Dave Hyde: Nothing has worked out for Heat as another play-in game awaits

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Apr 13, 2026

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MIAMI — The Miami Heat had one final wish in the final moments of their regular season Sunday night and sat in their locker room watching, and hoping, it happened. But there’s no need for suspense here.

Their wish wouldn’t come true. It’s a familiar story in that regard, like so many larger hopes this season from avoiding the play-in status to maintaining any sense of defense in the final month.

“We got action,’’ Norman Powell said in the locker room late Sunday night, standing before the television showing Boston’s 14-point lead dwindling to three points against Orlando near that game’s end.

“What?” Bam Adebayo said, walking in the room, looking at the score.

The Heat’s final wish was simple: They wanted Orlando to win. That would mean, the way involved schedule fell, the Heat would get an extra day’s rest to Wednesday for their play-in game against a younger and faster Charlotte team.

You want fresh legs in this knock-out game. The Heat had just come off a road trip, too. So a chance to exhale, to collect themselves, would have been nice, right?

“Come on now,” said Jaime Jaquez Jr., seated at his locker.

Just as quickly as hopes rose, though, reality hit. Boston’s Luka Garza made a 3-point shot with 31 seconds left to seal the Heat to a Tuesday night game in Charlotte.

“Gar-za,’’ Powell said, in an announcer’s voice.

Tyler Herro got up from his locker, put on white sunglasses and carried two bottles of hydration into the night. Other players finished dressing and moving on, too. Even this little wish, this hope for a day’s rest, didn’t work out in a season full of too much that hasn’t worked out.

Now they have one final chance to change that. This, of course, is where in previous years coach Erik Spoelstra has said how they’ll have to do it the hard way, the Heat way, the way some teams wouldn’t have the fortitude or experience to do.

But after four straight play-in years that idea, while true, has grown a little stale.

“We’ve got too much experience of being in this position,” Adebayo said.

There’s this disappointing season in a sentence. They’re in the exact spot they worked not to be. The frustrating thing about it — beyond the last few weeks of defensive meltdowns — has been the complete lack of of possibilities and progress.

They’re the 10th seed, the final play-in team, which underlines their lack of progress. That’s not to say the Heat can’t beat Charlotte. It’s to say, who can believe too hard they will? Charlotte is a ninth seed with a different story. It’s 27-10 since Jan. 22. So, it found something, primarily the one-dimension of a strong, 3-point-shooting team.

Charlotte can shoot the lights out in one game. Or it can miss its way into the offseason. Can the Heat rediscover a defense that’s given up more than 130 points in six of its past 10 losses? Will it just ride an offense that can score a lot, too?

It doesn’t mean much in the bigger picture, too. A win would advance the Heat to a second play-in game against an unsteady Orlando or Joel-Embid-less Philadelphia. Like Charlotte, none of these team scare anyone.

So, two wins on the road means the Heat get to the actual playoffs to play top seed Detroit. Sure, you’d hear a lot about how the Heat are 2-2 this season against Detroit.

But come on. If the Heat make it to this opening series, is anyone picking them to play Detroit competitively? After what they’ve shown going 5-10 this last month — with two of those wins against a tanking Washington and Sunday’s against a disinterested Atlanta?

Here’s the hope for the Heat: Powell’s 25 points Sunday night mean something. He was an All-Star until injuries took hold. He’s played limited minutes since being re-injured a few weeks ago.

“I feel great,’’ he said Sunday night.

That matters. Seeing if he can play on the court with Herro — something this season never resolved due to their constant and overlapping injuries — might be decided in Tuesday’s 83rd game.

“The most important thing is we know what the drivers are to our success,’’ Spoelstra said. “I don’t need to need to go into all those details. Nor is it helpful before a game like this.

“But our group understands what wins and loses for us. That’s the most important thing. And we have enough experience of doing it the right way to put ourselves in position to win.”

Look, the issue with the Heat is they haven’t taken a step forward at all this season. They’re not close to their standard of competing for a championship. The ceiling for this team seems just to reach the playoffs against Detroit.

That would be an achievement in the small picture. But the big picture? Nothing has worked out as they wanted right down to that small hope of getting an extra day’s rest before playing in Charlotte on Tuesday.

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