Heat on verge of clinching fourth or fifth seed
Before the Miami Heat took on the Indiana Pacers on Monday in Lake Buena Vista, a reporter floated an interesting hypothetical to Erik Spoelstra: If the final days of the regular season played out in a certain way, the Heat and Pacers could find themselves matched up in 9 of 10 games.
Miami pummeled Indiana 114-92 on Monday, and the two are set to square off again Friday in the regular-season finale inside the bubble at the ESPN Wide World of
Sports Complex. The odds are they will also meet in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs next week. The teams are on a crash course to the matchup between the
Nos. 4 and 5 seeds.
“You can get caught up in all that,” the coach said Monday before the Heat’s win at the Visa Athletic Center. “We’re trying to get our guys together, get in rhythm, get prepared for the playoffs. We’re not even certain we’ll play Indiana, so you have to proceed and do what you think is best for the team.”
On Tuesday, Miami learned most of its postseason destiny, effectively rendering its last two final regular-season games meaningless.
The Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Phoenix Suns on
Tuesday night, which means the Heat will clinch either the No. 4 or 5 seed and likely a first-round matchup with the Pacers. Miami (44-27) entered Tuesday one game ahead of Indiana (4s3-28) and 1 1⁄2 ahead of the 76ers, and the Heat owns the head-to-head tiebreaker against both.
Indiana could still claim the No. 4 seed by winning its last two, if Miami also loses to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Visa Center, and Philadelphia could still climb to No. 5 even with a loss Tuesday if it wins its last two regular-season games and the Pacers lose their last two.
No matter what happens
Tuesday, the Heat can lock itself into the No. 4 seed Wednesday with a win against the Thunder (43-27).
Ultimately, there’s not any real difference between being seeded No. 4 and 5 this year with the games taking place at neutral sites, but Miami getting into No. 4 vs. No. 5 series means avoiding a first-round matchup against the No. 3-seed Boston Celtics, which were the only East playoff team to win its season series with the Heat.
The Heat’s matchup with Indiana on Monday surprisingly became one of the most anticipated seeding games in Walt Disney World. Pacers forward T.J. Warren has been one of the top performers in the eight-game run-up to the postseason, and he and Jimmy Butler have a feud dating back to January, when the All-Star wing blew Warren a kiss after Warren got ejected.
On Monday, Butler returned from a three-game absence and helped lock down Warren, holding him to 12 points — his lowest scoring output in the seeding games. Guard Goran Dragic felt Miami sent a message as the two teams stare down a potential playoff matchup.
“We came out from the first minutes that this is going go be a really important game for us and you could see,” Dragic said Monday. “Jimmy was locked in — everybody basically — and it was hell of a team win. We beat them three times, but every time it’s going to be different. Every time we need to bring our best game and try to finish the business.”
Even after losing two in a row Thursday and Saturday, the Heat still controls its destiny as the season winds down.
“We had a heightened sense of urgency,” sharpshooting swingman Duncan Robinson said in a postgame radio interview Monday. “We wanted to really come out and kind of make a statement early and then just carry that momentum moving throughout the game.”
HEAT INJURY REPORT
The Heat listed center Kelly Olynyk (bruised right thumb) as probable for Wednesday’s game against the Thunder. Guard Kendrick Nunn (self isolating) and rookie forward KZ Okpala (personal reasons) are both listed as out.
But Nunn could “potentially” clear his four-day quarantine, which began Sunday, in time to be available for Wednesday night’s game, according to a league source. It’s a matter of timing and Nunn continuing to test negative for COVID-19.