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Heat’s Pat Riley believes team is one step from being very good, has real chance in East

Heat president Pat Riley addressed a bunch of issues in a Friday morning news conference:

• On where the Heat ranks in the East compared with Boston and Cleveland and others: “Everyone is giving teams something. The preseason ratings - the ones I respect - they can do a pretty good job of rating where teams might finish. So many things happen during the regular season with teams. Some times teams at the top might not go as hard as you think. Might not matter as much [to them] to win 60 games.

“Teams that might be rated at the bottom [Riley meant four through eight in the East] are a little bit more hungry and maybe we will build off that 30-11 and see if that’s real or not.