On December 30 the Miami Heat stood at the cellar of the NBA with a 5-26 record.  One month earlier they had lost 12 games in a row and looked certain to retool.  Rumors were swirling that the Heat were trying to dump the contracts of both Eddie Jones and Brian Grant so the team could make a run at Tim Duncan in 2003, otherwise they'd be nothing but a lottery team who were close to the luxury tax threshold.

But that was then.  Miami have since been on a tear, going 22-5 since that dreaded record back in December and now find themselves five games from breaking .500, and more importantly they are only two games out of eighth place in the East.

So what has sparked this major turnaround?  Rod Strickland, one of the major reasons for the Heat's reversal in form, says they have come together as a team.  They got into the hole as a team, and they sure have dug themselves out as a team.  But will simply making the playoffs be satisfying enough for a club which has had such high standards in past seasons?

''Satisfaction isn't the word,'' Brian Grant told the Miami Herald of the feeling of making the playoffs. ``I think it would be one of the most fulfilling seasons, and I don't mean by accomplishments, I mean by the perseverance that it took to come back from being absolutely dead last in the league.

``It would be one of the most exciting and fulfilling seasons of my career, because you take a sort of new team and put them together.''

But Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel asks now that they are together can they stay that way?  Nine Heat players are due to be free agents this offseason (including Chris Gatling who has a team option), which could spell trouble for the organization trying hard to stay under the luxury tax threshold.  

The magical figure everyone seems to be using as a basis is $54 million, and when you take into account Alonzo Mourning, Eddie Jones and Brian Grant are due to make about $43 million in salary space next season things get harder for the Heat to maintain this nucleus.  This season Rod Strickland, Jim Jackson, Kendall Gill, Eddie House and Vladimir Stepania are playing for minimal contracts, but would they again next season?

Regardless of whether or not the Heat make the playoffs in 2001-02 there is no doubt that this has been an amazing turnaround and run by a team who were down and out.

?Players can be good when nothing?s on the line,? said coach Pat Riley. ?But I don?t think you learn much because you?re not playing for something. Then, anybody can perform, anybody can put up numbers.

?What you see here, is you see what they can do, you see how much they want it, you see how much they?re going to work for it, how much they?re going to make it better. I think, from that standpoint, when you?re retooling as you try to win, then you can make better decisions.?

With with Pacers, Hornets, Raptors and Wizards all losing last night there is only three games seperating the number 7 team in the East (Indiana) to the number 11 (Miami), and what is even more impressive is the Heat are only six games out of a home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Despite their success the Heat are not losing focus of the big picture.  ''Lose a game, and we're back where we started,'' Jones said. ``We know we've got a long way to go. The door's open, but we've still got to walk through it.''  But either way it has been a hell of a journey.