One bad week has sent Miami Heat sprawling in the East

Hello Play-in, our old friend.

After a thrilling, refreshing start to the 2025-26 season, which catapulted them all the way to third in the Eastern Conference in spite of significant injuries, the Miami Heat are right back where they have been the past three seasons.... for now.

They're seeded between 7th and 10th in the East, which would qualify for a Play-In Tournament, not automatic playoff, spot. That's what happens when you fall from 14-7 to 14-10, and other teams in the conference (hey, Boston Celtics) are surprising to the upside.

Of course, all of this is changing day to day.

Boston moved to 15-9 in beating the Raptors, who fell to 15-10. As of this writing, the 76ers (13-9) hadn't played the Lakers yet, so they could fall behind Miami by night's end. Orlando fell into a 14-10 tie with Miami with a loss in New York, and the Magic host the Heat on Tuesday, likely without Franz Wagner, who left the game against the Knicks with a knee injury. Atlanta and Cleveland are lurking at 14-11, though the Cavaliers are not playing so well themselves of late.

The Heat's schedule does loosen up some, but that won't matter if they come out as flat and sloppy as they did in Saturday's deflating home loss to struggling Sacramento. The offense has hit snags, but the real issue is defensively. Even while the Heat were giving up a lot of points earlier, due to the increased pace, their defensive rating was in the top five. But that has slipped.

Not all of this can be blamed on the re-incorporation of Tyler Herro. He didn't play the past two games. Norman Powell did, and so did Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins. And even though the Heat did miss Davion Mitchell and Pelle Larsson, for their grittiness on defense especially, that still doesn't excuse letting Zach LaVine shoot so often with no resistance whatsoever.

The Heat are in no danger of falling out of the Play-In completely; the bottom five teams in the conference should remain terrible, with even the Indiana Pacers (the only one that had a chance to be solid prior to all the injuries) having won one road game the entire season, and the Chicago Bulls predictably crashing after a fast start.

But it's time to turn this around.

No one wants more Play-in games in Miami, even if the Heat have tended to win those.