Inside The Heat

Miami Heat Unfortunately Getting Hot Same Time As Knicks, 76ers, Cavaliers and Nets

Julius Randle, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid and Donovan Mitchell all have their teams playing well
Shandel Richardson|
Miami Heat Unfortunately Getting Hot Same Time As Knicks, 76ers, Cavaliers and Nets
Miami Heat Unfortunately Getting Hot Same Time As Knicks, 76ers, Cavaliers and Nets

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Miami HeatNew York KnicksCleveland CavaliersBrooklyn NetsPhiladelphia 76ers

The Miami Heat are enjoying one of their best stretches of the season. 

They won three straight games and done it while playing without key players. It screams positivity. 

The negative? While the Heat are stacking wins, so is the rest of the Eastern Conference. It means they may find it hard to gain ground from their No. 7 spot in the standings. 

Here's a look: 

-The third-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers have won two straight after Donovan Mitchell's 41-point performance lifted them past the Indiana Pacers. Mitchell had 18 points in the fourth quarter to help them overcome a 13-point deficit. 

-The fourth-seeded Brooklyn Nets have won five straight after defeating the Toronto Raptors on Kyrie Irving's last-second 3-pointer. Irving, Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons all seem finally on the same page, which makes them a scary team in the East. 

-The fifth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers have won four straight after their win against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Joel Embiid is the league's leading scorer at 33 points a game and James Harden is thriving in a complementary role. 

-The sixth-seeded New York Knicks have surprisingly six straight games. Julius Randle is averaging 26.6 points in December to lead the way. 

And this is without mentioning the East's top two teams, Boston and Milwaukee, who were both rolling until recent losses to the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies. 

So the Heat have a long way to go before making up for the slow start. 

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Shandel Richardson covers the Miami Heat for Inside The Heat.

TWITTER: @ShandelRich

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star. TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here

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