Saturday night against the Brooklyn Nets, and a back-to-back road set next week against the Toronto Raptors and Knicks.
“Obviously,” Martin said, “these are the types of games that you live to play for, in this type of environment.”
Which means pacing yourself no longer is a consideration, Martin said, even with the play-in round to follow starting April 11 and then the playoffs opening April 15.
“But that’s part of the postseason, you never know how long it’s going to last,” he said. “So you’ve got to empty it like this is going to be your last couple of games.
“Like I said, you want to take advantage of every opportunity you have to continue to play past the regular season. And you just want to take full advantage and give yourself to be one of the final teams standing.”
The focus, guard Max Strus said ahead of Wednesday night’s game, has been on one side of the ball.
“Trying to get our defense right, getting back to who we are and what we do on the defensive end, getting stops and just controlling the game on that end,” he said. “So we’re going to take it more personal, and really try to implant our soul on the side of the ball.”
Like Martin, Strus said the focus should be singular.
“Winning, that’s the most important thing right now,” he said. “Finding any way we can stack wins on top of each other. With winning comes everything else. That cures everything.
“So as long as we can control the game on the defense end, do what we do on offense, and come out with a win, everything else is going to be fine.”
Captain’s treat
Heat captain Udonis Haslem organized a trip with several teammates to Tuesday night’s championship game of the World Baseball Classic at Lone Depot Park.
“It was unbelievable,” Strus said. “That was probably one of the coolest atmospheres I’ve ever been at, any sporting event. It felt like the whole world was like there, everybody inspiring each other.
“And just to see that at the highest level was really cool to be around.”
Japan defeated the United States 3-2 for the championship.
“Man, it was awesome,” Martin said. “Shoutout to OG. He got everything set up for us. We had a great time and had good people, good food and it was a good game. So I was glad I was able to witness something like that.”
Small ball
The Heat in recent games have experimented again with smaller lineups, something that often was the case last season, with power forward P.J. Tucker shifting to center.
This time those alignments have included minutes in the middle for Kevin Love and Haywood Highsmith.
“We’ll see. I’m open to anything,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, when asked if that could become a late-season staple. “Right now this is what it’s got to be. Everybody has to clear their mind, help our team win.
“The roles might not be exactly what everybody wants. It doesn’t matter at this point. We’re way past all of that stuff. It is about one game. What do we have to do to get a win?”
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