Winderman’s view: Heat regain their stride, but (play-in) reality is Pistons distancing themselves

MIAMI – Observations and other notes of interest from Wednesday night’s 131-109 victory over the Atlanta Hawks:

– Wednesday was another one of those days when the Heat spoke of hope for a move up the standings.

– Of somehow avoiding the play-in round for a third consecutive season.

– It is a narrative that is about to expire.

– One being punctured by the Detroit Pistons.

– Who are for real.

– As evidenced by Wednesday night’s 117–97 victory over the Celtics.

– To repeat: By 20.

– Over the Celtics.

– No, Detroit is not going anywhere.

– Currently also with the tiebreaker advantage over the Heat.

– With that now highly unlikely to come into play.

– So unless the Pacers or Bucks slump, play-in it again will be for Erik Spoelstra’s team.

– Potentially, play-in the hard way, having to win twice just to make the playoffs.

– And keep in mind, if it is play-in again, it means fighting for the opportunity to face the Cavaliers or Celtics in the first round.

– Yes, Wednesday night’s victory over the Hawks restored a degree of confidence.

– With the Heat still with a chance to split the season tiebreaker with the Hawks.

– But the Heat’s fight with the Hawks is about play-in positioning.

– Because that is where the nights leading to Wednesday have left the Heat.

– And where the Pistons have left the Heat.

– Before the game, Spoelstra addressed the desperation of the moment.

– “I just know it seems like in both conferences it’s a dogfight,” he said. “All of these things with the play-in and everything, it’s been really good for the league, a lot more teams are competing. A lot more teams are dealing with a similar reality.”

– He continued, “You get a win, it feels amazing. You lose and it’s like the whole world’s coming down. And I think as a competitor, that’s where you want to be. You want to have those consequences.”

– Heat center Bam Adebayo at the morning shootaround echoed what has remained an optimistic Spoelstra bent.

– “We’re closer than we think we are,” Adebayo said. “It’s one of those things where we play a whole, 48-minute game and you watch the replays and it’s kind of like, ‘We can fix this; we can fix that.’ ”

– He added, “For us, it’s just when we start getting the minor details, we’ll be OK.”

– Like Spoelstra, Adebayo said there is ample perseverance behind the scenes.

– “We keep fighting,” he said. “How many games that we’ve been up and lost and guys still come in the next day looking for solutions, trying to be better, trying to figure out we can win.”

– He added, “That’s a breath of fresh air for us. Just ’cause you lose a couple, the noise starts getting louder, you start seeing the media clicks. Then the media starts fingerpointing, this guy, this guy. ‘He needs to . . . ‘ whatever the case may be. For us, we keep fighting.”

– Of where the Heat stand, forward Andrew Wiggins said, “Everything is fixable.”

– He added, “Just got to go on a little run. We know we can do that. We know we’ve got the squad for it.”

– The Heat stayed with their preferred post-trade starting lineup of Adebayo, Wiggins, Kel’el Ware, Tyler Herro and Davion Mitchell, now 2-2 with that first five.

– The Hawks opened with a lineup of Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Mo Gueye and Onyeka Okongwu, also the same lineup as Monday night.

–  Duncan Robinson played as the Heat’s sixth man.

– Kyle Anderson followed, in the Nikola Jovic role.

– Alec Burks then again got the call ahead of Terry Rozier.

– With Haywood Highsmith then getting his first action in five games.

– Promptly hitting his first 3-point attempt.

– Jaime Jaquez Jr. made it five deep off the bench.

– In addition to the realigned rotation, the Heat also threw in healthy doses of zone defense for the first time since the All-Star break.

– Highsmith was particularly solid with his contribution.

– Helping spark a 1-2 punch off the bench with Robinson.