It is among the most difficult arguments to make these days in U.S. sports, where the playoffs are everything, and example after example over the past year have shown that … the regular season is largely meaningless for a team good enough to at least make the playoffs. Last season, it was the Miami Heat finishing seventh in the Eastern Conference at a piddling 44-38, winding up with a No. 8 seed, and then advancing to the NBA Finals. One county to the north, it was the Florida Panthers finishing with 42 victories and 40 losses (when including overtime losses), being the last of the eight teams in their conference to qualify for the postseason, and then making it to the Stanley Cup Final. And now, the Arizona Diamondbacks, after an 84-78 regular season, are playing in the Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series. In each case, a study of regular-season mediocrity followed by momentum when needed most. Wednesday night, the 82-game grind starts for the Heat against the Detroit Pistons at Kaseya Center. Last season, it began with an opening-night loss to the Chicago Bulls, the first of three losses for Erik Spoelstra’s team over the opening week. One month in, the Heat were 7-11. A month after that, the Heat were in 10th place. And six months after that … in the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets. Against that backdrop, the challenge is to project meaning to what starts in late October and meanders for six months, with 10 of the 15 teams in the conference to play on after the regular season. And then there is Spoelstra, who seemingly knows only one way, even if it means pushing neophytes bound for the G League through the preseason, even if it means trying to make something out of exhibitions that leading man Jimmy Butler couldn’t make time for. So in a private moment, after the team’s practice court hard alongside Biscayne Bay had cleared last week, Spoelstra let it be known exactly what he thinks of such thought. “The regular season does matter,” he said, almost as if insulted by innuendo, “and we’re going to approach it with intent this year, as we did last year.” Say what you want about the team’s pithy mottos, insistence that Culture be spelled with a capital C, but this was not Spoelstra playing to cameras or advancing some team marketing campaign. In this case, what others think doesn’t matter. Because he insists the regular season did matter for the Heat in 2022-23, even if the record did not indicate such. “I think we did a lot of things during the regular season, our approach, to compete every single night, develop the kind of habits that translate into the playoffs,” he said during the one-on-one interview. “And the adversity that we dealt with, without caving into it and turning into a lottery team because of the injuries, we approached every game to win. “I think when you have that kind of mentality, it gives you the right mindset and approach for the playoffs. We had to deal with a lot of unpredictable things during the playoffs, and we had some really good habit-developing things, even through the injuries and losses last year, that I saw carried over to that second season.” Yes, there is perspective. Yes, being right and ready — and healthy — for the playoffs is paramount. But Spoelstra stressed he does not view it as mutually exclusive. “That’s not either or,” he said. “A lot of things can be true. We’re trying to win as many games as we can.” So the plan is to play his players as required, as needed, but also be prudent. “Guys were not missing games because of load management,” he said of last season. “I think that’s where it gets a little bit confusing. How we operate, for better or worse, is not necessarily what you’re seeing across the league, and that’s not an indictment on how other teams are doing it. Everybody has their own philosophy and that’s what makes the league good, is you can do things a lot of different ways. We had injuries last year. We’ll see. Hopefully we don’t have as many this year.” So yes, Spoelstra said, Wednesday matters. As does the three-game trip that follows. As do the weeks and months before the April 14 regular-season finale against the visiting Toronto Raptors. “We’re going to approach this regular season with intent to win games,” he said, “and also build the right habits and ideally improve, where we’re a much better team by the end of the year, which was the case last year.” ©2023 South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Visit sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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