James Johnson keeps the Miami Heat playoff dream alive (Video)

Miami Heat forward James Johnson scored the go-ahead bucket against the Washington Wizards to keep their slim Eastern Conference playoff dreams alive.

On Saturday morning, only four teams had punched tickets to the Eastern Conference playoffs: the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards. Two more teams clinched playoff berths on Saturday in the form of the Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Only two spots remain in the East between three teams: the Chicago Bulls, the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat. On the brink of playoff elimination, Heat forward James Johnson wasn’t going to miss the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Southeast Division rival Wizards.

Here he is being smoother than Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas combined on this go-head bucket against the Wizards to keep the Heat playoff dream alive. Beating the Wizards in Washington is impressive. That big-time bucket was the best part of the tight ball game in the nation’s capital.

We know a third Central Division team in the form of either Chicago or Indiana will join Cleveland and Milwaukee in the NBA Playoffs. That’s fine and all, but the Heat need to make it this spring.

They were rancid at the beginning of the season. Head coach Erik Spoelstra raised this sunken ship and started beating teams left and right in the NBA. If the Heat make the playoffs this season, he has to be NBA Coach of the Year. It’s been an unbelievable turnaround for this once putrid Heat team.

Next: Best NBA Teams To Never Win NBA Finals

It’s guys like Johnson that keep coming up big for the Heat in opportune moments. Washington may be the class of the Southeast Division this season, but Miami has proven to the basketball world it can hang with anybody. The Heat is on!