This is reality: East’s a real beast

Nets, Bucks, Sixers will be difficult for anyone to catch

With the Miami Heat in the midst of a two-game home series against the Indiana Pacers, and with the NBA trading deadline looming on Thursday, the scheduling is a reminder of a need for perspective at times such as these.

For four seasons, as the Heat moved through the Eastern Conference with their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at the start of last decade, the Pacers constantly fought the good fight, banged their heads against the wall that was LeBron, and came up short.

The reality was they didn’t have a shot.

Now there is similar reality for Pat Riley and the Heat to contemplate as they consider both short and long views with roster revision.

The closest thing to that Heat’s Big Three these days is what the Brooklyn Nets have built.

James Harden. Kevin Durant. Kyrie Irving.

Is there any trade, or trades, this week that would better position the Heat, with their, at-times, pop-gun offense, to get past those three four times in a best-ofseven series?

Then there are the Milwaukee Bucks, with their offseason upgrade with Jrue Holiday, hardly with the same look as the team the Heat vanquished in five games in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals.

Is a playoff repeat against the Bucks doable?

Certainly, but there is more now to the equation for Milwaukee, plus what would be expected, this time, to be a fully ambulatory Giannis Antetokounmpo.

And that’s not even getting to a Philadelphia 76ers team that has shown what a healthy Joel Embiid means, a team that, this time, should have Ben Simmons for the playoffs, and now is getting something closer to All-Star Tobias Harris.

By now, there has become a clear delineation of the elite of the East. There are the Nets, 76ers and Bucks . . . and then the rest of the conference. Two of those teams appear overwhelming favorites to hold homecourt advantage in the second round. This time, with actual homecourt advantage.

That’s not to say that the right bracketing can’t position the Heat for a run similar to last season’s, particularly if the Nets can be avoided in the second round, or eliminated by someone else along the way.

(Sorry, but it is difficult envisioning this Heat offense keeping pace with Harden-Durant-Irving, no matter the devious defensive developments Erik Spoelstra conjures when given time.)

So that brings it back to Thursday’s trading deadline and whether to live in the moment, or scheme for a revised plan of attack down the road.

Consider that the Heat never appeared more vulnerable in the East during their Big Three era than they did in their second season together, when it took the best of LeBron to get past the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the 2012 conference finals and then a Game 7 victory to advance. (Yes, they went seven in the East finals the following year against the Pacers, but it never felt as tenuous, the Heat never trailing in that series.)

That’s why, as the Nets coalesce with their new big three, and as the Bucks play with a desperation to finally make it out of the East with Giannis, there could be something to be said about not sacrificing too much future for the moment.

Yes, Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic will be a year further into their 30s next season, same with Andre Iguodala and Trevor Ariza, if they are back. But if there is a piece available that can be bought low at the moment (hello, Spencer Dinwiddie) and then evolve going forward, it could be the best path to get back to last season’s path.

No, the Heat are not shying from the Nets, yet to play them at full strength this season, with an April 18 nationally televised meeting awaiting at AmericanAirlines Arena.

And there certainly are the anti-Antetokounmpo blueprints that can be dusted off.

Beyond that, neither the 76ers nor Doc Rivers have been playoff givens in recent years.

But what Brooklyn is building looks like something that will endure, likely to eventually get their versions of Shane Battier, Ray Allen and Chris Andersen in support, just as the Heat did along the way with the Big Three.

So that at least gives the Heat a target, aware of how difficult a breakthrough can be against a colossus gaining steam.

And if there are any doubts about the need to target a conquest, consider the past of the Heat’s opponent this weekend, and the futility for the Pacers of four years of banging their heads against the Heat’s Big Three, with Paul George, Roy Hibbert, Lance Stephenson and Frank Vogel never getting their breakthrough.

(AP PHOTO/FRANK FRANKLIN II) The presence of James Harden, seen during the first half of a game against the Knicks last Monday, is one reason the Nets could be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.