The Miami Heat started the day with an opportunity to secure a playoff birth, outright. With the league’s newly installed play-in tournament, the traditional seventh and the eighth seeds will now have to battle it out to remain there.
With another win against a Boston Celtics team that they had previously beaten on Sunday in their game immediately prior to this one, things weren’t looking like too tricky of a situation. It turned out that it wasn’t either, as the Miami Heat came out and controlled things from the beginning of the second half onward.
Though they were without Jimmy Butler for what seemed like all of the second half, due to being poked in the eye, they were able to get it done. That’s about the only bad thing to take from that contest, as it secured a non-play-in playoff berth for Miami.
As the night continued to progress though, some kept their eye on the New York Knicks, situated at fourth to begin the evening. With a defeat from the Lakers, also fighting for their playoff situation, they would fall to sixth in the East behind Miami and Atlanta.