The Heat were iced in overtime by the Hornets in Charlotte and sent to the draft lottery. They went most of the game without their captain, Bam Adebayo, thanks to LaMelo Ball cheaply and flagrantly taking him out by swiping his foot while he was off balance, causing him to fall hard on his tailbone. Yet they held on until the last seconds. 

Kel’el Ware and Davion Mitchell stepped up being inside and outside threats, and Andrew Wiggins did all the little things in the trenches while giving them a big-time scoring punch. They even had Wiggins at center, next to Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pelle Larsson to maintain their speed, and they defended well without fouling plus didn’t get killed on 3-pointers. 

Jaquez started the second half for Adebayo, setting the mood with aggression. Additionally, Ware turned into Bill Russell for a spurt, rejecting shots into transition, and Mitchell was the source of offense in the fourth quarter. 

Their problems were containing second-chance scoring and dribble penetration from Ball, plus Coby White’s 3-point eruption. On top of that, they made a critical mistake late in the fourth quarter while up six points by doubling Ball, allowing Brandon Miller to nail a trifecta before White made a fallway shot in the corner to tie. 

The Hornets controlled the pace in overtime, exposed the corner and baseline and didn’t miss a shot in the lane late. But it was all drama: Herro made a fallaway corner triple and then caused Ball to foul him in the corner immediately on the next possession when the Heat got a steal. They took the lead by one, but Ball reclaimed it for Charlotte on a curling catch-and-go move, and then Mitchell got denied on a last second fastbreak attempt by Miles Bridges.

The Heat lost 127-126 after 17 ties and 16 lead changes. One would’ve presumed that it was going to turn into a blowout without Adebayo’s presence, but they went down with class. Their worst stretch of the game was getting outscored by eight in the third quarter.

The Hornets will now play the loser of Wednesday’s seven and eight game, and the Heat are left pondering their future. If this season proved anything, it’s that they need to get better on defense by being bigger, stronger and faster. 

Ware can be a top-level big man with more seasoning. The next step for him is sharper pick-and-roll defense, so he and Adebayo can be a potent duo. 

Mitchell resembled vintage Kyle Lowry in the loss, and he has always been a keeper, who should remain the starting point guard. The prerequisites for taking that spot are superior scoring without help and on-ball disruption. 

Some will depart, and the right youngsters will continue to develop; the team should continue to ride it out with them instead of trading for an All-Star who will have to do more with less. They’ll now also have their highest pick since either 2019 (13th) or 2017 (14th), at least, in what is expected to be a deep draft.

They need to realize that there is no quick fix into getting back into contention, unless Shaquille O’Neal, the Big Three or Jimmy Butler walk through the door.

Thankfully, it’s almost over.

The Heat’s regular season finale was a tune-up against the Atlanta Hawks’ D-Team, in which Bam Adebayo had a scoring spree on drive-bys and jumpers. The rest of the team got their licks in, and they won an inconsequential game by 26 points despite sweating a bit in the second and third quarters because of Cory Kispert, of all people.  

The only weight it carried was an emotional one for the organization, being PA announcer Michael Baiamonte’s last game after 35 years. 

This was a season that saw them get pantsed by all the good teams and they ended the last six weeks posting the 24th ranked defense. On top of that, they get hosed, receiving a second-round pick for the “unprecedented” Terry Rozier situation, in which they traded a first-round pick for him in 2024, without the important information from the Charlotte Hornets that he was under federal and league probe.

Coach Erik Spoelstra said it was an unusual game, but was pleased with the team’s approach. Regarding the Play-In, he said, “It’s a Game 7. I just want our guys to take on that challenge and do whatever’s necessary.”

Now the Hornets in Charlotte await them for the nine and 10 Play-In game which sends the loser to the lottery. The winner of this matchup will advance to play the loser of the seven and eighth seeded game for the last playoff spot, and a chance to get mowed down by the Detroit Pistons.

The best thing that could happen, as has been explained in this Diary previously, is for Heat to lose on Wednesday so they can get the highest pick possible in the upcoming draft. They only have a 4.8 percent chance at landing in the top four and only one percent of getting the first pick. 

There is one small consolation: the Heat are not the most disappointing team in Florida because the Orlando Magic are also a Play-In Tournament squad. The Magic had sky-high expectations and their regular season was a disaster, concluding in Boston with a loss versus the background players. Injuries are not all the blame as they have been a team with poor basketball character and it might cost coach Jamahl Mosley his job.

The Heat knew the build was dead in 2001 when they got smacked around by the Charlotte Hornets and were sent packing early in round one. One wonders if management realizes that it should be no different this time. 

They were drawn and quartered in Toronto on Tuesday to start their miniseries with the Raptors and it’s hard to keep track of what number of humiliation this is for them. It wasn’t because they sealed their fates going into the Play-In Tournament for the fourth straight year, but because they look a class below most of the decent and above teams. 

It’s a good thing that they are likely headed to the ninth and 10th-seeded Play-In game, instead of the seventh and eighth they’ve been accustomed to. This way they have a chance of getting put out of their misery early since losing would send them to the lottery. 

That’s right. The Heat’s one percent chance of getting the first pick is exponentially better than surviving the Play-In to get smoked in round one.

It’s come to this. 

Poor coach Erik Spoelstra has kept up this charade when he knows deep down they can’t hang — and they know it, too. The team will probably be hopeless against the Raptors on Thursday, giving up at some point in the second half. 

It’s around these times that a team quits on the season. In this case, it’s more about abandoning the mission than turning their back on Spoelstra. 

Two games remain after Thursday’s: Friday in Washington against the Wizards and the home finale on Sunday versus the Atlanta Hawks, which will be the final regular season game of Michael Baiamonte, the Heat’s PA announcer’s, career. He’s given them 35 years of service. The team would win that game if life were like a movie, but the Hawks already embarrassed them on the 2006 championship commemoration night. They could easily do it again because they have been a top nine team over the last two months (27-13).

Perhaps the closing to this season will make management reflect on what they had 20 years ago, when Dwyane Wade went beast mode in the Finals, delivering their first championship. Having a player like that is the only way to win. A collection of very good players winning a title doesn’t happen, save for the 2004 Detroit Pistons, and that team had arguably the greatest defense of all time.

The Heat had a real go-to when Jimmy Butler was around, but they couldn’t put a good enough team around him. The way he overdelivered with less in three great playoff runs that included two finals trips broke the Heat’s thinking. They’ve brought back teams that should have expired, thinking their way will surprise the public, but it wasn’t that — it was Butler being one of the greatest playoff risers in NBA history. They reached the wrong conclusion about how smart they are like Jerry Jones did when the Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1995 with Barry Switzer instead of Jimmy Johnson, who already had won two championships with them.

And now the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets, two division rivals, have eclipsed them in potency and relevancy. The Hawks intelligently traded away an All-Star player (Trae Young) because they couldn’t win with his awful defense, which is something the Heat should have done with Tyler Herro since he is not that guy and next year is the last one on his contract. Plus the Hornets spent a long time in the cellar, something the Heat were never willing to do.

Nick Arison and the committee pride themselves on having an adaptable organization, but that is being put to the test. So far, they’ve been at the desk a while and are flunking.

Nothing like playing a team in the cellar to boost the numbers.

It was the first meeting since Bam Adebayo’s 83-point outburst on March 10, and the Heat’s bench crew got the extra time in the tune-up win. They scored 142.1 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 99th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.

Still, the Wizards pressured Adebayo early, not wanting to allow a repeat or close to it of his career high. He said, “They did their jobs. I got six shot attempts.”

Tyler Herro was absent for personal reasons, so Simone Fontecchio started in his place, scoring eight points in 19 minutes. 

Jaime Jaquez Jr. set a season high of 32 points, slicing and pivoting through the lane. His best stretch was in the second quarter, helping the team separate themselves from the Wizards, making five of his 12 baskets. 

On top of that, the Heat missed all four 3-point attempts in the period and still scored 41 points on 68.2% shooting.

Kel’el Ware also made 10 shots in the restricted are and behind the 3-point line, with 19 rebounds and seven blocks. Coach Erik Spoelstra said, “I would say, we’ve had three practices in the last few days, I would venture to say these are the three best practices he’s had this year and those are coming out of some tough games with tough competition.”

They started the fourth quarter ahead by 31 points, and none of the starters had to come in. The team had shut off the paint for most of the game up to that point, while getting what they wanted.

Rookie Kasparas Jakučionis, who hadn’t played the last two games because of a coach’s decision, was one of four players to log all of the fourth-quarter minutes. Nikola Jović likely would have been the fifth, but he was fouled, catching a lob in mid-air with 36 seconds and came down hard on his left ankle. Jamir Watkins was given a flagrant foul penalty two, and Spoelstra later said that Jović’s ankle was sprained. Keep in mind that Jović had missed the last six games.

The Heat won 152-136, setting a new season high in points and it was one point shy of their all-time single game scoring record. The previous high (150) this season also came against Washington on March 10. 

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The Heat are the 10th seed, with four games are left in the regular season: the next two are in Toronto against the Raptors, then Washington on April 10 and the finale on April 12, hosting the Atlanta Hawks.