ATLANTA
The Miami Heat has been through a lot this season. From the Jimmy Butler drama to the Butler trade and then a miserable 10-game losing skid, the Heat has endured plenty of tough days.
But through it all, the Heat finds itself one win away from doing something no other NBA team has ever done.
After defeating the Eastern Conference’s ninth-place Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night at United Center in an elimination play-in game, the Heat is just one victory away from becoming the first 10th-place team in either conference to make the playoffs from the play-in tournament since this current play-in format was first instituted for the 2020-21 season.
The Heat will try to get that win when it takes on the East’s eighth-place Atlanta Hawks on Friday at State Farm Arena (7 p.m., TNT). The winner of that play-in game will clinch the East’s No. 8 playoff seed and open the first round of the playoffs against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday at Rocket Arena.
“I’ve really respected and admired how this group has handled adversity collectively together,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Friday’s win-or-go-home play-in matchup in Atlanta. “All of us, the coaching staff, the players and all the different departments. When you’re able to do that and embrace it, the lessons that you can get from it, it’s one of those things that puts an imprint on everybody. Because I think it’s just too easy in today’s day and age and in professional sports, you face a little adversity and you crumble. You see more often that happen than this.
“It’s just a group that really has wanted to find a way to conquer these things and find a way to get better and find a way to help each other play better. These are the kinds of groups that you really want to do your best for.”
The three players who the Heat acquired in the Butler trade — Kyle Anderson, Davion Mitchell and Andrew Wiggins — have all fit in well, too. Anderson, Mitchell and Wiggins have established themselves as fixtures in the Heat’s rotation since landing in Miami.
“They’ve fit in very well because they want to make it work,” Spoelstra said. “They’re winning players, winning personalities. They each bring something a little bit different, which are things that we needed.
“Davion has that defensive presence and his toughness and his passion. We love the passion that he brings to the game. Wiggs is just a very good basketball player. The things that he does lead to winning because he plays both sides of the floor. He takes pride in doing that and doing it at a high level. And then Kyle, it just takes awhile to get accustomed to how he plays. But that game he had the other night [in Chicago] is kind of the epitome of what he does that just impacts winning, whether it’s stats or not.”
For Heat captain Bam Adebayo, the team camaraderie built since the mid-season trade of Butler has made his leadership role a little easier.
“We got a great group as far as personalities and obviously buying into what we’re preaching,” Adebayo said. “So it’s easier to get guys to buy in when it comes to that point.”
GETTING CLOSER
While Kevin Love is again away from the Heat for Friday’s play-in contest against the Hawks because of ongoing personal reasons, Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jovic will both be available Miami in Atlanta.
Larsson, who missed the final three games of the regular season after spraining his right ankle during a pregame weightlifting session in Chicago last week, returned to make himself available for Wednesday’s play-in win over the Bulls. But Larsson did not play in that game.
Larsson will again be available on Friday against the Hawks.
“Each day is better,” Spoelstra said of Larsson following Friday’s morning shootaround session in Atlanta. “He had a great day, full contact yesterday. So he’ll be available again and I think he’s further along than he was 48 hours ago.”
Jovic missed his 28th game in a row Wednesday after breaking his right hand in late February. However, Jovic will at least be in uniform for Friday’s game against the Hawks.
“I’m anticipating he’ll suit up tonight too because he just wants to be there,” Spoelstra said of Jovic on Friday morning. “Everything is part of that personality, guys just want to be out there. He’s checking all the boxes, he’s getting really close. I don’t know if he’ll be fully cleared tonight, but maybe I’ll use him as an inbounder.”
Aside from Love, the rest of the Heat’s 15-man standard roster will be available for Friday’s play-in contest against the Hawks. Two-way contract players are ineligible for the postseason.
Meanwhile, the Hawks ruled out Kobe Bufkin (right shoulder surgery), Clint Capela (metacarpal ligament sprain), Jalen Johnson (left shoulder surgery) and Larry Nance Jr. (right medial femoral condyle fracture).
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 12:32 PM.
