A long season has led us to this point. The Miami Heat sit alone in the nine seed of the Eastern Conference, a half game behind the eighth-place Orlando Magic but just one game behind the sixth-place Detroit Pistons.
The Heat are currently the odd man out, the fourth team in a battle for three spots with the Magic, Pistons and Brooklyn Nets. They have four games left to play (as do the Pistons), with the Nets and Magic having just three in order to create some space in the rankings.
There are nearly countless tiebreaker permutations based on how these four teams finish out, to say nothing of the disaster that unfolds if the Charlotte Hornets continue their late charge back into the pack (they’re in 10th, two games behind the Heat).