Heat fall to Raptors, head to play-in tournament for 4th time

If the Miami Heat are going to find their way back to the NBA playoffs, they’ll have to survive the play-in tournament.

Again.

They didn’t want to go back there, and weren’t afraid to say so — «we’re better than being in the play-in,» captain Bam Adebayo said a few weeks ago — but the Heat’s fate became sealed Tuesday night in a 121-95 loss to the Toronto Raptors.

That guaranteed that Miami cannot finish in the top six in the Eastern Conference, meaning its only path to the playoffs is through the play-in. And the Heat are headed there for a fourth consecutive year.

«We’re disappointed, for sure, that we weren’t able to bring another level of competitive spirit to this,» Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team fell to 0-3 against the Raptors this season. «That’s what’s disappointing. We’re not thinking about the next step right now.»

The play-in tournament is only 6 years old (7 if counting one play-in game that happened in the bubble season of 2020), but Miami has already found its way to the last-chance event four times — tying the most of any team.

The Heat are the third team to qualify for the play-in in four different seasons; Atlanta (which still could end up there this year) went to the play-in in each of the past four seasons, and Golden State will make its fourth play-in appearance next week as well.

If there is any good news for the Heat, it’s that Miami has always survived the play-in and wound up grabbing the No. 8 playoff spot.

The Heat — as a No. 10 seed — won two road play-in games last season to earn the playoff nod. They went 1-1 in the 2024 play-in to clinch a berth. And they went 1-1 in 2023 as well for the final spot on the East bracket and used that as a springboard for a most unlikely run to that season’s NBA Finals, falling there to Denver in five games.

The Heat fell to 13-20 this season against the East’s other nine postseason-bound teams.

«We have a spirit. Our guys bounce back,» Spoelstra said. «But we have to rise to the level of th