Playoffs may ride on tanking teams
As lottery looms, focus is foremost
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – For a moment, put aside everything else and consider this: If the Miami Heat can master the NBA tank-a-thon, they’re practically guaranteed a playoff berth.
At a time of the season when winning rates as an inconvenience to many, the Heat, at 36-32, have six games remaining against teams that currently are forwarding their results to tank central. Those games include tonight against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center, a game against the Chicago Bulls and two apiece against the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks.
Win against the teams that couldn’t care less and it gets the Heat to 42 wins, with 42-40 looking like enough to move back into the postseason.
For the Heat, there already have been several losses to the league’s lesser half, but many of those came before opponents became fully engaged in PingPong ball instead of basketball, such as the already-completed 2-2 season series against the Orlando Magic, as well as previous losses to the Knicks, Bulls and Hawks.
But tonight’s game is a sobering reminder of the trap of
the tank, with the Heat losing 89-88 to Sacramento on Jan. 25 at AmericanAirlines Arena, a game the Kings sat Vince Carter and the since-traded George Hill, when rookie guard De’Aaron Fox scored a game-winning putback with 3.3 seconds to play.
Goran Dragic, who failed to box out Fox, said it is a case when a long and lasting memory is essential.
“And I think that’s good, because you are aware of what happened, so it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “It’s kind of a good thing.
“Every time you play against Sacramento, the first thought for me is that box out.”
Dragic said last season offered a stark reminder of the danger of letting such games get away, with the Heat missing the postseason at 41-41 on a tiebreaker.
“Last season, when it was over, when it hits you that you’re not going to play for the next five, six months, then you started thinking about it,” he said.
In the moment, Dragic said, it’s not about the playoffs or tanking or anything but finding a way.
“Right now it’s tough because we are in the middle of the season and you have so many games,” he said. “But if we’re going to make it, then of course you’re not going to want to look back.”
Not all of the Heat’s remaining games against losing teams will necessarily be with an opponent fixated on lottery combinations. The Los Angeles Lakers, Friday’s opponent at Staples Center at the end of this three-game trip, owe their 2018 first-round pick to either the Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers. The Brooklyn Nets, who the Heat host at the end of the season, owe their firstround pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Neither has reason to tank.
But six of the Heat’s remaining 14 games are against organizations (albeit not necessarily players and coaches) who couldn’t care less.
“You get caught up doing that and you’ll be wishing you did something different all the time,” forward Josh Richardson said of making assumptions.
The Heat lately have been efficient at taking what has been given, with recent routs of the Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns, both at home, where the tank-a-thon tends to be most pronounced. But the Kings will be home, as will the Knicks and Hawks during one of the Heat’s two remaining games against each.
And then there is the matter of the Heat being without a road victory since Jan. 29, entering the game in Sacramento on an eight-game road losing streak, with the Heat coming off Monday’s 115-99 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
“We’re not looking at the standings every day,” guard Tyler Johnson said. “There’s still a lot of basketball left to be played. If you start obsessing over that it just kind of brings something different, outside stimuli into the locker room when there’s so many things you got to worry about during an NBA season. You start checking that, now you’re just worried about another thing.
“Our biggest thing is just take it game by game. There’s 14 left. We have Sacramento, all we can do is learn from this one. Go to Sac and take care of business there, go L.A. take care of business there and then defend home court.”