Even before Friday’s game against the Toronto Raptors, the Miami Heat were eliminated from the 2024-25 NBA In-Season Tournament with the Atlanta Hawks’ 117-101 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
As a result, the Heat will play two games on either Dec. 12 or Dec. 13 and Dec. 15 or Dec. 16. Those matchups, locations and times will be played at a later date.
The Hawks’ win on Friday moves them to 3-1 in Group C play, meaning they could make the quarterfinal as a Wild Card team, at worst, should a couple results elsewhere go a certain way.
The Heat already entered Friday needing plenty of results to happen for them just to stay alive through the weekend, including a win against the Raptors, a Hawks loss, a Pistons loss (to the Bucks) and a loss by either New York (to Charlotte) or Orlando (to Brooklyn). The best Miami can finish is now 2-2; they earned a 17-point win over the Indiana Pacers followed by narrow losses to both the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks.
As it stands right now, the Heat are 8-8 with a deadpan +0.0 adjusted NET Rating, per Dunks & Threes. They have the league’s 19th-best adjusted offense and the 10th-best adjusted defense, accounting for strength of schedule.
They will have back-to-back games against Toronto before four contests against the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers before at least a three-day layoff. What do you think their record will be over that six-game stretch?
***
This is a developing news story. Stay tuned for updates.
To check out our other content, click here.
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter/X here!
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram here!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
What happen was rozier got tooking out of the starting lineup an ware really didn’t play much if they would have kept rozier in the starting lineup an played ware alongside bam Butler Herro an rozier would still be playing for the nba cup