In an NBA world the place there may be championship rivalry and lottery hope, being caught within the center tends to be seen as a hopeless limbo.
But there additionally might be advantages of the present degree of parity that the league has solely begun to see in recent times.
It, in reality, is what Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra admitted supplied aid within the wake of Sunday’s disheartening loss to the Charlotte Hornets at first of this four-game journey that continues Thursday evening towards the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“We had a devastating loss the other night at Charlotte, and then to keep it in perspective, you wake up the next morning and even with only being plus-five, we had the ninth-best record in the league,” Spoelstra mentioned, with the Heat then bettering to 29-23 with Tuesday evening’s victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“That’s a head-scratcher to me. Usually you have the top teams, maybe a handful of middle teams and the rest were tanking. That’s not the case any more. I think that’s good.”
With the victory in Cleveland, the Heat moved inside one sport of the Cavaliers within the loss column for the East’s No. 5 seed, two video games forward of the Knicks, who’re No. 7.
The No. 6 seed is the final in every convention with a direct ticket to the best-of-seven playoff opening spherical. Teams seeded Nos. 7-10 take part within the play-in bracket the place one or two losses deliver an finish to the season.
It is the presence of the play-in, which started in 2021, that Spoelstra mentioned has led to heightened competitors at a time of season when groups beforehand would flip their focus to lottery odds.
“I think it’s been happening now for three years,” he mentioned, earlier than giving his crew Wednesday off. “Two years because the play-in was put in, proper? I feel that’s the largest driver on this. You simply have far much less groups tanking. Am I allowed to say that phrase? Come on, this occurs on this league.
“But now you have a bunch of teams that probably weren’t necessarily thinking in either conference that they would have a chance of being in the play-in. At this point, you might as well go for it. The experience you get is just driving the competition level league-wide, and this is the way it should be.”
Heat ahead Jimmy Butler, who has missed 15 video games this season, has a unique perspective on the standings being so tight heading into the buying and selling deadline.
“I think it’s because a lot of guys have missed games, and you can’t get a rhythm of who’s going to be in the lineup, who’s going to be out,” he mentioned. “You don’t know who’s taking part in evening to nighttime. We’re a major instance of that.
“I think that’s why teams are so up and down. But when guys get healthy and they get their guys back, I think it’s going to look a lot different.”
For now, it principally is a free-for-all, as Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell acknowledged within the wake of his potential game-tying 3-point try arising quick at Tuesday’s ultimate buzzer.
“This seeding [push] is crazy,” he mentioned. “You could win four in a row and be second. You can lose four in a row and be 10. So understanding that every game counts, but also in the same token, not putting that pressure on yourself every night, because it can wear on you as the year goes on.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com