Comfortable with 6th sense about playoffs
MIAMI — The complex math of an 82-game NBA season comes down to this for the Miami Heat: win the final two games and the No. 6 Eastern Conference playoff seed is theirs, no matter any other results.
“It’s a great place to be,” guard Wayne Ellington said. “It’s a long season. We’ve come a long way.”
A year ago, there was abject desperation heading into the season’s final games, the Heat ultimately closing at 41-41 and a tiebreaker shy of the eighth and final playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.
This time, even with Friday’s ugly loss to the New York Knicks, there is control of the final chapter, the Heat closing with a Monday game against the playoff-desperate Oklahoma City Thunder at AmericanAirlines Arena, and then a Wednesday home game against the nothing-to-play for Toronto Raptors, who already are locked into top seed in the East.
“You want to finish the regular season in a good place, because you always feel good if you win your last games,” guard Goran Dragic said. “So before the playoffs, it’s important that we stay positive.”
Forward Josh Richardson said the mood already is upbeat as next weekend’s start of the playoffs approaches.
“I mean, yeah, anything in the playoffs is a nice number, especially from last year, missing,” he said. “It’s progression. Getting in there was the first thing. From here on out, anything could happen.”
That very much remains the case, with the Heat’s possible first-round playoff opponent coming from the pool of the Raptors, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers or Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I mean, I want our guys to have this type of ending to a season, where they’re checking other games, still engaged, still want to play, still want to compete, still feel that we have something to play for, because we do,” said coach Erik Spoelstra. “This is probably the the most competitive and compelling it’s been on both sides in a long time.
“The last three spots for us are still up for grabs and who we’ll play, that will probably be decided on the last day. It makes it fun. It makes guys still want to compete and treat these games as you should.”
Ellington said Monday’s game should sharpen the Heat’s focus after Friday’s 122-98 humiliation at Madison Square Garden.
“Yeah, we tend to get up for those game for some reasons,” said Ellington, who acknowledged the Heat tended this season to be “not be so awake” against lottery opposition.
That no longer will be a factor, with nothing but playoff-level competition the rest of the way.
“We always play better against the teams that are on top,” Dragic said as he looked ahead to Monday against the Thunder. “So we’re expecting a good game. We’re going to play our game and we have to bring it at home, in front of our fans. It’s going to be an interesting game.”
Last season, while still with the Chicago Bulls, it was Dwyane Wade who knocked the Heat out of the playoffs with a victory on the final night of the season. This time, he said the close of the schedule is more about mental health.
“You want to go into the playoffs on a high note,” he said. “You don’t want to go in losing three in a row. You want to definitely go in winning and feeling good about yourself.
“The seeds, whatever happens at the end of the day from seeds standpoint is what it is. We’re at the bottom. We’re going to play a Goliath team, anyway. It really doesn’t matter. We want to continue to play good basketball.”
Wade said there already should be pride about how far his once-and-again team has come.
“This team missed the playoffs last year and now it’s a team in the playoffs as we sit here right now with No. 6,” he said. “So it’s a great step from one season to the next.”
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