For a third straight year, the Heat have earned the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot via the play-in tournament.
This time around, Miami made history by becoming the first No. 10 seed to make it through the play-in tournament since the event’s inception in 2021. After defeating the No. 9 Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday, the Heat registered their second consecutive road play-in win in Atlanta on Friday against the No. 8 Hawks.
The Heat led for most of the night until the Hawks made a fourth-quarter comeback and forced overtime. Trade-deadline acquisition and free-agent-to-be Davion Mitchell helped Miami secure the 123-114 win by knocking down a trio of three-pointers in the extra frame.
Tyler Herro (30 points), Bam Adebayo (17 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks), and Andrew Wiggins (20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists) also played key roles in the victory.
As a result of the win, the Heat have a first-round series on tap with the No. 1 Cavaliers. As the NBA announced this week (via Twitter), that series will get underway in Cleveland on Sunday evening. The Hawks’ season is over.
Friday’s game also had major draft-related implications. Because they made the playoffs, the Heat will no longer control their first-round pick, which will land at No. 15 overall and will be sent to the Thunder. Miami will still receive Golden State’s first-round pick, which will end up at No. 18, 19, or 20, depending on the outcome of a random tiebreaker on Monday.
If they’d missed the playoffs, the Heat would’ve hung onto their own 2025 pick and would’ve owed their unprotected 2026 first-rounder to Oklahoma City and their unprotected 2028 first-rounder to Charlotte. Instead, the Heat will keep their 2026 pick and will owe their lottery-protected 2027 first-rounder to the Hornets. That pick would become unprotected in 2028 if it lands in the top 14 in 2027.
The Spurs, meanwhile, control the Hawks’ first-round pick, which will now be No. 12, 13, or 14 in the lottery standings, depending on the outcome of Friday’s Grizzlies/Mavericks game and a Monday tiebreaker between Atlanta and Sacramento, both of whom finished with 40-42 regular season records.
If Dallas beats Memphis on Friday, that Hawks/Kings tiebreaker would be incredibly meaningful, since it would determine the 12th and 13th spots in the lottery — Sacramento owes its first-round pick to Atlanta if it lands outside the top 12, so the odds of the Kings keeping that pick would increase significantly if they move up to No. 12 in the lottery standings.
If the Grizzlies beat Dallas on Friday, that tiebreaker between Atlanta and Sacramento would be for the 13th and 14th spots in the lottery standings, putting the Hawks in position to claim the Kings’ pick regardless of the tiebreaker outcome (unless it jumps into the top four on lottery night).
Well I’ll eat a crow…i picked Atlanta. Congrats to the Heat. Maybe Reilly isn’t as stupid as people think…
Heat are always just a little scary.
Both under .500 teams…
We shouldn’t let under .500 teams even into the playoffs. These teams aren’t good.
Let’s go! I saw a comment when the play-in fiasco started where someone, in response to someone else saying “we played hard all season to get a playoff seed and if we lose a game or two we are out or get knocked down”, said “if you lose two straight qualifying games, you deserve to get booted out.” I’ve always agreed with that. If you can beat a “#8 seed” and the team below you, you deserve to be in the playoffs. Herro has had a great year. It’s also a good sticking it to Jimmy Butler.
I don’t entirely agree with that. Sure, you should be able to beat an inferior team, but it’s not just winning the matchups that’s a problem. It’s also the additional toll it takes on the victors.
As a Grizzlies fan, yes, I expected us to beat Dallas. But I’m annoyed that we had to expend extra energy to play 2 additional games and now have to turn around and play OKC, who got extra rest. How is it fair that Memphis had to prove themselves to get into the postseason when their regular season record was closer to that of the 2 seed than that of the 9 seed?
@ Davey I’m so surprised you haven’t caught onto the India Times quoting some other nufty so called journalist State side, that the Warriors are going after Bam? I mean a report from the cricket mad country of India must be as legit as the local rag in San Fran, no? Bam, Steph, luka, Jimmy, Bron, Giannis, Jokic, Draymond. Fill out the rest of roster accordingly. That’s a squad, lol. Why stop short of the best American player in league? Surely you can add Tatum? You Warriors fans are awfully quite compared to the silver tongue of the regular season….Why? Don’t stop talking now, lol.
3%….. iykyk……..