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NBA adds games at Toronto, home vs. Cavaliers to fill out Heat schedule after Tournament elimination

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel
·4 min read

MIAMI — With the Miami Heat on Tuesday night failing to advance to the quarterfinal knockout round of the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament, the league on Wednesday added two games to fill out the team’s schedule.

With the addition of a Dec. 6 road game against the Toronto Raptors and a Dec. 8 game at Kaseya Center against the Cleveland Cavaliers, it gets the Heat back to the standard 82-game NBA schedule of 41 home games and 41 road games.

The league left two games off each team’s schedule the first week in December in order to accommodate the eight teams advancing to the knockout stages of the league’s new tournament.

The Heat lost out on an opportunity to advance with a 131-124 home loss Tuesday night to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Instead, the NBA added a road game against one of the Eastern Conference teams the Heat was previously scheduled to visit only once, in the Raptors, and a home game against one of the East teams the Heat was scheduled to host only once, in the Cavaliers.

By failing to advance in the tournament, with all those games also counting in the regular-season standings except for the Dec. 9 championship game in Las Vegas, the Heat will get a three-day break in their schedule after their Saturday game against the visiting Indiana Pacers, the first such break in their schedule since the season started on Oct. 25.

Had the Heat advanced in the tournament, it was possible there only would have been a single day off after Saturday’s home game, with it also possible the Heat then could have spent eight consecutive days on the road, when counting a tournament road game at an NBA city, the tournament semifinals in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and Dec. 9, and then the Heat’s preset Dec. 11 road game against the Charlotte Hornets.

For Heat guard Kyle Lowry, there was both disappointment and perspective in not advancing to the tournament quarterfinals, a spot that could have been secured by a variety of results that also included a victory Tuesday over the Bucks.

“I wish,” Lowry said, “I had an opportunity to still be playing and go to Vegas and have the opportunity to play for something the inaugural year and winning it. I think it’s going to be a really good thing.

“We still have a marathon to run. That was a sprint that we had just now with that opportunity. We obviously didn’t finish at the top of the sprint, but we still have a marathon to win.”

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Had the Heat advanced to the knockout round, each player would have received at least a $50,000 bonus on a sliding scale that pays up to a $500,000 bonus per player for winning the NBA Cup in the championship game. The Heat played Tuesday night in the injury absences of Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Haywood Highsmith, among others.

Advancing to the tournament quarterfinals from the Eastern Conference were the Bucks, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers. The Bucks and Knicks were in the Heat’s four-team group in pool play, the only East group with two teams to advance. In addition to the loss to the Bucks, the Heat lost in the tournament last Friday to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, when they blew a 21-point lead. The Heat finished pool play at 2-2, with victories over the Hornets and Washington Wizards.

Advancing from the Western Conference were the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans.

The Heat have yet to play the Raptors this season, now with the maximum four games scheduled against Toronto. The Heat won the first of what are now four games against the Cavaliers, a 129-96 decision last Wednesday at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

With the Heat’s regular-season schedule now at the full 82 games, it means the Eastern Conference teams the Heat only will host once this season are the Knicks and Bucks, with Tuesday’s loss the lone home game against Milwaukee. The only East teams the Heat will visit only once are the Knicks and Pacers.

Both games added to the Heat schedule will be televised in South Florida by Bally Sports Sun.

Injury report

Butler (ankle) and Highsmith (back) are listed as questionable for Thursday night’s game against the visiting Pacers. Center Bam Adebayo (hip) and guard Duncan Robinson (thumb) are listed as questionable. Out for the Heat are Herro (ankle), guard Dru Smith (knee) and guard R.J. Hampton (knee).