After a loss that only muddled the Miami Heat’s postseason outlook, the NBA has added clarity for what comes next for Erik Spoelstra’s team in the play-in tournament and what might come next in the playoffs.
In the wake of the Los Angeles Lakers’ late overtime victory on Tuesday night over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Heat’s winner-take-all game on Friday to close out the Eastern Conference play-in round has been scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Kaseya Center, to be solely televised on TNT, without local South Florida coverage on Bally Sports Sun.
The game was moved to an earlier time than Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. play-in start because of Minnesota hosting the second game of Friday night’s nationally televised play-in doubleheader in the Central time zone.
The Heat were forced into a Friday game with Tuesday night’s 116-105 home loss to the Atlanta Hawks, who thereby secured the No. 7 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference and will play the No. 2 Boston Celtics in the best-of-seven opening round starting Saturday.
The Heat on Friday will play the winner of Wednesday night’s Chicago Bulls-Toronto Raptors game for the No. 8 seed in the opening round and a best-of-seven series against the No. 1 Milwaukee Bucks.
Such a series, should the Heat advance, would tip off with a 5:30 p.m. Sunday game in Milwaukee, to be televised by both TNT and Bally Sports Sun.
The Heat went 2-2 against the Bucks this season, winning twice in South Florida when Milwaukee All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out due to injury. The Bucks thrashed the Heat in both meetings in Milwaukee, even with Antetokounmpo leaving one of those games early due to injury.
Should the Heat lose Friday, they would be seeded into the NBA draft lottery, which will be held on May 16.
The Heat own their first-round pick for the June 22 NBA draft.
Should the Heat drop into the lottery, the Heat would be seeded last among the 14 non-playoff teams with a 0.5% chance of securing the top pick, with only a slightly higher chance of landing one of the top four packs in the random-but-weighted process.
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