Two quick thoughts as the Miami Heat and NBA prepare for the playoffs:
— 1. The play-in round stinks. It’s an awful idea that should be unceremoniously discontinued and put in an unmarked grave, like the Ford Edsel, New Coke and Harley-Davidson Perfume (all real, short-lived and unlamented).
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, TNT and ESPN love the play-in round. They call it an “exciting wrinkle.” I call it an easy revenue grab — six additional games that had not existed before. Meantime fans must wait nearly a week for the actual playoffs to start, while the top two seeds in each conference (including Miami) are penalized by not knowing who their first-round opponent will be.
The San Antonio Spurs lost their last three games to limp in at 34-48 yet “earned” an asterisk-playoff spot. Dumb. Cheetos Lip Balm (another actual failed invention) was a better idea.
— 2. Why is America hating on the Miami Heat? Or, worse, dismissing the East’s top seed?
It would be comical if it weren’t a bit criminal. Eight-two games suggest Miami emerged the best team in a tightly bunched (read: hard-won) conference. And yet the Heat, per Caesars Sportsbook, its odds reflecting public perception, is judged only the fourth East betting favorite at +1200 odds, after Milwaukee (+475), Brooklyn (+650) and Boston (+1000).
I sort of get Milwaukee. The reigning NBA champ has Giannis Antetokounmpo and swept Miami out of last year’s playoffs. You can even make a case for Boston, coming on a strong. But Brooklyn!? A play-in team as seventh seed, a massive underachiever, and yet so many must believe Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving apparently have a magic light switch they have been waiting all season to flip.
“I think Miami is wildly disrespected,” as Fox Sports 1 host and NBA expert Nick Wright told us the other day. “The Heat should absolutely be taken seriously. I think there is no reason to believe any team in the East other than Milwaukee should be favored over Miami. This idea that Brooklyn, which can’t get their act together — the Nets, of the five [top] East contenders, clearly have the worst coach, the worst depth and the worst defense by a mile. And you wanna see a non-existent home-court advantage? Go to a Brooklyn game. It’s Knicks fans that can’t get tickets chanting ‘MVP’ for the opposing star.”
There are other slivers of respect for Miami within the media, though far from widespread.
Says ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins: “Miami is my dark horse to win it all. They have one of the best defensive starting fives, they can shoot, defend the ball and they do it collectively.”
The Heat also has a top-tier coach in Erik Spoelstra to baton an orchestra that includes a deep bench with nine players averaging 23-plus minutes.
Has a Defensive Player of the Year finalist in Bam Adebayo.
Has a Sixth Man of the Year runaway winner in Tyler Herro.
Has a leader in Jimmy Butler whose faulty three-point shooting has really picked up in April. (“Yeah, everybody’s yelling at me to shoot more 3’s,” he says. “Which I can do.”
Miami also has an interesting roster blend of veterans such as Kyle Lowry and P.J. Tucker and out-of-nowhere finds such as Max Strus and Gabe Vincent.
Oh, and a secret weapon ready to unwrap in the postseason: Victor Oladipo. Back from a long injury absence, he played only eight games this season. In his first start Sunday he scored 40 points in Orlando as Miami rested its starters.
If you are debating whether Oladipo off a 40-point game should maybe be in your playoff rotation ... pretty sweet problem to have!
Yet this is the top-seeded team ranked fourth in betting odds to come out of the East and reach the NBA Finals as it did just two years ago. The only team in the East to win three championships since 2006, but doubted still.
I don’t get that.
I get anybody still doubting the improved Dolphins or Marlins or Canes football or even the high-flying Panthers. But disrespecting the Heat is a fool’s bet.
“Thank you,” is what Miami should be saying to doubting America.
Don’t you know this franchise feeds off that? It did all four years of the LeBron James era, turning that boulder on the shoulder into four consecutive Finals appearances and two titles.
Remember the ugly courtside tempest on March 23? When Spoelstra and Butler got at it and a clipboard flew and Udonis Haslem had to referee? It came in the midst of a four-game swoon. America saw it as the Heat coming apart. Miami knew before.
Six wins in a row followed to secure the No. 1 seed.
The Heat waits out the play-in round now to set a first-round series that will begin this coming Sunday vs. Cleveland or Brooklyn or, less likely, Atlanta or Charlotte.
I cannot but hope it’s Miami-Brooklyn, the Heat the top seed with home-court advantage, but the eighth-seeded Nets expected to win.
It is the one matchup that would throw the disrespect in the face of the Heat, a team never closer to its best than when the challenge and the doubt are greatest.
