Heat rests regulars, falls to Wizards. Takeaways and a look ahead at play-in matchup vs. Hawks

Despite not being locked into its postseason position entering Friday, the Miami Heat knew it couldn’t drop in the Eastern Conference standings and its chances of moving up in the standings were slim.

So the Heat made the calculated decision to prioritize rest and health, sitting out starters Bam Adebayo (left quadriceps tendon strain), Jimmy Butler (right hand contusion) and Tyler Herro (right quadriceps contusion) in its second-to-last game of the regular season. Miami also sat key reserves Kyle Lowry (left knee soreness) and Kevin Love (right rib contusion), along with rookie Nikola Jovic (back spasms).

By the end of the night, the Heat knew its spot in the postseason bracket.

Friday night’s 114-108 loss to the Washington Wizards (35-46) at Capital One Arena locked the Heat (43-38) into seventh place in the East, meaning it will need to qualify for the playoffs through the play in-tournament.

The Heat will host the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday at either 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. at Kaseya Center in a play-in game, with the winner entering the playoffs as the conference’s seventh playoff seed and the loser just one loss away from missing the playoffs entirely.

Even if the Heat would have won Friday, it still would have ended the night locked into seventh place because the Brooklyn Nets would have clinched the East’s sixth playoff seed with their win over the Orlando Magic on Friday.

“This is our reality and you have to embrace that,” coach Erik Spoelstra said following Friday’s loss just one season after entering the playoffs as the top seed in the East. “This is a totally new experience for all of us. It’s not exactly where we wanted to be heading into this season if you go back to training camp. But that is totally irrelevant.”

Going with a never-before-used lineup of Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith and Cody Zeller to open Friday’s game, the depleted Heat hung around in the first half against a Wizards team that’s out of playoff contention and also sat some of its best players.

The Heat entered halftime trailing the Wizards 53-51.

But the Wizards pulled away with a strong start to the second half, beginning the third quarter on a 22-8 run to push their lead up 16 points midway through the period. The Wizards pulled ahead by as many as 23 points and led by double digits for most of the second half.

Victor Oladipo scored a game-high 30 points for the undermanned Heat, including 20 points in the fourth quarter. Cody Zeller contributed 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and five rebounds.

Daniel Gafford led the Wizards with 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

The Heat closes the regular season on Sunday against the Orlando Magic at Kaseya Center in a game that doesn’t carry any meaning for Miami other than the fact that it’s the final regular-season game of veteran Udonis Haslem’s NBA career.

Five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Wizards on Friday:

The Heat entered Friday with a slim hope of escaping the play-in tournament, but still held out a chunk of its rotation in its second-to-last game of the regular season.

The Heat was without Adebayo, Butler, Herro, Love, Lowry and Jovic on the second night of its final back-to-back of the regular season. They were listed as out because of injury.

“These are legit things that we want to take care of on a back-to-back,” Spoelstra said when asked why so many key players were out with the East’s sixth playoff seed still in play entering Friday’s game. “That’s what our thinking was.”

This left the Heat with 11 available players on Friday: Jamal Cain, Haslem, Highsmith, Caleb Martin, Oladipo, Duncan Robinson, Orlando Robinson, Strus, Vincent, Omer Yurtseven and Zeller.

The expectation is the Heat will again hold out a large part of its normal rotation in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Magic at Kaseya Center. With the Heat opening the postseason with a play-in tournament game against the Hawks on Tuesday, Adebayo, Butler, Herro, Love and Lowry could have four full days between games to rest and recover after last playing in Thursday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

“All things considered, this is the best place our health has been all season long and it couldn’t happen at a better time,” Spoelstra said. “We feel good about that. The last couple weeks, we also had a couple days in between several of our games. That has really helped our guys and that’s where we are.”

The Wizards also sat most of their regulars on Friday. Deni Avdija (left elbow bursitis), Bradley Beal (left knee soreness), Kyle Kuzma (right ankle sprain), Monte Morris (right ankle soreness) and Kristaps Porzingis (non-COVID illness) were unavailable.

The Heat is locked into seventh place in the East and a play-in tournament matchup against the Hawks.

After spending the last month trying to avoid the play-in tournament, the Heat now knows it will need to win one game in the play-in tournament to advance to the playoffs.

The seventh-place Heat will host the eighth-place Hawks at Kaseya Center on Tuesday at either 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. The game will air exclusively on TNT.

The winner of the Heat-Hawks matchup will claim the East’s No. 7 playoff seed and open the playoffs with a first-round series against the second-seeded Celtics.

The loser of the Heat-Hawks matchup will get one more opportunity to qualify for the playoffs, hosting the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls on Friday. The winner of this third East play-in game on Friday clinches the conference’s No. 8 playoff seed and will begin the playoffs with a first-round series against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.

“When you say you want to embrace this type of competition and this opportunity, that’s what it means,” Spoelstra said of the play-in tournament. “It’s competition at it’s highest form and it’s a new experience. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”

If history is any indication, the Heat has the advantage entering Tuesday’s matchup against the Hawks. The Heat has won 15 of its past 21 games against the Hawks dating back to the 2018-19 season, including a five-game elimination of the Hawks in the first round of last season’s playoffs.

“It feels like we just played them,” Spoelstra said of facing the Hawks on Tuesday. “Not only in the regular season, but last year in the playoffs. This will be a different format, so let’s go for it. Let’s do it.”

With so many players out, the Heat used its 25th different starting lineup of the season on Friday.

The Heat opened with a lineup of Vincent, Strus, Duncan Robinson, Highsmith and Zeller. Unsurprisingly, this five-man combination had not played together this season prior to Friday’s game.

And it looked like it, too, as this lineup was outscored by 18 points in 15 minutes together during the Heat’s loss to the Wizards.

Duncan Robinson, Highsmith and Zeller have dropped out of the usual rotation, but played featured roles for the depleted Heat on Friday.

Duncan Robinson scored five points and shot 1 of 6 from beyond the arc in 27 minutes.

Highsmith finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, three assists, one steal and two blocks in 33 minutes.

Zeller recorded 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and five rebounds in 22 minutes.

The Heat’s bench rotation on Friday also included a few faces who have fallen out of the rotation.

The short-handed Heat went with a bench rotation of Martin, Oladipo, Yurtseven, Cain and Orlando Robinson against the Wizards.

Oladipo, who received his first seven DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season in the last month, received an opportunity to play extended minutes on Friday. He finished with a season-high 30 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the field and 7-of-16 shooting from three-point range in 26 minutes.

In the fourth quarter, Oladipo scored 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field.

Yurtseven, who has not been able to earn a consistent role in the Heat’s rotation since returning from left ankle surgery in early March, scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds in a season-high 17 minutes.

Orlando Robinson made his first appearance with the Heat since before the All-Star break on Feb. 15. He finished with three points, five rebounds and two assists in 16 minutes.

The only available Heat player who did not enter Friday’s game was Haslem.

Cain took advantage of a rare opportunity to play big minutes in an NBA game.

Cain, who spent most of the season in the G League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, closed with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting on threes, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 31 minutes. It marked just the 17th game he has appeared in with the Heat in his rookie season and the first time he has logged double-digit minutes with the Heat since playing 22 minutes in a Jan. 14 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Cain, who is on a two-way contract after going undrafted out of Oakland last year, is not eligible to play for the Heat in the play-in tournament or playoffs unless his two-way contract is converted to a standard deal in the coming days before the end of the regular season.

But in order to move Cain to a standard contract, the Heat needs to waive a player to create room for him since its 15-man roster is currently full.

Despite not getting much NBA playing time this season, it has been a productive rookie season for Cain. The 6-6 forward averaged 22.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game in 15 regular-season appearances with the Skyforce.

“Cain has a great spirit about him every single day. He’s a breath of fresh air,” Spoelstra said. “He comes in wanting to work, wanting to get better, puts a smile on everybody’s face. He has a way of competing and working with great intensity. But in the moments in between, he’s just a great guy. That’s why he has so many people rooting for him.”