Heat’s Goran Dragic knows playoff-race desperation, experiencing it again

For some on the Miami Heat roster, the notion of playoff-race desperation is a foreign concept. To Tyler Herro, Kendrick Nunn, even Jimmy Butler, all they have known with the Heat is last season’s path of minimal resistance.

But Goran Dragic knows better and appreciates the stakes of these final three weeks.

In 2016, there was a wild final night of the regular season that somehow propelled the Heat to a No. 3 seed and eventually within one game of the Eastern Conference finals.

In 2017, there was a heartbreak of reversing an 11-30 start into a 30-11 finish, only to win on the final night of the season and lose out on the final playoff berth in a tiebreaker.

And in 2019, there was a debilitating late-season loss in Minnesota (sound familiar?) that basically extinguished playoff hope.

So as the Heat headed into their final 10 games of the regular season, Dragic spoke ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the San Antonio Spurs of appreciating the current stakes.

“This is already a playoffs for us,” he said after the morning shootaround at AmericanAirlines Arena. “It’s a bunch of teams together, close, fighting for these last few spots. Every game counts. Every game the preparation is more detailed, the team needs to play at a higher level, and that’s what is expected.”

In previous seasons, such as 2016-17, the goal was at least No. 8, the final playoff berth. This season, it’s at least No. 6. Otherwise, while the rest of the playoff field rests, there is the play-in tournament for seeds Nos. 7-10.

When factoring in so many veteran Heat rotation players in their 30s, including Dragic (34), Butler (31), Andre Iguodala (37), Trevor Ariza (35), Dewayne Dedmon (31) and Nemanja Bjelica (32), avoiding the play-in round would mean at least five additional days of rest after the regular season.

“It is important. We don’t want to be in that,” Dragic said. “We want to be safe and play hopefully at home. That’s our goal.”

While homecourt advantage in the first round would require getting to No. 4, the Heat went into Wednesday tied with the Boston Celtics for Nos. 6-7, with a magic number of five for at least a play-in berth.

“If we can avoid that play-in tournament,” Dragic said, “yeah, that would be a huge deal for us.”

Heat playoff seeds over the past decade:

2020: No. 5. 2019: None. 2018: No. 6. 2017: None. 2016: No. 3. 2015: None. 2014: No. 2. 2013: No. 1. 2012: No. 2. 2011: No. 2.

Turnaround time

For as fatigued as he has looked this season, Dragic declined to cite the two-month turnaround between the Heat’s appearance in the NBA Finals and the start of this season.

Instead, he noted the exhausting nature of the times.

“I would not say it’s had a huge role, because it’s a lot more difficult events going on with this pandemic, with everything going on with the protests,” he said. “You have a lot of stuff. It’s just uncertain times. You have to be careful. It puts a lot of pressure on different individuals, the person, the team.

“And it’s way different than all these previous seasons that we played in the NBA. Then testing, and everything, it changes your schedule of the whole season, of practice and everything. So everything, it feels different. And maybe because of that, the teams are not that consistent. So that’s how it is. It’s more dramatic this year.”

Silva out

The Sacramento Kings announced Wednesday they have waived former Heat forward Chris Silva.

Silva was acquired along with Moe Harkless in the March 25 trade for Nemanja Bjelica.

By NBA rules, Silva is ineligible for another team’s playoff roster. His Sacramento tenure was limited to nine minutes over four appearances, scoring two points and grabbing two rebounds with the Kings.