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Heat closes regular-season with win over Raptors, with play-in matchup vs. 76ers up next

Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald on

Published in Basketball

Tyler Herro contributed 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting on threes, six rebounds and eight assists in 29 minutes for the Heat.

“I feel good about the group,” Spoelstra said, as the Heat enters the postseason. “That’s all I wanted to see these last couple of games. I just wanted to feel it. I know my team, I know the locker room. I can sense that the group is ready. That’s all you can ask for.”

Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Raptors on Sunday:

The Heat is heading to the play-in tournament for the second straight season.

The Heat qualified for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed through the play-in tournament last season on the way to making an improbable run to the NBA Finals before losing in the championship series to the Denver Nuggets. To make another deep playoff run this season, the Heat will again need to do it through the play-in tourney.

“I feel like everybody is confident, everybody is decently healthy for the most part and we just got to go out there and hoop, man,” Butler said of the approach entering Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia. “Leave it all out there on their floor and come out with one.”

 

How is the play-in tournament structured? Here’s how it will go in the East ...

The 76ers will host the Heat in a play-in game on Wednesday. The winner of this matchup earns the conference’s No. 7 playoff seed to face the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

The Chicago Bulls will host the Atlanta Hawks in another play-in game on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. The loser of this matchup is eliminated from playoff contention, while the winner of this game goes on the road to take on the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game on Friday to secure the East’s No. 8 playoff seed and a first-round playoff matchup against the top-seeded Boston Celtics.

As for how the Heat fared against the 76ers this season, the two teams split their four-game regular-season series 2-2. But Embiid only played for the 76ers in one of those games, as he missed the other three matchups because of injuries.

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