Last season, the Heat had to wait a few more days before knowing their opponent in the first round. Leaders of their conference, the Floridians had finally faced the Hawks. This year, the Heat’s turn to make the teams at the top of the table wait in the East.
Guaranteed to finish in seventh place, Erik Spoelstra’s men will find next Tuesday… the Hawks, 8th, but in a play-in context this time. ” It’s going to be a different format, so let’s go. let’s do it », formulates the Miami coachwhose training had qualified without incident against Trae Young and his band (4-1) during the last playoffs.
A complicated month of February
This play-in test imposes itself on a Florida franchise which has taken a long time to string together victories and has never reached the top of the table during the season. The Heat have not been beyond sixth place in their conference, occupied between mid-January and mid-February.
The Floridians lost ground around the All-Star Game by losing six times in seven games, and were unable to catch the Nets, who one could imagine were threatened by the successive transfers of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The New Yorkers had also come to impose themselves with authority in Florida, at the end of March.
As Erik Spoelstra says, the play-in today is the ” reality and we have to accept it. It’s a totally new experience for all of us. It’s not exactly where we wanted to be at the start of the season, since training camp. But that’s irrelevant (to think about it). This competition is offered to us. It’s a big competition with a lot of stakes. »
The Hawks as the first opponent
The challenge is of course to obtain a qualification in the playoffs and thus to find Boston, the team which had eliminated the Heat precisely during the last Eastern Conference final.
” This may be the way to go for this band, that’s how I see it. We are a dangerous team. We gain confidence in our way of playing “, Continues the coach, whose team lost to the Wizards last night. Before I say it again: We all, especially veterans, have had different experiences. The playoffs, long series, first rounds… It’s something different and we can’t wait. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jimmy Butler | 64 | 33.4 | 53.9 | 35.0 | 85.0 | 2.2 | 3.7 | 5.9 | 5.3 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 22.9 |
| Bam Adebayo | 74 | 35.0 | 54.0 | 8.3 | 80.6 | 2.5 | 6.8 | 9.3 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 2.8 | 20.6 |
| Tyler Herro | 66 | 35.3 | 43.9 | 37.9 | 93.4 | 0.4 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 20.3 |
| Max Strus | 78 | 28.7 | 41.1 | 35.0 | 87.6 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 11.7 |
| Kyle Lowry | 54 | 31.6 | 40.5 | 34.6 | 85.9 | 0.8 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 11.4 |
| Victor Oladipo | 40 | 26.4 | 38.7 | 30.9 | 77.3 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 10.0 |
| Caleb Martin | 69 | 29.7 | 46.7 | 36.1 | 80.5 | 1.3 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 9.8 |
| Gabe Vincent | 66 | 26.2 | 40.4 | 34.0 | 88.3 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 2.3 | 9.6 |
| Kevin Love | 20 | 20.5 | 38.1 | 28.9 | 85.7 | 0.9 | 4.9 | 5.7 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 7.7 |
| Duncan Robinson | 40 | 15.7 | 37.2 | 33.7 | 92.3 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 6.1 |
| Cody Zeller | 13 | 14.1 | 57.4 | 0.0 | 70.0 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 4.2 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 5.8 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 30 | 11.7 | 49.6 | 29.7 | 72.7 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 3.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 5.7 |
| Nikola Jovic | 15 | 13.6 | 40.6 | 22.9 | 94.7 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 5.5 |
| Haywood Highsmith | 52 | 17.5 | 43.6 | 34.6 | 46.2 | 1.0 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 4.3 |
| Jamal Cain | 16 | 11.9 | 52.9 | 16.7 | 75.0 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 4.3 |
| Orlando Robinson | 29 | 13.7 | 53.5 | 0.0 | 72.4 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 4.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 3.9 |
| Jamaree Bouyea | 4 | 16.3 | 46.2 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 3.8 |
| Omer Yurtseven | 7 | 6.0 | 63.6 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 2.3 |
| Dru Smith | 5 | 13.4 | 35.7 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 2.2 |
| Udonis Haslem | 6 | 7.6 | 8.3 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 0.5 |
