A solid defense has also helped spur the Heat’s seven-game run. Miami (42-34) has allowed 82.7 points per 
With a 5 1/2-game lead over ninth-place Chicago and six games remaining, the Heat can clinch a playoff spot for the sixth time in seven years with a win or a Bulls loss to Charlotte on Saturday. Chicago has seven games left, but Miami owns the tiebreaker.
Minnesota needs one more win to guarantee it won’t match the franchise’s worst season, set in 1991-92. The Timberwolves went 19-63 the next season and haven’t finished with fewer than 20 wins in any campaign since.
The Wolves pay the 2nd most amount of money per win. Ian Thomsen/SI.com
• Minnesota Timberwolves, $62.8 million payroll, $4.19 million per win. By signing coach Kurt Rambis to four years and using the No. 5 pick on Ricky Rubio, who won’t be available to leave his Spanish club until 2011, the Wolves proved they are rebuilding patiently for the long term. Going into the draft, they’ll shed almost $28 million in payroll with as many as 10 names vanishing from the books next season. They’ll have space to make an anticipated run at Gay or another free agent this summer to go with another high pick in the draft. And in the meantime, they’ve continued to develop Kevin Love, rookie point guard Jonny Flynn and Corey Brewer, a candidate for the Most Improved Player award.
Not exactly surprising stuff here.
Phil Miller reports that Ramon Sessions is perfectly fine with his role on the team
Then he came to Minnesota, and began running coach Kurt Rambis’ triangle offense as the backup to starter Jonny Flynn.
The result? Sessions, who plays seven fewer minutes per game than he did in Milwaukee, has scored 20 points only twice all year. He’s reached eight assists twice as well, and he has zero double-doubles.
And he swears he’s just fine with that.
“That’s not what they want me to do here,” said Sessions, who averages 7.8 points and 3.1 assists with the Wolves. “I wouldn’t say it’s been a down year. I wouldn’t say last year was better. It’s just a different offense.”
“I’m always going to make sure I stay positive. It’s still living a dream, for me to be out here playing every day,” Sessions said. “If that’s what they want me to do and we win with that, I’m happy.”
The Big Lead ponders whether the Wolves can make the playoffs next season
HA. What? A team with this depth chart and ranked dead last in “expert” Marc Stein’s Week 22 Power Rankings – replacing the suddenly-semi-hot New Jersey Nets – is going to contend for the playoffs in the stacked West next year? Well, probably not. But this is our way of initial foray into the 2010 NBA draft, commencing in just 85 days.
Benjamin Polk at CityPages breaks down the Most Improved Player candidates
So, statistically at least, Brewer deserves some serious consideration. And its certain that nobody in the league has come so far, so fast in terms of developing his game. But the sad fact is that Andrew Bogut and George Hill will both be playing in the playoffs. Aaron Brooks’s Rockets have won 37 games and for a while were the semi-darlings of the league for their plucky play in the absence of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Corey Brewer plays on a team that has won 15 games this year, hasn’t once been seen on national TV, and is seen as a strange joke by most of the rest of the league. Hate to say it, but it probably ain’t gonna happen.
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Nate Jawai had 10 points and 5 rebounds in the Skyforce’s win over the Bakersfield Jam last night.
He also appears to wearing jersey number 00 (double zero). Worst. Number. Ever. Who does he think he is, Greg Ostertag?
NBA.COM’s Top 10 buzzer beaters this season