Keeping An Eye On The NBA Play-In Games

The Miami Heat are comfortably finished their regular season, tucked away in the luxuries of their own homes and the friendly confines of their own team facilities.

In contrast, the Cleveland Cavaliers had to do what half of the teams that make it beyond the play-in round will have to do as they get set to embark upon the NBA Postseason—travel. Headed to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for a Tuesday matchup with the Nets, this is a game that the Miami Heat and their fans, alike, should be keeping a very close eye on.

To get it out of the way, the Miami Heat will run from nobody and should be extremely motivated to face the Brooklyn Nets after the bludgeoning that Brooklyn dealt to them in the final weeks of the season among the Miami Heat’s now-infamous four-game losing streak.

However, it would be silly to say that, among a path that is already full of tough competitors, facing Brooklyn later or potentially never en route to a title wouldn’t be the worst thing.

The Miami Heat get a week off from the final regular season game to the first postseason game. Until then, they’ll surely keep an eye on the play-in games.

In any event, the Miami Heat will play who they put in front of them and should be the favorites headed into any series, regardless of what anybody has to say about it—including Charles Barkley.

Speaking of the odds and all, the Nets are overwhelmingly favored going into their game against Cleveland on Tuesday. Beating them in one of their final games of the year in a comeback victory, the Nets probably have full confidence that they can get it done again in this scenario too, easily.

With the winner earning the number seven seed in the conference, advancing to face the Boston Celtics in the first round, the loser of the game will go on to face the winner of the nine/ten game on Wednesday for the eighth and final playoff seed, which will be determined in a game on Friday.

That will be the team that eventually gets the honor of going home via the Miami Heat, at least that’s the way things should play out. You still have a bit of time before you get there though.

First, you have all the intriguing action about the play-in games to take in. The Miami Heat will surely be taking it all in too.