Where does the Heat stand at the midway point of the season? Why ‘it’s kind of hard to say’

At the midway point of the season, the Miami Heat is still not where it wants to be. But the Heat also doesn’t know what it can be yet.

That’s because there’s still a sense of mystery surrounding the Heat despite its established core, as it continues to deal with injury issues that have led Miami to start 15 different players and use 22 different starting lineups. The only NBA team that has gone through more different starting units than the Heat this season is the Dallas Mavericks at 24.

This caveat makes the Heat’s 24-17 record at the midway point of the 82-game schedule look better than it initially appears. After all, the Heat is operating at a 48-win pace that would match its second-highest regular-season win total in the past 10 seasons.

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But one look at the standings shows why the Heat isn’t satisfied with its position, as it entered Thursday in sixth place in the Eastern Conference after advancing to the NBA Finals last season. The Heat is three games behind the third-place Philadelphia 76ers, but just a half game ahead of the seventh-place Indiana Pacers in the tightly packed East standings after falling to the Toronto Raptors 121-97 on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena.

“We’re cool,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said, as the team returns home for a short one-game stay in Miami to face the Atlanta Hawks on Friday on Udonis Haslem Jersey Retirement Night. “Obviously, we can be better. But we’d rather be seven games over .500 than seven games under .500. So we’ll be just fine.”

But is Butler worried about the possibility of having to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament for the second straight season? The NBA’s play-in tournament features the seventh- through 10th-place teams competing for the final two playoffs seeds in each conference.

“I’m not too worried about that,” Butler said. “There’s still time to get six and above. I don’t know where we are right now. There are plenty of games left.”

The Heat hopes the second half of the regular season includes better injury luck, as it entered Thursday with the third-most missed games in the league this season due to injury at 137 games, according to Spotrac’s tracker.

As a result, the Heat’s leading trio of Bam Adebayo, Butler and Tyler Herro have played together in only 10 of the first 41 games. They have only finished eight of those games together, with Herro leaving one of the 10 games early and Butler leaving another one early because of injuries.

“It’s kind of hard to say, all right we’re here or we’re not here,” Lowry said when asked where the Heat stands at the 41-game mark. “We haven’t had our three guys play together, just 10 games total. That’s not a lot of repetitions together. But even though they’ve been together for the whole last five years, everyone is getting better, everybody is getting different. So it’s challenging to try to figure out how to make sure that we get those guys going. They’re professionals and we’ll figure it out. So I don’t know where we are.”

As expected, the Heat’s defense is ahead of its offense at the 41-game mark. Miami holds the NBA’s 20th-ranked offensive rating and ninth-ranked defensive rating this season.

But the offense has trended in the wrong direction recently, while the defense has trended in a positive direction. Over the last 10 games, the Heat has posted the 28th-ranked offensive rating and sixth-ranked defensive rating.

“I think we know what we’re capable of, we know what we need to do,” Herro said. “I think at this point, it’s just about getting consistent and bringing the right mindset and the right effort night in and night out.”

As teams around the Heat in the East standings make major trades like the New York Knicks’ acquisition of OG Anunoby and the Pacers’ acquisition of Pascal Siakam, the clock is ticking for Miami to find a deal to upgrade its roster ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline.

Whatever happens, the Heat feels confident it is again one of the legitimate contenders to win the East. Over the last four seasons, the Heat has advanced to the East finals three times and NBA Finals two times but has not won an NBA championship during that stretch.

“Buckle up,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re not hiding from anybody, so we’re looking forward to the second half of the season.”

ALL-STAR VOTING UPDATE

With the third returns of fan balloting for the NBA All-Star Game released by the league on Thursday, the Heat duo of Adebayo and Butler still appear to be long shots to be voted in as starters.

Butler (1,307,572 votes) continues to rank a distant fourth place among Eastern Conference frontcourt players behind third-place Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics (3,717,311), second-place Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers (3,721,002) and first-place Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks (4,309,630).

And Adebayo ranks seventh among East frontcourt players with 547,640 votes behind sixth-place Kristaps Porzingis of the Celtics (567,036) and fifth-place Jaylen Brown of the Celtics (977,953).

There are no Heat players among the top 10 vote-getters for East guards.

Fans account for 50 percent of the vote to determine the 10 starters for the Feb. 18 NBA All-Star Game, which will take place at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. All current NBA players and a media panel account for 25 percent apiece of the vote, with every voter completing a ballot featuring two guards and three frontcourt players.

Voting for fans will conclude Saturday.

If no Heat players make it to this season’s All-Star Game as starters, they will still have an opportunity to get in as reserves. Head coaches will select the seven reserves from each conference.

All-Star Game starters will be revealed on Jan. 25 on TNT and the network will also announce the reserves on Feb. 1.

INJURY REPORT

The Heat listed rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. (strained left groin) as doubtful for Friday’s matchup against the Hawks. Veteran Kevin Love is questionable with a left knee contusion.

Jaquez has missed the last two games and Love has missed the last three games with their respective injuries.

The Heat ruled out Jamal Cain (G League), RJ Hampton (G League) and Dru Smith (season-ending knee surgery)

The Hawks listed star guard Trae Young as questionable for Friday’s game in Miami because of an illness.

The Hawks ruled out Mouhamed Gueye (right low back stress fracture), De’Andre Hunter (right knee inflammation), Vit Krejci (left shoulder subluxation) and Wesley Matthews (right calf strain).