MIAMI — Play-in fatigue a real thing? Go no further than Miami Heat captain Bam Adebayo for your answer.
“I don’t want to be in that s – – – no more,” Adebayo said after the Heat lost 124-117 Thursday night to the Philadelphia 76ers at Xfinity Mobile Arena, a loss that now has the Heat 1 1/2 games behind the sixth-place 76ers in the Eastern Conference.
Sixth place, as in the final seed directly into the best-of-seven opening round of the playoffs.
“We’re better,” Adebayo continued, “than being in the play-in for the last four years.”
A play-in berth this season would make it four consecutive trips to that round for Erik Spoelstra’s team, where one or two losses ends a season before the start of the playoffs.
While the focus recently had been upward for the Heat, there also is the reality now of play-in peril, where a lower seed could mean the lack of any type of home postseason game.
In the play-in, No. 7 hosts No. 8, with the winner of that game receiving the No. 7 seed in the opening round of the playoffs.
Concurrently, the No. 9 seed hosts the No. 10 seed in an elimination game.
From there, the loser of the Nos. 7-8 game hosts the winner of the Nos. 9-10 game for the No. 8 berth in the opening round of the playoffs.
After dropping both games of their two-game trip that started with Tuesday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat find themselves going into Saturday’s nationally televised game against the Houston Rockets at Kaseya Center at No. 8 in the East, but also just two games in the win column ahead of the No. 10 Charlotte Hornets, a surging team the Heat play twice on the road over the next three weeks.
So for all of Adebayo’s anger over the play-in, a truer reality might be the Heat having to solidify their seeding in that very round.
“We got to lock in and decide what we’re gonna be,” said guard Tyler Herro, who, like Adebayo, has been part of the play-in run the past three years. “We’ve been saying it for three, four years, and now have to come with it.”
The pathway for something better still could be there, with seven of the next eight at Kaseya Center, where the Heat are 17-11, giving them more home victories than the No. 5 Toronto Raptors and No. 6 76ers.
“All of it is important,” Spoelstra said. “We wanted to do something on the road. I thought we had two shots at it in both of these games. But this pressure, and everything that we’re feeling going down the stretch, this is a privilege. This is an absolute privilege. Even when we’re not getting the result that we want, we have an opportunity to step up into this pressure.
“And going home. The pressure’s still going to be there, and I want that pressure for our team. We have to stack some wins, we have to stack quality, consistent basketball, which we’re fully capable of. And hopefully start on Saturday.”
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So, no looking back, which might prove too painful, anyway, with blown fourth-quarter leads in each of the last two.
“It’s the best time of year, right now when you start to see the playoff seeding,” Spoelstra said. “I want our guys shooting for a better spot than where we are right now. We don’t have to overwhelm ourselves with it, but it gives us something to wrap our minds around and compete for every night.”
To a degree, this coming stretch could be the Heat playoffs, or, perhaps better stated, a last-chance opportunity for direct entry into the playoffs.
“It’s very important,” forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “We got seven of eight at home. It’s going to be a great time for us to make a stand and make a push and win some games.”
And perhaps ease some of that Adebayo angst.
“We’ve already been struggling on the road,” Adebayo said, “so we go home, win some games, you know, be in our atmosphere, be in our habitat where our fans are cheering for us, and see if we can string some W’s together.”
