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All the Miami Heat did was set a franchise single-season record for wins with four games left to play, clinch the top overall spot in the NBA and secure home-court advantage for the entirety of the playoffs.
No big deal.
No wild celebration was merited. No celebration at all, really. Just business as usual for the Heat, whose lone goal isn’t being the best team in April – but rather, being the best team in June. Miami wrapped up the No. 1 overall seed with a 103-98 win in Washington on Wednesday, a game where the Heat played without LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem, all sidelined by minor injuries or illness.
”We’ve had an amazing year,” Heat forward Shane Battier told reporters in Washington. ”We’ve set a lot of records and we’ve had a lot of story lines the whole year. Hopefully our best story line is still ahead of us. That’s what we’re saving the high-fives for.”
It was Miami’s 62nd win, one more than the Heat club of 1996-97 managed.
And now what has seemed inevitable for the last couple weeks – Miami finishing the regular season atop the league – has become reality.
— Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press
