Heat again preparing for play-in reality, with schedule released: ‘It’s fun and it matters still’
The Miami Heat is a near lock to be part of the NBA’s play-in tournament for the third straight season, which can be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing depending on a person’s perspective.
A good thing because it means the Heat isn’t at the bottom of the standings just battling for a chance at a higher draft pick in the final weeks of the regular season.
A bad thing because it means the Heat isn’t among the NBA’s best teams, having to play extra games just to have a chance at one of the final two playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference.
“I think it’s fun,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Wednesday night’s matchup against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden when asked about the team’s play-in reality. “Look, you never want to be so cynical that none of this matters. There’s a flip side to this. Just only playing for ping-pong balls is not a great existence. Are we where we had planned to be as an organization? No, but there is great competition now league-wide. And when you have something to play for as an organization, it’s fun and it matters still.”
The Heat has already clinched a postseason berth, which means it can’t drop out of the play-in tournament. In addition, one more Heat loss or one more Milwaukee Bucks win will lock the Heat into the play-in tournament that features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
The Heat entered Wednesday in ninth place in the East standings with a 34-41 record — one-half game ahead of the 10th-place Chicago Bulls (34-42). The Heat also entered Wednesday two games behind the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks (36-39) and two games behind the seventh-place Orlando Magic (37-40).
With the NBA announcing this year’s play-in tournament schedule on Wednesday, there’s more clarity on what it could look like for the Heat after it closes the regular season on Sunday, April 13.
The East’s play-in game between the No. 7 team and No. 8 team will be played on Tuesday, April 15 at a time still to be determined and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the seventh-place team, earns the conference’s seventh playoff seed.
The East’s play-in game between the No. 9 team and No. 10 team will be played on Wednesday, April 16 at a time still to be determined and aired on ESPN. The Heat — as the ninth-place team — would host the Bulls in this game if the current standings hold, with the loser of this matchup eliminated from playoff contention.
Then the East’s play-in game between the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game and the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 game will be played on Friday, April 18 and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game, earns the conference’s eighth playoff seed.
So, if the Heat finishes the regular season in ninth or 10th place, it would need to win two straight games in the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed. Closing the regular season in seventh or eighth place means the Heat would get two chances to win one play-in game to make the playoffs as either the East’s No. 7 or No. 8 seed.
“I mean, it’s a blessing and a great opportunity to still be in the play-in and play postseason basketball,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said Wednesday. “Is it where we want to be? No. Is it what we set out to do at the beginning of the year in training camp? No. But we feel like things are moving in the right direction right now and that’s what we want to focus on, and continue to just keep getting better with the group that we have and put ourselves in position to continue to keep growing with this young group.”
The Heat escaped each of its first two trips to the NBA’s play-in tournament with the East’s No. 8 playoff seed, making an improbable run that ended with a loss to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals in 2023 and then being eliminated by the top-seeded Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs last season.
“We got to win if we want to continue to play toward the postseason,” Herro said of the pressure that comes with being in the play-in tourney. “I feel like these last two weeks or so have kind of been playoff games for us because every game has mattered. So we’ve been playing in play-in type games for the last two weeks, even for the last month. So we know what it takes. We’ve been in the play-in in the past. We just got to continue to get better every day.”
After taking on the Celtics in Boston on Wednesday, the Heat returns to Miami to host the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday (7:30 p.m., TNT) to complete the back-to-back set and begin a three-game homestand. The Heat has just six games left to play this regular season after Wednesday’s matchup against the Celtics.
“We have something to play for,” Spoelstra said. “We have some work to do still in these last seven games, where we want to prepare the best that we can to be able to play well when it’s single elimination or whatever. That type of pressure, I think, is what you want out of this business.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 1:06 PM.
