If the Heat can get through this trip undefeated, if they can get through their road game at Chicago (which should have Derrick Rose back by then, right?) on the 27th, they will roll into San Antonio on the final day of March with the streak sitting at 29.
Let’s just hazard a guess here and postulate that Pop won’t choose to rest his starters if the Spurs have a chance to keep this streak from reaching 30.
Still, that’s a long way off.
But let there be no doubt, we should not doubt this Heat team’s ability to get to 29 — and perhaps beyond.
“We don’t panic. We just don’t panic,” said James, who did not make the biggest basket of the game this time. Instead, he missed twice from in close before Dwyane Wade tipped in Miami’s second straight offensive rebound for a three-point lead with 29 seconds left.
Spencer Hawes was moving a little too fast under the basket as he tried and missed a reverse layup at the other end, Wade made a pair from the line, and then James made a pair of his own to clinch it with 18 seconds left.
It was good theater, a competitive game … but there was always a sense that the Heat were going to emerge from this one with another W. It was only a question of how?
It’s like that old saying “I’ve seen this movie before.”
In Battier’s case, that is indeed the case. But what he experienced in Houston in 2006 and what he is experiencing now is apples and oranges.
The Rockets’ 22 straight wins were a fluke show.
This is a freak show.
And it shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.