Juan Ocampo. Getty Images.

While most of the attention and storylines surrounding the Miami Heat have to do with the Jimmy Butler trade saga, sometimes people forget that this team actually plays basketball every night. As it stands today, the Heat are 20-18 and in 7th place, but are just 1.5 games out of the top 4. That’s partly why this whole butler nonsense is so confusing. It’s not like the Heat are a 10-pick lottery team right now, they’re still strong in the mix! Not only that, but guys like Tyler Herro are coming off an outstanding season, so the way he plays makes it pretty difficult to keep him off the All-Star team.

Given that the Heat are still technically middle of the pack in the East, their current six-game road trip to the West Coast is pretty important. These are usually the tests where you find out a lot about yourself as a team and going into the heat last night wasn’t actually that bad! A previous 3-1 record with a tough 5-point OT loss to the Kings (who have won seven straight) is nothing to sneeze at, even if those wins came against GS/UTA/POR. You never apologize for victories.

They wrap things up with a little LAC/LAL stint in LA, and now that Kawhi is back, it was another good test. This defense is real, Harden and Normal Powell are having great years, and that’s before you even introduce Kawhi to the mix. The Heat survived half the game. A big 35-point quarter to start led to them holding a narrow 5-point lead at halftime, led by Herro’s 18. Nothing crazy, but a victory given the circumstances.

What happened next in the next 24 minutes? I don’t have to tell you, allow Kevin Love to tell you

It’s timely, hilarious and very, very true. Honestly, I can’t think of a better description of the Heat’s second half than the route Love took. What else would you call it?

Of course, it wasn’t all 1,000 players who were on the Heat, but it might as well have been. Allowing 66 points at 54/50% and 9pm is pretty terrible. On the other hand, this results in 41/37% splits with 11 TOs. The Heat lost the fast break scoring battle 22-2. From a plus-5 to a minus-19. The Clippers came out in the second half and didn’t hold back. There was no lube, no foreplay, nothing. Again, Kevin Love says that, not me. The sad thing is that Kawhi only played 6 minutes!

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I’ll be honest, when I first saw this tweet I had to double check that I wasn’t getting NBACentel, but a look at his IG confirmed that it is indeed real. For me that means I love it even more. Listen, things are a bit of a disaster surrounding MIA right now, and sometimes laughter is the best cure for those tense moments. If you can’t laugh at yourself, what’s the point? Screwing up an away game like the Heat managed to do in the second half is the perfect opportunity to make a joke like this to change the mood. God knows that sentiment is in the toilet with the Heat right now, so give Kevin Love credit for not only being honest but also being a leader. He does everything he can to lighten the mood and maybe change things a little. As we know, laughter heals everything.