A tight playoff race and Butler vs. Warren. A look at Monday’s intriguing Heat-Pacers game
It’s just one of eight seeding games at Disney, but Monday’s matchup between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers feels different.
For one, the Heat and Pacers are tied in the Eastern Conference standings with the same 43-27 record. Fourth-place Miami is ahead only because it holds the head-to-head tiebreaker after winning its first two meetings of the season against fifth-place Indiana.
Then there’s the Jimmy Butler-T.J. Warren matchup that grew contentious and ended with Warren’s ejection the last time the Heat and Pacers faced off Jan. 8 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
To make things even more interesting, Monday’s meeting is potentially the first of many games between Miami and Indiana during the next three weeks as two of the Heat’s final three seeding games come against the Pacers and the potential for a first-round playoff matchup between the two teams looms if they finish as the fourth and fifth seeds. This sets up the possibility for as many as nine of Miami’s next 10 games coming against Indiana if they face off to begin the postseason.
But Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo believes those storylines are just that — storylines. Adebayo says Monday’s game between Miami and Indiana at 8 p.m. (Fox Sports Sun) is important for a different reason.
“It’s not about what everybody is excited for,” Adebayo said. “These games are here so we can get back into somewhat the rhythm we had when the season stopped. This is bigger than just [Warren] and Jimmy or the Indiana and Miami Heat clash. It’s bigger than that. We want to get into these playoffs and make a run. In order to do that, we got to win these seeding games. So when we get to the playoffs, we’re not going into the playoffs off a loss. We’re going off a win, confident and ready to hoop.”
The Heat has lost three of its first five seeding games and has dropped two straight after falling to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. During this current two-game losing skid, defense has been a major issue with two of Miami’s 10 worst defensive performances of the season (based on defensive rating) coming in Thursday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and Saturday’s loss to the Suns.
“I’m not happy with the way we’re playing,” Adebayo continued. “We got to get over this hump. We’re in this gray cloud that we can’t get out of.”
The good news for Miami is that it’s expected to get key players back from injury. Both Butler (right foot soreness) and sixth man Goran Dragic (sprained left ankle) are listed as questionable for Monday’s game after missing action recently, but the hope is both will play against the Pacers after returning to practice Sunday.
Indiana listed Warren (sore right foot) as questionable for Monday’s game against Miami.
But the Heat on Monday will still be without starting guard Kendrick Nunn, who is quarantining in his hotel room for four days upon re-entering the NBA bubble on Sunday morning after leaving a few days ago because of personal reasons. Rookie forward KZ Okpala (personal reasons) also remains out.
With Butler expected to be available, all eyes will be on his matchup against Warren. The last time they met seven months ago, Butler and Warren were involved in several contentious confrontations that included a middle finger from Warren directed at Butler and then Butler blowing a kiss goodbye as Warren walked off the floor following his ejection.
The Pacers did not practice Sunday, so Warren wasn’t available to speak to reporters about the matchup. And Butler was not made available to the media following Sunday’s Heat practice.
“To me, I think it’s tough for him because I can guard him and he can’t guard me,” Butler said of Warren after that January game. “At the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. You have just got to watch your mouth in certain situations. There’s some [expletive] you just don’t say as a man. He has got to see me the next time because I feel like what he said was truly disrespectful.
“He’s soft. He’s not even in my [expletive] league, nowhere near me. If I was their coach, I would never put him on me ever again. Put somebody else on me, because I’m going to tear his [expletive] up every game.”
Since then, the drama surrounding the Heat-Pacers matchup has grown with Warren entering Sunday averaging a league-high 34.8 points during seeding games. Warren, who is averaging 19.9 points for the season, is shooting an incredible 60.5 percent from the field and 55.6 percent on threes in five seeding games.
“It’s not even a question, you have to have your teammate’s back,” Heat forward Jae Crowder said Sunday of how he approaches the Butler-Warren matchup as a teammate. “Especially with a situation like that or any kind of situation on the court. At all times, you have your teammate’s back. I’m a firm believer of that. Obviously, I know what’s going on with that situation. With all that said and done, you win the game and it kills all the talk. That’s our focus going into it.”
Then there’s the fact the Pacers have won four of their first five games at Disney to catch up to the Heat, with only a tiebreaker separating the teams in the standings.
Miami can still finish anywhere between fourth and sixth in the East. The good news for the No. 4 Heat is it has already clinched the tiebreaker over the No. 5 Pacers and No. 6 Philadelphia 76ers, which are one game behind Miami and Indiana.
“If the stakes are higher and the altitude and the magnitude of the game is higher, I’m all for it,” Crowder said. “I look forward to it.”
This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 4:35 PM.
