Takeaways from Heat’s regular-season finale on big night for Oladipo, with playoffs ahead
The Miami Heat’s regular season is over and the waiting game now begins.
With the Eastern Conference’s top playoff seed already clinched, the Heat (53-29) held out most of its regulars and fell 125-111 to the Orlando Magic (22-60) on the final night of the regular season Sunday at Amway Center. The Heat now has six full days off before opening the playoffs this upcoming Sunday at FTX Arena.
There are four potential first-round opponents for the Heat: Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets. Miami’s opening-round opponent won’t be determined until Friday at the end of this week’s play-in tournament between those four teams.
“We’ll take the next couple days just to recover and for guys to do treatment, take care of their bodies,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Then we’ll get back to work.”
The week-long break comes at an opportune time for the Heat, as starting center Bam Adebayo entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols on Sunday. The hope is he’ll be cleared from protocols in time to return for the start of the playoffs.
Along with missing Adebayo on Sunday, the Heat also held out Jimmy Butler (rest), Dewayne Dedmon (right ankle sprain), Tyler Herro (left knee soreness), Kyle Lowry (rest) and P.J. Tucker (right calf strain). Forward Markieff Morris was also unavailable as an active scratch.
But the Heat did have Victor Oladipo available on Sunday and he made the most of his opportunity after falling out of the rotation in recent weeks.
Oladipo, 29, finished with 40 points on 13-of-22 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the short-handed Heat.
But the Magic cruised to the win behind 23-of-58 shooting from three-point range to tie the franchise record for threes made in a game.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Magic:
The top-seeded Heat’s first-round opponent will be determined on Friday by the results of the play-in tournament, which was set on Sunday.
The seventh-place Nets, eighth-place Cavaliers, ninth-place Hawks and 10th-place Hornets will now take part in a play-in tournament this week for the East’s Nos. 7 and 8 playoff seeds.
But Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the Nets could be eliminated as a potential Heat first-round matchup as soon as Tuesday night. Brooklyn’s seventh-place finish to the regular season doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a first-round playoff series between the Heat and Nets, but it does reduce the chances of that matchup.
That’s because the seventh-place Nets will now host a play-in game against the eighth-place Cavaliers on Tuesday (7 p.m., TNT). The winner of that matchup — and Brooklyn will be favored — will clinch the seventh playoff seed in the East and a first-round series against the second-seeded Boston Celtics, avoiding the top-seeded Heat in the opening round.
However, a Heat-Nets first-round series will still be very possible if the Nets lose to the Cavaliers on Tuesday.
The rest of the East’s play-in tournament includes a matchup between the No. 9 Hawks and No. 10 Hornets on Wednesday in Atlanta (7 p.m., ESPN). The loser of this game will be eliminated from playoff contention, while the winner will move one step closer to qualifying for the playoffs.
The loser of the Nets-Cavaliers matchup will host the winner of the Hawks-Hornets matchup on Friday (Time TBD, ESPN), and the winner of that game will clinch the eighth playoff seed in the East and a first-round series against the Heat.
The top-six playoff seeds in the East: No. 1 Heat, No. 2 Celtics, No. 3 Milwaukee Bucks, No. 4 Philadelphia 76ers, No. 5 Toronto Raptors and No. 6 Chicago Bulls.
The bracket is set up for the winner of the Heat’s first-round matchup to take on the winner of the 76ers-Raptors series in the second round. This means a potential matchup against the Bucks or Celtics won’t happen until the conference finals for the Heat.
The bad news is Adebayo entered COVID-19 protocols on Sunday. The good news is there’s a decent chance he’ll rejoin the team in time for the start of the playoffs.
With the Heat not opening the postseason until this upcoming Sunday, Adebayo could clear protocols a few days before Game 1 of Miami’s first-round series.
The quarantine period is five days for asymptomatic and vaccinated NBA players to return if testing data shows they’re no longer at risk to be infectious. With Adebayo entering COVID-19 protocols on Sunday, his five-day quarantine period would run through Friday unless he produces consecutive negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart before then.
“I don’t have any other comment other than he’s in protocols right now. Then we’ll move forward,” Spoelstra said when asked if he’s confident that Adebayo will be able to return for the start of the playoffs.
Spoelstra recently returned from his own COVID-related absence after spending most of the last week in protocols. Spoelstra learned he tested positive for COVID-19 when the Heat was subject to a round of testing upon entering Canada for an April 3 game against the Toronto Raptors, in order to return home because of U.S. restrictions.
But COVID-19 testing is no longer required by the NBA and is done only on a voluntary basis or if a player reports symptoms, unless a team is returning home from playing a game in Toronto.
The fact that Adebayo will likely be away from the team for most of the week as it begins playoff preparation isn’t ideal. But it’s not the worst-case scenario since he should be back for the start of the first round.
It’s worth noting that Adebayo shot at least 50 percent from the field in each of his final 16 regular-season games, which ties the third-longest streak in team history behind only an 18-game streak in 1997 by Alonzo Mourning and a 21-game streak in 2007 by Shaquille O’Neal.
With most of the Heat’s regulars held out of the regular-season finale, Oladipo again made a strong case for playoff playing time.
One week after tying a career-high with six made threes and setting new season-highs in points (21) and minutes played (27) in a road win over the Raptors, Oladipo put together an even better performance.
Oladipo set new season-highs for a second straight game with 40 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and 36 minutes played. It marked just the third time that he has scored 40 or more points in a game during his NBA career and the most points he has scored in a game since rupturing the quad tendon in his right knee in January 2019.
“It just felt good to play basketball,” Oladipo said. “Being out there and being myself and trying my best to do whatever it takes to help the team win. So yeah, that’s pretty much it. Just hooping.”
Oladipo did not play in the two games between his big night in Toronto and Sunday’s season-best display in Orlando because he has fallen out of the Heat’s rotation. He had received five DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in the six games leading up to the Heat’s regular-season finale.
Sunday only marked Oladipo’s eighth appearance since returning last month from an 11-month recovery from surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee.
Playoff minutes aren’t out of the question for Oladipo in the right situation or matchup.
“After the shootaround this morning, he and I talked about just from that very first practice after All-Star break where he was fully healthy and really had ramped things up already at that point for three weeks,” Spoelstra said following Sunday’s game. “But the comparison of where he was physically and mentally then to where he is now is just exponentially different and further along the road. I just really respect and admire how he’s handled this entire process.”
Whether he plays in the postseason or not, Oladipo’s late-season surge will likely help his free agency. The Heat holds his Bird rights and can exceed the salary cap to re-sign him up to his maximum salary when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Along with Oladipo, Heat two-way contract guard Javonte Smart took advantage of Sunday’s opportunity. Smart finished with 20 points with the help of 4-of-8 shooting from deep.
Heat forward Haywood Highsmith recorded 16 points, five rebounds and two assists.
The only Heat regulars who played Sunday were Duncan Robinson and Gabe Vincent. Robinson finished with nine points on 3-of-9 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and four assists in 20 minutes, and Vincent finished with six points, two rebounds and two assists in 12 minutes.
Caleb Martin and Max Strus were in uniform, but did not play in Orlando.
This will go down as one of the best regular seasons in Heat history.
Not only will the Heat enter the playoffs as the East’s top seed for just the fourth time (2022, 2013, 2005 and 1999), but it also finished with at least 50 regular-season wins for the 10th time in franchise history. The last four times the Heat won at least 50 games, it advanced to the NBA Finals in 2014, 2013, 2011 and 2006.
The 53 wins this season is tied for the seventh-most in franchise history.
In addition, the Heat’s home wins this season are the most in the East. It marks just the fourth time in franchise history that Miami has led the conference in home victories (2021-22, 2012-13, 2011-12 and 2004-05).
“We’re all grateful that we were able to experience a regular season like this together and we had a lot of eventful things, unpredictable events,” Spoelstra said. “It really brought this group closer together and I love the fact that so many players and staff members had their fingerprints on a very successful regular season.”
Sunday’s regular-season finale wasn’t totally meaningless for the Heat.
Sunday’s loss cost the Heat home-court advantage in a potential NBA Finals matchup against the Golden State Warriors. With the Warriors defeating the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night, they now hold the home-court edge in a potential championship series against the Heat despite the two teams closing with the same regular-season record because Golden State swept the season series 2-0 against Miami.
The other two Western Conference teams that would have home-court advantage over the Heat in the NBA Finals are othe Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies.
Also, Sunday’s result in Orlando means the Heat will hold either the 27th or 28th pick in the June 23 NBA Draft. With the two teams finishing with the same record, a coin flip will decide the owner of the 27th and 28th picks between Miami and Golden State.
This story was originally published April 10, 2022 at 9:14 PM.
