Heat play-in roller coaster leaves them with 123-114 OT victory over Hawks and playoff berth

ATLANTA — For a moment Friday night, as the final buzzer sounded at State Farm Arena, the Miami Heat no longer felt like a 37-45 team, one that finished in 10th place in its conference and endured a 10-game losing streak.

No, at that moment, when the 123-114 overtime victory over the Atlanta Hawks was complete, the feeling was of a mission accomplished, of a season salvaged, of meaning, finally, attached to this whirlwind.

Erik Spoelstra’s team is going to the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, no need for lottery Ping-Pong balls, with games still to be played.

With Davion Mitchell converting three 3-pointers and Tyler Herro two in the extra period, by the time it was over, nobody was thinking about the blown 17-point lead that allowed overtime or even the harrowing ending to the fourth quarter that extended the game.

No, just euphoria — even with a losing record.

Up next is the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in a best-of-seven first-round playoff series that opens Sunday at 7 p.m. at Rocket Arena.

The odds are daunting, but also hardly a new challenge, with the Heat now each of these past three seasons emerging from the play-in round as the No. 8 seed, left to square off against No. 1.

In 2023, from this same No. 8 vantage point, the Heat began a rise all the way to the NBA Finals. Last year, No. 8 meant only five games before being vanquished by the eventual NBA-champion Boston Celtics.

But what lies ahead and what came before mattered little at Friday night’s final buzzer. Instead heartfelt celebration of defying play-in odds and becoming the first 10th-place team ever to make the NBA playoffs.

Herro led the Heat with 30 points, with Mitchell adding 16. The Heat also got 17 points and 11 rebounds from Bam Adebayo, and 20 points, eight assists and eight rebounds from Andrew Wiggins.

Atlanta was led by Trae Young’s 29 points.

Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night’s game:

— 1. Game flow: The Heat got out to a 10-0 lead, forcing a Hawks timeout 2:25 into the game, then taking a 33-24 lead into the second period. From there, the Heat went up 17 in the second period and held a 62-53 lead at halftime.

The Hawks then stormed within 67-64 with 8:46 left in the third period, leading to a Heat timeout. Six straight Heat points followed after Mitchell was inserted for Alec Burks, with the Heat taking an 86-77 lead into the fourth.

And then, just like the third, the Hawks clawed back, this time all the way back, with a Young 3-pointer giving the Hawks their first lead of the game at 91-88 with 7:36 to play.

— 2. Closing time: From there, Herro was sent to the line with 12.2 seconds left in regulation and the Heat up one, making the first free throw but missing the second, leaving the Heat up 106-104.

Off a Hawks timeout with 11.3 seconds to play in regulation, the Heat gave a foul, with the Hawks then calling another timeout with 6.1 seconds to play in regulation. A driving Young layup followed to tie it 106-106 with 1.3 seconds remaining, with Wiggins off with a 3-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer.

A Herro 3-pointer and two Mitchell 3-pointers opened the Heat scoring in overtime, creating a 115-108 lead midway through overtime, with the lead moving to 117-108 on a Wiggins floater.

Young and Herro then traded 3-pointers, for a 120-114 Heat lead with 1:41 left.

And then, with 24.7 seconds to play, Mitchell put it away with a 3-pointer.

— 3. Up next: This will be the first playoff series between the Heat and the Cavaliers.

The Heat lost the season series 2-1, but nearly pushed the latest meeting into overtime before a potential game-tying 3-pointer by Heat guard Duncan Robinson was ruled to have come after he stepped on the sideline.

The Heat won the season’s first meeting, 122-113, Dec. 8 at Kaseya Center, led by 34 points from Herro, on a night Cleveland’s Evan Mobley was limited to 11:46 by injury and a night Heat center Kel’el Ware was on assignment in the G League.

The Cavaliers won the second meeting, 126-106, Jan. 29 at Kaseya Center, when Donovan Mitchell scored 34 on a night teammate Darius Garland was given the night off for rest.

Most recently, the Cavaliers won, 112-107, March 5 in Cleveland, on a night Herro was ill and not with the Heat.

— 4. Draft implications: With the victory, the Heat moved out of their No. 11 seed in the lottery to No. 15 in the draft order. However, that selection now goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder to complete a previous trade.

Had the Heat lost and been locked into the lottery, the Thunder instead would have received an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from the Heat.

The forwarding to the Thunder also now advances the Heat first-rounder due to the Charlotte Hornets to a lottery-protected 2027 first-round pick.

The Heat still hold the Golden State Warriors pick in the June 25 first round of the draft, with that selected to be determined in a random drawing Monday for the Nos. 18-19-20 picks.

— 5. Tight rotation: Spoelstra again went with a tight rotation, with Mitchell, Kyle Anderson, Haywood Highsmith and Robinson as his only reserves.

That kept Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Terry Rozier out of the mix.

Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jovic also were available, cleared to return from injury, but were not in the mix.