Takeaways: Heat sets franchise record in rout of Pelicans, but still locked into 10th place in East
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 153-104 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night at Smoothie King Center to close its final trip of the regular season — a two-game stretch away from home — at 1-1. The Heat now returns to Miami to close the regular season on Sunday against the Washington Wizards:
In the end, Friday’s Heat blowout win in New Orleans didn’t matter. It’s set: The Heat will face the Chicago Bulls at United Center on Wednesday in an elimination play-in tournament game.
With the Atlanta Hawks defeating the Philadelphia 76ers and the Bulls beating the Washington Wizards on Friday, the Eastern Conference’s play-in seeding is locked at No. 7 Orlando Magic, No. 8 Hawks, No. 9 Bulls and No. 10 Heat.
As the East’s 10th-place team, the Heat will need to win two consecutive road play-in games just to qualify for the playoffs as the conference’s No. 8 seed and clinch a first-round matchup against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I want everybody to be appreciative of this opportunity,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the team’s play-in reality. “It could be something where you’re not even in the play-in or have an opportunity for this. We have an opportunity to win and move on to the next thing. I mean, this is exciting. This is great competition.”
Here’s how it will work ...
The East’s play-in game between the No. 7 Magic and No. 8 Hawks will be played on Tuesday in Orlando at a time still to be determined and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup earns the conference’s seventh playoff seed and will face the second-seeded Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
The East’s play-in game between the No. 9 Bulls and No. 10 Heat will be played on Wednesday in Chicago at a time still to be determined and aired on ESPN. The loser of this matchup is eliminated from playoff contention.
Then the East’s play-in game between the loser of the Magic-Hawks matchup and the winner of the Bulls-Heat game will be played on Friday in either Orlando or Atlanta and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup earns the conference’s eighth playoff seed and will take on the top-seeded Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.
The Heat will try to make play-in history, as no 10th-place team in either conference has ever advanced past the play-in tournament since this current format was first instituted for the 2020-21 season.
As for the Heat’s first play-in game in Chicago, the Heat lost all three of its matchups against the Bulls this regular season. They most recently played Wednesday, with the Heat falling to the Bulls 119-111 in Chicago.
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. But the Heat entered the 2023 play-in tournament as the East’s seventh-place team and the 2024 play-in tournament as the East’s eighth-place team, leading to an easier path to the playoffs than this season’s route.
While the Heat was essentially locked into 10th place in the East entering Friday’s game, the Heat still played its regulars since it began the night with a slim chance to move up the standings ... and put together a historic performance.
The only Heat players unavailable on Friday were Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Pelle Larsson (sprained right ankle), Kevin Love (personal reasons), Isaiah Stevens (right foot discomfort) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery).
Meanwhile, the depleted Pelicans were missing most of their roster. New Orleans, which has been among the NBA’s worst teams this season and has long been eliminated from playoff contention, was without 11 players on Friday (Brandon Boston, Bruce Brown, Jordan Hawkins, Herbert Jones, Karlo Matkovic, CJ McCollum, Yves Missi, Trey Murphy, Dejounte Murray, Kelly Olynyk and Zion Williamson).
With the Heat still playing its best players and the Pelicans missing their best players, the game reflected that.
The Heat never trailed Friday, pulling ahead by as many as 52 points on its way to the 49-point victory. It’s the second-most lopsided victory in Heat history behind only last season’s 60-point win over the Portland Trail Blazers last season.
In addition, the Heat’s 153 points set a new franchise record for the most points scored in a single game.
“Everybody had a professional approach,” Spoelstra said. “It started this morning at shootaround, just to continue to stay with our routine, stay with the process. We were coming off a disappointing loss. Pretty much before the game, everybody felt like we were locked into 10. But we wanted to approach this the right way and I was pleased with the response.”
As usual, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro led the way for the Heat. The duo combined for 45 points while sitting out the entire fourth quarter of the lopsided victory.
Adebayo finished with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, 4-of-6 shooting on threes and 3-of-4 shooting from the foul line, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals in 22 minutes.
Herro closed with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line, four rebounds, four assists and one steal in 22 minutes.
Duncan Robinson added 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting from behind the arc in 19 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
“You see when we play the right way and everybody shares the basketball and when we’re actually locked in, we can have games when we score 150,” Adebayo said. “So we just need to try to do that more consistently.”
By the end of Friday’s rout, the Heat emptied its bench and ended up playing each of its 13 available players.
Even seldom-used Heat players like Josh Christopher and Keshad Johnson played late in the contest.
“Anytime you can get a win in this league, you don’t take that for granted,” Herro said.
There was one concerning Heat thing in Friday’s blowout win: Andrew Wiggins struggled.
In his second game back from a right hamstring injury, Wiggins closed the Heat’s victory over the Pelicans with just 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 shooting on threes to go with five rebounds and three assists in 24 minutes.
Wiggins totaled just four points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field and 0-of-3 shooting on threes in Friday’s first half.
Wiggins missed six straight games because of right hamstring tendinopathy before returning to play in the Heat’s last two games. He has totaled 24 points on 9-of-23 (39.1 percent) shooting from the field and 3-of-10 (30 percent) shooting on threes in his first two games back from the injury.
When asked how he was feeling physically after his return on Wednesday, Wiggins downplayed his hamstring issue: “I felt solid. If you’re out there on the court, then no complaints. You got to be 100 percent, so I felt good.”
Wiggins has dealt with a few injuries since he was traded to the Heat on Feb. 6 as part of the Jimmy Butler deal.
Wiggins has missed 14 games because of injury or illness since being traded to the Heat. He missed one game due to a stomach illness, five games due to a sprained right ankle, two games due to a left lower leg contusion and six straight games due to a hamstring issue.
The Heat needs a healthy and more effective version of Wiggins in next week’s play-in tournament, as it faces the uphill battle of needing to win two consecutive road games to make the playoffs.
Adebayo continues to take and make threes at an eye-opening rate.
With Adebayo shooting 4 of 6 from deep in Friday’s victory over the Pelicans, he’s now shooting an ultra-efficient 50 of 115 (43.5 percent) from behind the arc in his last 34 games. He has also made at least one three-pointer in a career-best 12 straight games.
“I work on it pregame, obviously behind the scenes,” Adebayo said of his three-point shot. “Just seeing it go in, obviously defenses got to change up the coverages a little bit.”
This is an encouraging trend, considering Adebayo shot just 29 of 106 (27.4 percent) on threes in his first 44 appearances of the season prior to this hot stretch.
Adebayo has already set new career highs in three-point makes (79) and three-point attempts (221) this season. He has shattered his previous career-high marks of 15 three-point makes and 42 three-point attempts, which were both set last season.
Adebayo has shot 79 of 221 (35.7 percent) from three-point range this season.
Up next for the Heat — a relatively meaningless regular-season finale.
With the Heat already locked into 10th place in the East and the Wizards already clinching one of the worst three records in the NBA for the best chance at the top pick in this year’s draft, there’s little to be gained for either team on Sunday.
The expectation is the Heat will likely sit some of its regulars and use the final game of the regular season to give developmental players like Christopher, Johnson and Stevens (if healthy) an opportunity to play extended minutes.
But there is one thing to monitor Sunday, as the Heat’s draft position could be affected by the result of its regular-season finale.
The Heat, which only keeps its first-round pick if it misses the playoffs, currently holds the 11th-worst record in the NBA. That would give Miami a 2 percent chance of landing the top pick and a 9.4 percent chance of snagging a top-four pick during next month’s NBA Draft Lottery.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 10:13 PM.
