– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — Maybe that “Heat Culture” ethos didn’t go out the window when Jimmy Butler finally went out the door. The Miami Heat are now doing what they usually do best at this time of year, no matter who is in uniform: finding their form right before the NBA Playoffs and, possibly, looking like that proverbial team that no one wants to see in the early rounds.
Bam Adebayo had 28 points and 12 rebounds while Tyler Herro added 27 to lift the Heat to a convincing 120-94 victory over the Washington Wizards inside Capital One Arena on Monday night, Miami’s fifth win in a row. Pelle Larsson and Terry Rozier each scored 15 for the Heat, who have won each of those last five games by double digits.
Miami now moves past Chicago an into ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings, and just a game out of eighth-place Orlando in the loss column. (Finishing seventh or eighth would give Miami two chances to make the NBA Playoffs.) Miami also became the third team in NBA history to immediately follow a 10-game losing streak with a winning streak of at least five games, joining the 2017-18 Chicago Bulls and the 2021-22 Houston Rockets.
Jordan Poole had 35 points for the Wizards, including hitting seven three-pointers, raising his season total to 228 and eclipsing the franchise record of 223 by Bradley Beal in 2016-17.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Monday night’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Timothy Rice. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 22 pictures in total.
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