Heat holds on for OT win over Hawks to make play-in history and clinch East’s No. 8 playoff seed
For the third straight season, the Miami Heat has escaped the NBA’s play-in tournament to make the playoffs. But the Heat made some history this time.
The Heat punched its ticket to the playoffs with a 123-114 overtime win over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night at State Farm Arena, becoming the first 10th-place team in either conference to make the playoffs from the play-in tournament since this current play-in format was first instituted for the 2020-21 season. Miami enters the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed.
What makes qualifying for the playoffs through the play-in tournament as the 10th-place team so hard is it requires two consecutive road wins. The Heat did it, defeating the Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday and the Hawks in Atlanta on Friday.
The Heat will now continue its trip, flying to Cleveland after Friday’s win to begin a first-round playoff series against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. Game 1 is Sunday at Rocket Arena (7 p.m., TNT).
“What I really love about this group is the adversity that we all collectively experienced together, we all viewed it as a gift,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the victory. “And it’s an amazing gift to be able to go through adversity and to be able to take on those lessons, those hard lessons to be able to try to improve and to have better growth, bigger opportunities. And I think tonight was an encapsulation of that.”
The Heat, which has now made the playoffs in six straight seasons, started the game on a 10-0 run, pulled ahead by as many as 17 points and entered the fourth quarter with a nine-point advantage.
But the game still needed overtime to be decided, as the Hawks began the fourth quarter on a big 21-6 run to take their first lead of the night and then pull ahead by six points with 5:06 to play.
The Heat had a response, though, scoring nine unanswered points to regain a three-point lead with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter and save its season. Davion Mitchell made a three-pointer, Tyler Herro hit two jumpers and Andrew Wiggins scored on a layup for Miami’s 9-0 run.
After Herro made one of two free throws to give the Heat a two-point lead with 12.2 seconds to play, the Hawks had one final opportunity in regulation to tie or win the game. Atlanta took advantage, with Trae Young driving for a layup to tie the score at 106 with 1.3 seconds remaining and force overtime.
Overtime belonged to the Heat, though.
The Heat outscored the Hawks 17-8 in overtime on the way to the playoff-clinching win behind clutch shot-making from Mitchell and Herro.
After blowing an NBA-high 22 double-digit leads in losses and an NBA-high 21 fourth-quarter leads in losses this regular season, the Heat held on this time.
“We’ve been battle tested all year, ups and downs, winning streaks, losing streaks, games we should have won and we lost,” Herro said. “I feel like all of that kind of built us up for that last five minutes of tonight and we didn’t fold. We stuck with it and came out on top.”
With Hawks defensive specialist Dyson Daniels covering him for most of the night, Herro finished with a game-high 30 points for the Heat on 10-of-21 shooting from the field, 5-of-10 shooting on threes and 5-of-6 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds and seven assists in 44 minutes.
Heat center Bam Adebayo was a menace on the defensive end with two steals and five blocks. Adebayo also totaled 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in 44 minutes.
Wiggins added 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Mitchell again made an impact with 16 points, three rebounds and five assists in 40 minutes off the Heat’s bench. He scored 12 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“The first 10th seed to make the playoffs,” Adebayo said. “Both games on the road, going in somebody else’s house and getting a W. That always has to be celebrated.”
Five takeaways from the Heat’s playoff-clinching play-in win over the Hawks on Friday:
The Heat was among the NBA’s worst clutch teams in the league this regular season, but prevailed in the clutch Friday to keep its season going.
The Heat was just 14-28 in clutch games and posted the NBA’s third-worst net rating in clutch situations (outscored by 16.2 points per 100 possessions) this regular season
But the Heat won in the clutch on Friday to clinch a playoff spot.
Mitchell was a big part of that, totaling nine timely points on 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range in overtime.
Herro added six points on 2-of-2 shooting from deep in overtime.
Mitchell and Herro combined to score 15 of the Heat’s 17 overtime points.
The Heat’s defense also delivered, forcing the Hawks into three turnovers in overtime.
The Heat went with a lineup of Herro, Mitchell, Wiggins, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo for most of the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Heat went 3-5 in overtime this regular season, but earned an important overtime win on Friday.
After a slow start, Young found some success against the Heat on Friday. But the Heat again still ended his season.
Young, who has averaged 25.3 points per game during his NBA career, has averaged only 21.3 points per game in 23 regular-season matchups against the Heat. That’s Young’s second-lowest scoring average among the 29 NBA opponents he has faced.
Young, who has shot 43.3 percent from the field during his NBA career, has shot just 39.5 percent from the field in regular-season games against the Heat since coming into the league. That’s Young’s second-worst field-goal percentage among NBA opponents.
Young has also committed a total of 119 turnovers in regular-season games against the Heat during his career, which is the most he has committed against any team in the league.
Young’s struggles against the Heat continued early in Friday’s contest, scoring 14 points while shooting just 3 of 14 from the field and 1 of 5 on threes through the first three quarters.
But Young found a rhythm late to help the Hawks get back in the game, totaling 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes over the fourth quarter and overtime.
Young finished Friday’s play-in loss with 29 points on 9-of-22 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting on threes, five rebounds and 11 assists. He committed four turnovers.
Mitchell spent the most time defending Young on Friday, limiting him to just two field-goal attempts while guarding him for six minutes of game clock, according to NBA tracking stats.
“All three games we’ve played, I think I’ve done really well on him,” Mitchell said of defending Young. “But also our team has done really well on him. We know he’s the head of the snake. Everybody helped me out, we helped each other out.”
Including regular season, play-in and playoff games, Young is now just 11-19 in games he has played against the Heat during his NBA career.
The Heat entered Friday’s play-in game as healthy as it has been in a while, but there were no surprises with the Heat’s rotation.
The Heat stuck with its regular-season-ending starting lineup of Herro, Alec Burks, Wiggins, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware for Wednesday’s play-in game.
The Heat then used a four-man bench rotation of Haywood Highsmith, Mitchell, Kyle Anderson and Duncan Robinson.
The Heat had 14 of its 15 standard contract players available on Friday, including Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jovic. Larsson has now been available for two straight games after missing the final three games of the regular season with a sprained right ankle and Jovic was available for the first time Friday after missing 28 straight games because of a broken right hand.
The available Heat players who did not get into the game were Jovic, Larsson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Terry Rozier and Keshad Johnson. Kevin Love was the only Heat player unavailable, as he was again away from the team on Friday because of personal reasons.
Two-way contract players are not eligible to take part in the postseason.
Meanwhile, the Hawks were without Kobe Bufkin (right shoulder surgery), Clint Capela (metacarpal ligament sprain), Jalen Johnson (left shoulder surgery) and Larry Nance Jr. (right medial femoral condyle fracture) against the Heat.
Friday’s result provided further clarity on the Heat’s draft pick situation.
Friday’s win means the Heat will not be part of the May 12 NBA Draft Lottery and its first-round pick this year will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder — a lottery-protected selection first sent out by Miami in the 2019 trade to acquire Jimmy Butler.
The Heat’s pick that will be conveyed to the Thunder for the June 25 draft will be the No. 15 selection.
If the Heat would have lost to the Hawks, it would have entered the draft lottery with the 11th lottery seed that comes with 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 draft lottery.
With the Heat conveying the pick to the Thunder this year, it avoids owing a completely unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Thunder. The fact that this year’s selection will go to the Thunder also preserves the lottery protections on the 2027 first-round pick it owes to the Charlotte Hornets as part of last season’s Terry Rozier trade.
While the Heat won’t have its own first-round pick this year, it will still make a selection in the first round. That’s because the Heat will receive the Warriors’ first-round pick this year as part of the Butler trade.
That pick will be 18th, 19th or 20th overall, with the order to be determined by a random drawing among the Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks, which all finished the regular season at 48-34. The random drawing will be held on Monday at 3 p.m.
Next up for the Heat: The top-seeded Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers have been elite, finishing the regular season with the NBA’s second-best record at 64-18 behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Cavaliers also closed the regular season as one of only four teams in the league with both a top-10 offensive rating and top-10 defensive rating, along with the Thunder, Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves. The Cavaliers posted the NBA’s top offensive rating and eighth-best defensive rating.
Depth is a strength for the Cavaliers, with six players averaging double-digit points this regular season — Donovan Mitchell (24 points per game), Darius Garland (20.6 points per game), Evan Mobley (18.5 points per game), De’Andre Hunter (14.3 points per game), Jarrett Allen (13.5 points per game) and Ty Jerome (12.5 points per game).
Three-point shooting is also a strength for the Cavaliers, finishing the regular season with the NBA’s second-best team three-point shooting percentage at 38.3 percent while taking the fourth-most threes in the league at 41.5 per game.
This series will also feature a familiar face on the opposing team, as the Cavaliers use former Heat three-point shooting forward Max Strus in a starting role.
The Heat enters the series as heavy underdogs, as only six No. 8 seeds have eliminated a No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs since the current 16-team NBA playoff format was instituted for the 1983-84 season. The Heat was the last team to do it, though, eliminating the then-top-seeded Bucks in the first round of the 2023 playoffs on the way to becoming just the second No. 8 seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals.
The Heat lost its three-game regular-season series against the Cavaliers this season, 2-1.
“Cleveland has been No. 1 in the East all year,” Adebayo said. “They’ve been having a historical season. So for us, it’s understanding what’s at stake for them. For us, it’s figure out how to get one in Cleveland and worry about everything else later.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 9:47 PM.
