On Wade’s night, Heat was eliminated from playoff contention. Here’s how Miami handled it
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 122-99 win over the Philadelphia 76ers (50-31) on Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
1. Yes, the Heat (39-42) technically entered the night with a chance to make the playoffs. But the night was all about Dwyane Wade and his final game at AmericanAirlines Arena.
It started with a pregame ceremony that included a tribute video with narration from Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, longtime Heat teammate and close friend Udonis Haslem, former Heat teammates Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, wife Gabrielle Union-Wade, and Heat president Pat Riley.
And Wade’s night continued with in-game video messages during timeouts from former President Barack Obama, Wade’s oldest son, Zaire, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Wade’s mother, Jolinda Wade, and father, Dwyane Wade Sr.
“I wasn’t able to keep track of everything,” Wade said, with months-old daughter Kaavia in his lap. “They’re going to send me all the videos and everything so I can recap.”
The actual game was pretty memorable, too. Wade finished with 30 points on 10-of-23 shooting from the field and 4-of-10 shooting on threes, three rebounds and three assists in his first start with the Heat since he was traded back to the organization last season.
The 37-year-old Wade had played 96 consecutive games with Miami, including the playoffs, off the bench. Tuesday marked his first start in a Heat uniform since Game 7 of its second-round playoff series against the Raptors on May 15, 2016.
“It was a no-brainer,” Spoelstra said of starting Wade. “There wasn’t even a hesitation. At his dinner last night, I hadn’t like given this a ton of thought in the last couple weeks because we’ve been so immersed into it. But right during dinner last night, I was like, ‘OK, this is going to happen. There’s no way I’m not going to do this. Let’s get back in the saddle, let’s do this again.’ And it felt like old times. Everything fell right into place. It was like going back to 2008 in a time machine. It was pretty cool.”
Wade really had fun with the moment in the fourth quarter, when he took a more aggressive approach and looked to put on a show for the home fans one more time. He scored 14 on 10 shots, with the help of 4-of-7 shooting on threes in the final quarter.
“I was enjoying it the entire game as much as possible,” Spoelstra said. “Even after all these years, and I’ve seen him go into his bag of tricks so many times and compartmentalize, I’m truly amazed that he was able to perform at that level tonight. All of the emotions of the last 48 hours and then a whole career, reflecting on that, it was hard for me. I choked up twice.”
When it was over, Wade exchanged jerseys with the entire Heat team and stood on the AmericanAirlines scorer’s table one more time before exiting the court.
“The jersey exchange with my teammates was something I wanted to do all year,” Wade said. “I was just waiting for the right time and I knew that the last game, as you guys heard me at the beginning, I appreciate them.”
2. The bad news for the Heat is that its playoff chase is over. With the Pistons’ victory over the Grizzlies, the Heat was officially eliminated from playoff contention.
The Pistons rallied from a 22-point deficit to defeat the Grizzlies.
“It was like I got kicked in the gut,” Spoelstra said of learning the Pistons had won. “The last I heard, it was an 18-point game. And the way we were playing, it just felt like, ‘Alright this year hasn’t gone exactly how we wanted it to, but this team has shown an incredible grit, great toughness to be able to bounce back. And maybe it’s just got to be the toughest thing and the hardest way for us to get in these playoffs.’”
While it wasn’t impossible, Miami entered Tuesday night with only a small chance of qualifying for the postseason. The only way the Heat could have made the playoffs was if it won both of its remaining games (Tuesday vs. Philadelphia and Wednesday at Brooklyn), Detroit lost its two remaining games (Tuesday vs. Memphis and Wednesday at New York) and Charlotte lost one of its two remaining games (Tuesday at Cleveland and Wednesday vs. Orlando).
Entering Tuesday, FiveThirtyEight.com’s playoff predictions had the Heat’s chances of making the postseason at less than 1 percent. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index had the Heat with just a 1.3 percent chance of making the playoffs.
Those chances are now zero, with Miami out of the race entering its regular-season finale against the Nets in Brooklyn.
The Heat will miss the playoffs for the third time in the past five seasons and the 11th time in the franchise’s 31 seasons of existence.
While it’s the third time in a five-year span the Heat has missed the postseason, it’s just the sixth time since Riley joined the organization 24 seasons ago that it hasn’t qualified for the playoffs. It also marks the third time the Heat has missed the playoffs during Spoelstra’s 11-season tenure as head coach.
“We just all were hoping,” Spoelstra said of making the playoffs. “I’ve been around Dwyane enough. The understanding of the theater of this all, it would have been great to get on that bus tomorrow with a one-game play-in against Brooklyn. It just didn’t turn out that way. But it still was a beautiful night. What a great environment. I think Dwyane was able and the fans were able to check every box off of emotion. It will be one that we’ll all remember.”
3. While it was Wade’s night, Haslem thought about the possibility that Tuesday’s win over the 76ers could also end up as the final home game of his career.
“I thought about it,” Haslem admitted. “But on [Wade’s] night, I was more focused on him and putting our guys in a position to try to win this game. Obviously, we didn’t know what the situation was going to be beforehand. So I just wanted to focus on, one, winning the game and, two, making sure D-Wade enjoys his last home game.”
Haslem has yet to decide if he will return next season, which would be his 17th in the NBA. But there’s a chance he’ll choose to retire this offseason, so he made the most of his minutes against the 76ers.
Haslem checked into the game with Wade with 11:05 to play and they played the next 10 minutes before both were subbed out together with 1:02 to play.
Haslem, 38, scored seven on 2-of-7 shooting and grabbed four rebounds in his 10 minutes of action Tuesday. He even shot two threes as he also took a more aggressive approach in the final minutes, but missed both of them.
“It was fun,” he said. “Just to go out there and be on the basketball court and watch [Wade] firsthand do his thing and knock down some of those crazy threes. Just to get out there and just show I still got a little something left. I enjoyed it. Just like old times.”
As a team captain, Haslem has been used in more of a leadership role in recent years. He’s logged just 247 minutes of playing time in 39 regular-season games since the start of the 2016-17 season.
4. Justise Winslow’s improved three-point shot was on display Tuesday.
The 23-year-old finished with 16 points, with the help of 4-of-5 shooting on threes. He’s now shooting 38 percent from 3-point range for the season.
Winslow also shot a career-best 38 percent from deep last season, but this year’s number is even more impressive because he’s averaging double the amount of three-point shot attempts per game. He averaged 1.9 threes per game last season, and he’s at 3.8 per game this season.
For a player who made just 25.8 percent of his threes over the first two seasons of his career, the work Winslow has put into his shot has really paid off.
5. Don’t expect Wade and Haslem to sit out Wednesday’s regular-season finale in Brooklyn.
While it would be nice for their final game to be in Miami, Spoelstra made it clear he plans to play both players against the Nets. It will mark the end of Wade’s NBA career, and it could also end up as Haslem’s final game.
“I’m not load managing him tomorrow,” Spoelstra said of Wade. “I can guarantee you that. I’m playing him. Whatever minutes he can play, UD can play, they’re going to play.”
Wade said: “I’m planning on playing. I don’t know how much, though. Tonight was my One Last Dance.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2019 at 12:56 AM.
