Heat will play Pacers in 1st round of playoffs
Two of the Miami Heat’s final three seeding games come against the Indiana Pacers, and that’s not all.
Indiana defeated the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, locking in a best-of-7 first-round Eastern Conference No. 4 vs. No. 5 seed playoff series between the Heat and Pacers that begins either Monday or Tuesday at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. Including their two matchups during seeding play this week, Miami and Indiana could face off as many as nine times in a span of 10 games.
The Heat and Pacers will see each other again before their playoff series begins next week, as the two teams also face off Friday at 4 p.m. to close seeding play.
It’s still undetermined which team will enter the playoffs as the No. 4 seed. But Miami could have clinched the No. 4 spot in the East with a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.
However, there’s essentially no difference between entering the playoffs as the
No. 4 or No. 5 seed because there is no real home-court advantage in the bubble, other than the fourth-place team playing more games with its virtual fans on the screens surrounding the Disney court.
In addition, the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds are locked into the half of the East bracket that includes the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. The winner of the Heat-Pacers series will play the winner of the first-round series between the No. 1 Bucks and the No. 8 Orlando Magic in the second round.
If the regular season is any indication, Miami should enter the playoffs as the favorite in its opening-round matchup against Indiana. The Heat has defeated the Pacers in each of the teams’ first three matchups this season, including a 114-92 blowout win over Indiana on Monday during seeding play.
The Heat also earned a 113-112 win over the Pacers on Dec. 27 at AmericanAirlines Arena in a game that included 20 lead changes and eight ties. With the Heat trailing by one with less than a minute to play, guard Goran Dragic made a ninefoot game-winning floater with 6.8 seconds remaining.
In the teams’ second matchup, the Heat defeated the Pacers 122-108 on Jan. 8 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Miami led by as many as 31 points in the victory.
The Pacers have been without All-Star center Domantas Sabonis throughout their seeding schedule because of plantar fasciitis in his left foot. And Indiana coach Nate McMillan said after Wednesday’s win that forward T.J. Warren, who missed the victory over the Rockets but played in the Pacers’ first six seeding games, is also dealing with plantar fasciitis in his right foot.
NUNN CLEARED
Kendrick Nunn officially rejoined the Heat.
The Heat’s rookie guard left the NBA’s Disney bubble last week to tend to a personal matter and returned early Sunday morning to begin a four-day quarantine upon reentering the league’s Central Florida campus.
Nunn was cleared Wednesday afternoon to exit his hotel room after continuing to test negative for COVID-19, according to a league source, rejoining the team in advance of Wednesday night’s game against the Thunder.
But Nunn, 25, did not play against the Thunder because of a sore throat — not COVID-19 related as he continues to test negative for the virus. It marked the third consecutive game he has missed after exiting the bubble.
Nunn still has an opportunity to play in Miami’s eighth and final seeding game — Friday against the Pacers — to get on the court before Miami begins its first-round playoff series.
A NEW FILM
As veteran forward Udonis Haslem prepares for another trip to the playoffs in his 17th NBA season (all with the Heat), there’s a minidocumentary set to premier later this week on Haslem’s off-court impact titled “OG40.”
As part of the 32-minute film, Caron Butler spent a day with his former Heat teammate to witness Haslem’s widespread impact in his hometown of Miami. Butler and Haslem walked through Overtown, Liberty City and Wynwood, while also highlighting the opportunities Haslem has given others as a franchisee of a handful of Subways and partner of JFC Miami that operates, among other stores, a Starbucks at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The mini-documentary was produced by CloseUp360, which Butler is a partner in.
“My loyalty is to this city,” Haslem said in the film. “I talk about my loyalty, you can say that to this city I’ve held it down from all aspects. From a business aspect, from a professional aspect, from a street aspect, from a family aspect, I’ve been loyal to this city on all cylinders.”
“OG40” premieres on Friday at 8 p.m. on PlayersTV, available on the Samsung TV Plus platform. It will then be a digital release later in August.