Play-in game can give Miami the gift it wants & needs: Heat-Celtics in playoffs’ 1st round | Opinion

On Easter Sunday he rose from his gifted rocking chair to score 24 points, did Udonis Haslem — his highest-scoring game in ... 14 years. It was the ideal setting for U.D.’s regular-season finale: Lousy opponent and a game Miami didn’t need to win. The whole bench emptied. Heck, you might have gotten in the game with a box of popcorn in your hand if you had on a Heat jersey and wandered into Erik Spoelstra’s view.

Haslem, 42, slammed home a dunk, had a block, took a charge and made not one, not two, but three three-point shots as the years melted away and the home crowd roared.

“He’s hoopin’!” shouted Dwyane Wade from a courtside seat.

Haslem told the crowd: “Whether I was starting, the first guy off the bench or I didn’t play at all, you guys always had my back and showed love. For me, that’s priceless. That’s beautiful...”

Said Spoelstra of his retiring No. 40: “I’m going to miss his spirit. He has incredible, pure team intentions. It’s always about winning. How can he help somebody else?”

OK, maestro shuts down the violins.

Fun time over.

U.D. nostalgia on hold.

Now it gets serious, suddenly, as the Heat attempts to redefine what has been without question a very disappointing season.

That is a major compliment to this franchise, by the way. That the bar for what’s disappointing would be so high. No team in Greater Miami sports spoils us like the Heat does with playoffs as an annual assumption, a starting point.

Now the team is one win — here Tuesday night vs. Atlanta — from notching a 24th postseason berth in 35 seasons, or 68.6 percent regularity. (For the Dolphins it’s 41.4, but much worse the past two-plus decades. The Panthers will be 31.0 or 27.6 depending if they get the wild-card spot they’re fighting for. The Marlins will slip to 9.7 if they don’t make it this season.)

The Heat’s 44-38 season qualifies as disappointing because the club’s inactive, stand-pat offseason contrasted with other East teams getting better, and it showed in the standings.

It was disappointing because Miami had three 20-point scorers for the first time in franchise history (Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro) yet somehow finished dead-last in team scoring, with fewer points overall than opponents.

And it was disappointing because the Heat failed to avoid the dreaded play-in game, that NBA netherworld where you have one foot in and foot out of the playoffs and you still must prove yourself because could not across 82 games.

Heat can cinch the No. 7 playoff seed by beating the Hawks on Tuesday.

Should they loser, they would face Wednesday’s Toronto-Chicago winner on Friday night back in Miami — winner claiming the No. 8 seed, loser out.

It won’t get to Friday. Let Spo and the Heat publicly show Atlanta the great respect they must. Let them not dare to “look ahead.” But that’s no requirement of me! Hawks are a great matchup for Miami. The Heat swept ATL in last year’s playoffs and beat the Hawks three of four this regular season (including both games in Miami). Trae Young wants nothing to do with Miami No. 2-ranked defense.

Butler skipped Sunday’s Haslem farewell game to rest, very likely because he will be bedeviling Young on Tuesday night.

Miami must get through the play-in round merely for the opportunity to salvage this season — and then that chance would be stop-a-freight-train difficult but with the ideal opponent:

The nemesis, hated Boston Celtics.

For years the New York Knicks were the Heat’s biggest rivals. It’s Boston now. That was minuted in three straight playoffs meetings from 2010 to 2012 and revived in the postseason with Eastern Conference finals clashes in 2020 and ‘22. One year ago Boston advanced in seven games, the Heat falling one basket shy of a ninth Finals appearance in search of a fourth championship.

Miami would draw Boston in the first round if it wins Tuesday night to secure the seventh seed.

Heat would draw Milwaukee to open the playoffs if it’s down to a Friday win and the eighth seed.

Pick your poison. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the top seed in the East. Or Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and your chief rivals. The Celtics who broke your heart in the 22 playoffs. Or the Bucks who swept you in ‘21.

Miami needs to get past Atlanta on Tuesday and get to what the NBA should want, what Heat fans surely do, and what every player on their team should, too.

Heat-Celtics, please.

It is Miami’s best chance to replace a disappointing regular season with redemption for last year’s postseason heartache in a first-round series that would hit like a heavyweight final.