Where The Miami Heat Fall In This Week’s NBA Power Rankings

The Miami Heat are still working their way up the power rankings on NBA.com.

This week, they checked in at No. 16. Here’s what NBA.com writer John Schumann had to say about the Heat.

“It turns out that Jimmy Butler is a difference maker,” Schumann wrote. Without Butler, the Heat were competitive in Boston on Wednesday (they trailed by three with less than six minutes left), but could not close the deal. With him (back from a seven-game absence) in the same building two nights later, they were able to do just that (after coming back from 13 points down in the second half) and end the Celtics’ five-game winning streak. Bam Adebayo had as many clutch points in the OT win, but Butler hit the Heat’s four biggest shots of the night, three of them pull-up jumpers over Al Horford. He remains a sub-par shooter (effective field goal percentage of 46.3%) from *outside the paint overall, but it seems that the numbers go out the window when he’s in high-leverage situations (and the Heat have been in a lot of those this season).”