Miami Heat Overcome `Growing Pains' Before Gearing Up For Playoff Run

Despite countless bouts with inconsistency, the Miami Heat pulled it together at the end of the season

The Miami Heat season was full of ups and downs. 

There were long winning streaks. There were long losing streaks. 

After a season full of inconsistency, the Heat feel like they finally got it together at the end of the year. The Heat, who were seven games under .500 at one point this season, finished strong by winning 12 of their final 16 games. It was enough to capture the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, where they will play the Milwaukee Bucks. 

The best-of-7 series begins Saturday in Milwaukee. 

“It was growing pains,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “Everybody was looking at me like I was crazy, when I was like, ‘Yo, it gets better as you grow.’ Everybody was saying we’re not in the playoffs, this, that and the third."

Part of the reason for the turnaround was simply getting healthy. The Heat dealt with late-season injuries to Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Andre Iguodala. They had everyone available for Wednesday's practice, including forward Jimmy Butler. 

Butler missed the final two games because of back pain. 

“Everybody was able to work today,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “We haven’t had a day like that in a while. But I felt like my team and the staff did a great job of blocking out the outside noise and just really putting our heads down and trying to just stack wins.”

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