Will January Cool Heat?

A month ago, I said that December should be a pick-me-up month for the Miami Heat. Although the Heat lost to two teams with losing records, Memphis and Milwaukee, Miami finished 9-4 in December and is now 17-13 on the season. The month was highlighted by wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers, two of the best teams in the NBA.

Miami, one-and-a-half games behind Detroit for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, has reason for confidence heading into the New Year. For the better part of the first two complete months of the NBA season, the notion that when star guard Dwyane Wade struggled, the team followed was held firm. But when Wade shot 7-for-23 from the field against Cleveland, four other players had double figures as the Heat managed to upend the Cavs.

Now, five players average double-figure points for Miami: Wade, Michael Beasley, Shawn Marion, Udonis Haslem and Mario Chalmers. Moreover, Daequan Cook is right on the cusp, with an average of 9.9 points per game. That's an encouraging sign for the Heat offensively. And Coach Erik Spoelstra has done a good job of getting his team to play chaotic defense, most recently a zone defense against the Cavs.

It could all change for the worse in January. Miami will start Jan. 2 with a back-to-back sequence, starting at Orlando and then against New Jersey. The Heat will have one day off before hosting San Antonio, the third-best team in the West. The team will then have to go out for a seven-game road trip, six of those games against Western Conference-teams. Miami will start the road trip with a nationally-televised game at Denver before facing Sacramento, the Lakers, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Houston and finally Oklahoma City to finish up the road trip. The good news is that in the road trip, the Heat will only have one set of back-to-backs, visiting the Timberwolves and then the Bucks.

With that being said, it doesn't necessarily get better after the road trip. The Heat will host five of the last six games of the month. Miami will, however, face Boston, Orlando, Atlanta and Dallas to end January. All four of those teams have better records than Miami's.

All in all, the Heat will play 16 games in January, nine against teams with records better than 17-13. It's good that Miami took care of business in December, because the Heat can go 7-9 next month and still be over .500. On the other hand, the Heat's upcoming schedule will certainly test its mettle. And Miami will not only need to overachieve in the future, but get some help from other teams in order to get the four-five match-up in the playoffs.

Keep in mind that Miami has beaten San Antonio, Phoenix, the Lakers and Cleveland this season. This team has proven it can compete, but the question now is whether this young, small team can be a good enough team that it isn't hovering over the .500 mark.