If the Miami Heat are going to find their way back to the NBA playoffs, they'll have to survive the play-in tournament.

Again.

They didn't want to go back there, and weren't afraid to say so — “we're better than being in the play-in," Heat captain Bam Adebayo said a few weeks ago — but the Heat fate became sealed Tuesday night in a 121-95 loss to the Toronto Raptors.

That guaranteed that Miami cannot finish in the top six in the Eastern Conference, meaning its only path to the playoffs is through the play-in. And the Heat are headed there for a fourth consecutive year.

“We're disappointed, for sure, that we weren't able to bring another level of competitive spirit to this,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team fell to 0-3 against the Raptors this season. “That's what's disappointing. We're not thinking about the next step right now.”

The play-in tournament is only six years old (seven if counting one play-in game that happened in the bubble season of 2020), but Miami has already found its way to the last-chance event four times — tying the most of any team.

The Heat are the third team to qualify for the play-in in four different seasons; Atlanta (which still could end up there this year) went to the play-in in each of the last four seasons, and Golden State will make its fourth play-in appearance next week as well.

If there is any good news for the Heat, it's that Miami has always survived the play-in and wound up grabbing the No. 8 playoff spot.

The Heat — as a No. 10 seed — won two road play-in games last season to earn the playoff nod. They went 1-1 in the 2024 play-in to clinch a berth. And they went 1-1 in 2023 as well for the final spot on the East bracket and used that as a springboard for a most unlikely run to that season's NBA Finals, falling there to Denver in five games.

The Heat fell to 13-20 this season against the East's other nine postseason-bound teams.

“We have a spirit. Our guys bounce back,” Spoelstra said. “But we have to rise to the level of the competition. That's the bottom line right now. We have these opportunities to meet our competition and we come up short.”

Miami is the only team assured of an East play-in spot at this point. Philadelphia, Charlotte and Orlando — for now — would have the three other play-in berths.

In the West, the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland and Golden State are going to the play-in. Phoenix is likely to be the fourth team in that mix, but entering Tuesday night the Suns were still not locked in to that spot.

The regular season ends Sunday and the top six finishers in each conference are guaranteed playoff spots. The teams that finish 11th through 15th in each conference are eliminated.

For everyone else, that leaves the play-in tournament — which runs from April 14 through April 17.

— The No. 7 seed hosts the No. 8 seed in Round 1, while the No. 9 seed hosts the No. 10 seed. The winner of the 7-8 game goes to the playoffs to face the No. 2 seed, and the loser of the 9-10 game is eliminated.

— The loser of the 7-8 game hosts the winner of the 9-10 game, for the chance to play the No. 1 seed in Round 1 and the final spot in each conference’s playoff bracket. The loser of that game is eliminated.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba