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.
The Miami Heat got a playoff seeding boost from the Knicks on Tuesday, as they lost to the Lakers.
Well, they lost. Things were officially shook up.
Here’s a better explanation of it all. It comes from Ira Winderman, of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
NBA EAST
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) May 12, 2021
No. 4 Hawks 38-31*
No. 5 Heat 38-31**
No. 6 Knicks 38-31
* -- Hawks at No. 4 by virtue of being a division leader (won season series 2-1 vs. Heat).
** -- Heat at No. 5 by virtue of winning season series 3-0 vs. Knicks.
Well, there you have it. The Miami Heat are now in fifth place, as stated, due to all the various tie-breakers.
With an eye towards the remainder of the schedule, the Miami Heat have three very winnable contests before them. Though two of them are against two of the conference’s best, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks, the Miami Heat can still win either or both of those games.
They can also lose them, however, you have to like the Miami Heat’s chances with how they’ve played the Bucks over the last year or so and with the fact that Joel Embiid may or may not be in the lineup for Philadelphia, as he sat out in their Tuesday night loss to the Pacers.
The Miami Heat’s last game of the season comes against the Detroit Pistons. While every team is full of pros, which means they can all beat you, the Heat should win that game.
With the Heat’s schedule there though, how about the other teams that are fighting for those last three guaranteed seeds?
With the Miami Heat able to move as high as fourth in the seedings, who do the other contenders play to finish the year?
The Atlanta Hawks close with the Wizards, the Magic, and the Rockets. The Wizards game should be a tough one for them, especially after beating them on Monday and with the Wizards fighting for their playoff lives.
Though the Magic and the Rockets could be tricky at this time of the year, the Hawks are the better team in both of those matchups. The Knicks close with the Spurs, the Hornets, and the Celtics.
While the Knicks could win all of those games, they could also lose all of those games. The Knicks can go on just as big as offensive lulls as Miami, but not because they don’t have firepower.
They don’t shoot a ton of threes, coming in at 27 of 30 teams at just under 30 a game, 29.9 to be precise. Because they don’t shoot a ton of them and though they make a good number of those that they shoot, in a four-way tie from second to fifth for team three point percentage at 39 percent, they can fall behind or seem slow scoring.
They make up for that with defense but if those other teams get hot, things could get sticky. If the Miami Heat can get two of the three they have left, they should be able to hold on to a fourth or fifth seed though.
Either way it happens, the Miami Heat are locked into the playoffs. It’s sure to be a wild ride from here.