Seeding games present a tough preamble to playoffs
When the NBA season was suddenly suspended on the night of March 11 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, nobody knew how long the shutdown would last.
But, finally, after a hiatus that lasted longer than four months, the NBA season resumed Thursday night at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. Each of the 22 teams participating in the restart will play eight seeding games — using three different arenas in the league’s Disney quarantine bubble — that will be added to current regular-season records to determine the final standings entering the playoffs, which start Aug. 17.
The Miami Heat begins its eight-game seeding schedule against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday at 1 p.m. (Fox Sports Sun, ESPN). It will be a sprint to the postseason, with those eight games coming in a span of two weeks.
“To me, it’s amazing,” guard Goran Dragic said Thursday afternoon following the Heat’s 13th practice since arriving at on July 8. “Everything, what is going on around the world, this pandemic, and how the NBA has come together and made this bubble. It’s good to finally have basketball back.
“For the people at home, they can watch it. For us, it was a little bit concerning at the beginning, about the health issues and everything about the bubble. But now we can see that everything works, so it’s really fun to be back and to be able to play basketball.”
Miami enters the restart with the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference at 41-24, with the eight-game seeding format assuring it a Southeast Division title for the second time in three seasons and a spot in the playoffs for just the third time in six seasons. Miami has not won a playoff series since eliminating the Charlotte Hornets in the first round in 2016.
But the Heat’s playoff seed is still to be determined, with the eightDisney
The Miami Heat begins its eight-game seeding schedule against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday at Disney. It will be a sprint to the playoffs, with those eight games coming in a span of two weeks.
game format making it possible for Miami to finish anywhere between second and sixth place in the East — although second place is very likely out of reach with the No. 2 Toronto Raptors 5.5 games ahead of the Heat. Miami is 2.5 games behind the thirdplace Boston Celtics and two games ahead of the fifth-place Indiana Pacers and sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers.
“Our guys are competitors. They love this,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They’re really enjoying this environment, having an opportunity to feel normal and get in between those four lines and compete. We’re excited about our team. We’ve had three really good weeks of practice, guys are ready.”
While the Heat has already clinched a playoff spot, maintaining its spot in the East standings could prove to be challenging based on its seeding schedule. Seven of Miami’s eight seeding games are against teams that have already clinched a postseason berth — Denver on Saturday, Toronto on Monday, Boston on Tuesday, the Milwaukee Bucks on Aug. 6, Indiana twice on Aug. 10 and 14 and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Aug. 12 — with the lone matchup against a playoff long shot coming against the Phoenix Suns on Aug. 8.
According to a formula devised by former Memphis Grizzlies executive and ex-ESPN analytics guru John Hollinger, who now writes for The Athletic, the Heat has the most difficult seeding schedule of the 22 teams participating in the restart.
But, as expected, the Heat does not view its schedule as a disadvantage.
“I love the competition part of it,” Spoelstra said. “You see the teams that we’re playing, these are all playoff teams, and that’s the way it should be. I think our guys are looking forward to that, to the competition part of it. That schedule certainly will prepare us for the playoffs.”
The Heat’s two most likely firstround playoff opponents are the Pacers and 76ers, with Miami 2-0 against Indiana and 3-1 against Philadelphia this season. There’s also a chance the Heat could face the Celtics in the first round, with Miami dropping both games it has played against Boston this season.
But don’t expect the Heat to try to use its seeding schedule to avoid a playoff matchup against the Celtics. Even though Indiana appears to be the most favorable first-round opponent for Miami because of the uncertainty surrounding its two stars, Victor Oladipo (still deciding if he wants to play when the season resumes) and Domantas Sabonis (out indefinitely because of plantar fasciitis in his left foot), Spoelstra made it clear the Heat will not even consider manipulating the standings.
“We’re not just going to go to [Disney] and waste each other’s times,” Spoelstra said. “We’re there for a reason. Competition, like I said, brings out a different quality out of this group, individually and collectively. We’ll treat those games with great respect.
“I don’t even need to explain it, we’re not going to lose games or play differently to try to line up an opponent. That’s just not our language.”