After the Western Conference took center stage on Tuesday night, it’s the Eastern Conference’s turn in the 2024 NBA play-in tournament.
A year after emerging from the play-in to reach the NBA Finals, Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat are back, with Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers standing in their way. The winner will advance to face the New York Knicks in the first round, while the loser will face the winner of the Atlanta Hawks–Chicago Bulls game in an elimination game Friday.
Our NBA experts break down those two matchups and take a look ahead to Friday’s Western Conference elimination game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Sacramento Kings.
MORE: All you need to know ahead of the playoffs
Can Jimmy Butler drag this Heat team out of the play-in for another deep run?
Chris Herring: Can he? Sure. Will he? I don’t think so this time. The Sixers matchup is already a huge challenge, given how well Embiid and Philadelphia are playing. That’s without even mentioning how banged up the Heat are, with Terry Rozier and Duncan Robinson having missed the past several games for Miami (Rozier has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game). If the Heat do manage to snag the No. 8 spot, the uphill battle to take out the Boston Celtics looks a lot steeper than it was last season.
Jamal Collier: I’ll never bet against Butler channeling his inner Michael Jordan come playoff time, but it does seem even more unlikely this time around. Miami had a few chances to win big regular-season games to get out of the play-in near the end of the season and lost just about all those games. To make a deep playoff run, the Heat almost certainly need to grab the No. 7 seed instead of falling to eighth, which would set them on a collision course with Boston right away.
Tim MacMahon: Absolutely he can. It would be foolish to rule out the possibility, especially if the Heat beat the 76ers to claim the seventh seed, putting Miami on the opposite side of the bracket from Boston. The Heat are a more talented team than a year ago, with Terry Rozier, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and a healthy Tyler Herro getting the minutes that belonged to Gabe Vincent and Max Strus. But there’s a big difference between possible and probable. Miami isn’t a good bet to get out of the first round.
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