With just two games left for the Heat in the regular season, there’s still uncertainty surrounding the potential seedings for the playoffs. While Miami only needs one more win to lock up the first seed, the three teams behind them all have a chance to catch up. Boston, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia all have the same record at 49-30, just 2.5 games behind the Heat. Barring an unexpected collapse against the Hawks or Magic, the Heat should head into the playoffs as the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. With that in mind, here are a few teams Miami could be going up against in the first round of the playoffs.
If the Heat do retain the first seed, they’ll be guaranteed a matchup with one of the teams participating in the play-in tournament. The four play-in teams for the East are already set, with those being Cleveland, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and Charlotte. Cleveland would be an interesting matchup as both teams have some similarities. They both have centers capable of playing All-NBA defense with Bam Adebayo and Jarrett Allen. Both teams also pride themselves on overall team defense, with Miami having the 4th best defensive rating and Cleveland sitting at 6th. They both have promising young guard play in Darius Garland and Tyler Herro. The only thing holding back Cleveland currently are injuries to Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. Since Allen’s injury, the Cavs have gone 6-9 and fallen all the way down to 7th in the standings, netting them a play-in spot.
Perhaps the scariest potential opponent is Brooklyn, who surprisingly finds themselves in the 8th seed. Despite various injuries to their stars during the season, as well as the departure of James Harden, Brooklyn still has one of the best duos in the East with Kyrie and Durant. They also bolstered their depth in the Harden trade, adding sharpshooter Seth Curry as well as rebounding aficionado Andre Drummond. While the status of Ben Simmons for the playoffs is TBD, adding him to an already-loaded Nets team would help them tremendously. While the Heat won the season series over the Nets 3-1, they’d be wise not to underestimate this team in a seven-game series.
Rounding out the last two play-in spots are the Hornets and the Hawks. Atlanta made a deep run in the playoffs last year, losing in six games to the eventual champions in Milwaukee. Despite not living up to the hype that last season brought them, they’re still an overall solid team led by All-Star Trae Young. Young is currently the fifth-leading scorer in the league, averaging 28.2 points on 45.9% shooting. Charlotte is a team that’s been bolstered by the emergence of Miles Bridges as well as their strong bench led by Kelly Oubre and Montrez Harrell. While I personally don’t believe either of these teams will make it out of the play-in tournament, they’re still decent teams and by no means pushovers. The Heat will certainly be monitoring the play-in tournament when it starts on April 12.
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