The Miami Heat faced plenty of challenges throughout the 2024-25 regular season. For one, star forward Jimmy Butler had a messy exit from the team earlier in the year and spent much of the final weeks of his Heat tenure in and out of the lineup due to suspensions.
The Heat also found themselves in a rut not long after they parted ways with Butler, who was key to multiple Finals runs that the team made earlier in the decade.
Miami lost a whopping 10 games in a row during a losing streak that lasted most of the month of March. That marked the longest losing streak since head coach Erik Spoelstra took over for the franchise, and he’s served in that role for well over 10 seasons now.
But the Heat overcame all of those obstacles to reach the 2025 NBA Playoffs, as Miami secured the No. 8 seed with a play-in victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday. Spoelstra has since praised his team for battling through so much adversity.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve all been through probably as much as a team probably can go through. And I really commend the team for finding a way to embrace the adversity.
“There were some uncomfortable moments when we were losing games, but it was bringing us closer together, which I really respect out of that locker room. And then we started playing our best basketball at the end of the season, after that losing streak.”
The Heat were in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in several years. Miami has qualified for the playoffs for multiple years in a row, starting in the 2019-20 season. The Heat last missed the playoffs in the 2018-19 season, finishing with a 39-43 record in what was guard Dwyane Wade’s swan song in the NBA.
Miami doesn’t exactly have one of the more desirable seeds in the Eastern Conference playoff bracket, as the Heat are guaranteed to not have home-court advantage in any round of the playoffs no matter how far they advance.
However, at the same time, folks maybe shouldn’t rule out the Heat making a surprise run considering what they accomplished as a No. 8 seed in the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
Not long ago, Miami became just the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to advance all the way to the NBA Finals during the 2022-23 season.
The Heat can get off to a strong start in their first-round series and take a 1-0 lead with a victory in Game 1 on Sunday night. It’s worth noting that the Cavaliers have been tough to beat at home, however, as Cleveland won all but seven of its home games in the regular season.