Miami Heat to rest Butler on Sunday. And scenarios for potential Heat playoff opponents
Sunday’s Heat-at-Magic meeting in Orlando’s Amway Center is about as insignificant an NBA game as imaginable.
And the Heat likely will treat it as such.
The team announced Saturday that Jimmy Butler did not travel with the team and is out Sunday to allow his body to rest in advance of the playoffs.
Forward PJ Tucker - who’s out at least a week with a calf strain - also did not travel.
Dewayne Dedmon (ankle sprain), Markieff Morris (hip strain) and Gabe Vincent (toe contusion) are questionable, as is rookie Haywood Highsmith (left hip strain).
It’s unclear if Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro will play; none are listed on the injury report and all traveled.
Due to injuries, the Magic will be without starters Cole Anthony and Franz Wagner.
The Heat already has clinched the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, while the Magic has clinched a spot in the draft lottery.
Meanwhile, the Heat won’t know the identity of its first-round opponent until sometime Friday night.
Excluding the Heat, among the nine other Eastern Conference teams that will play beyond Sunday, there’s a possibility the Heat could play any of them in the first two rounds with two exceptions: Chicago and Milwaukee. It’s impossible for Miami to play either of those two teams before the Eastern Conference Finals.
How things stand entering Sunday’s final day of the regular season:
HEAT’S FIRST-ROUND OPPONENT
The Heat will play the winner of Friday night’s game between the loser of Tuesday’s 7-8 play-in game and the winner of Wednesday’s 9-10 play-in game.
Entering Sunday, the No. 7 Nets (43-38) and the No. 8 Cavaliers (43-38) were on course to meet in the 7-8 play-in game, but that could change because No. 9 Atlanta (42-39) and No. 10 Charlotte (42-39) could move up.
The Nets will clinch the seventh seed if they beat visiting Indiana at 3:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. Cleveland can clinch the eighth seed if it beats visiting Milwaukee on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, the Hawks play at Houston and Charlotte hosts Washington.
If there’s a four-way tie - which would mean losses on Sunday by Brooklyn and Cleveland and wins by Atlanta and Charlotte - the seedings heading into the play-in round would be Brooklyn seventh, Atlanta eighth, Charlotte ninth and Cleveland 10th.
If Brooklyn, Atlanta and Charlotte win and Cleveland loses, the Nets would be seventh and Cavaliers would be 10th.
The great likelihood is that Brooklyn stays seventh or finishes eighth.
But there’s one scenario which would drop the Nets to the 9-10 play-in game.
If the Nets lose to the Pacers, Cleveland beats Milwaukee, Atlanta loses to Houston and Charlotte beats Washington, Brooklyn would fall to ninth because the Hornets own the tiebreaker with the Nets. And then Brooklyn would play Miami in the first round if it won two play-in games.
HEAT’S POTENTIAL SECOND ROUND OPPONENT
Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto are in all play for the fourth and fifth seeds, with the winner of that 4-5 opening round series to play the winner of the 1-8 series in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Toronto (48-33) will be the fifth seed.
The fourth seed will be the 76ers if they lose to host Detroit on Sunday night or if the Celtics win at Memphis on Sunday night (7 p.m., TNT).
The fourth seed would be the Celtics if they lose at Memphis and the 76ers beat Detroit.
Boston and Philadelphia have the same record, but the Celtics own the two-team tiebreaker with the 76ers.
It would be the Celtics second, Bucks third and 76ers fourth if those three teams finish tied.
Either the 76ers or Celtics would be short-handed in a first-round series with Toronto.
Per SI.com’s Chris Mannix, Celtics guard Jaylen Brown is unvaccinated and would not be permitted to play in games in Toronto. (Boston’s Al Horford disputed an SI.com report that Horford is unvaccinated.)
Philadelphia’s Matisse Thybulle, a skilled defender, is unvaccinated and wouldn’t be permitted to play in games in Canada.
Erik Spoelstra isn’t spending his weekend figuring out playoff permutations.
“I was never good at math and [we] had everybody explain all the different scenarios,” he said after Miami’s 113-109 win against Atlanta. “That’s when you lose me in 30 seconds. It will play out the way it was supposed to play out.”
Of potential first-round opponents, Tyler Herro said: “I’m not paying too much attention to it. Obviously, Brooklyn is the team that we’re looking at, seeing who they’ll match up against. I mean, whoever we’ll play in the first round, it is what it is.”
Bam Adebayo said he’s already eyeing potential opponents: “I’m watching film. I’m looking at guys’ tendencies, reading plays, seeing how they play in transition, how they play on certain schemes. So I’m paying attention.”
YOUNG CREDITS SPOELSTRA
Hawks guard Trae Young scored 35 against the Heat on Friday. But he shot just 3 for 12 in the second half and credited the Heat for that.
“You’ve got to give credit to Coach Spoelstra for switching the defense up,” Young said.
“That’s what he does. He’s a great coach and they made a lot of late-game adjustments.”
Young said the Heat “is a really good halfcourt defensive team. If you play too slow, it allows them time to get back and set their defense up.”
Here’s my Saturday piece on what Tyler Herro has done better than most players who won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award over its 40-year history.
