Heat's Erik Spoelstra: Play-in 'Probably the Best Thing' to Happen to NBA in a Decade

The Miami Heat had to fight through the play-in tournament to reach this year's postseason and now hold a 1-0 lead over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Consider Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra a big fan of that particular innovation by the NBA.

"I do know the play-in helped," he told reporters Thursday. "There are far less teams tanking. Everyone was fighting for it those last two months. Every game was must-see TV and that was in both conferences. So I think [for] the league, that's probably the best thing that's happened in the last decade."

The Heat finished the season 44-38, the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference. That gave them two cracks to qualify for the playoffs and they needed it, losing their first play-in game to the Atlanta Hawks.

But they handled the Chicago Bulls in the second play-in game and since have upset the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs and the New York Knicks in the second round to return to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in the past four years.

The Heat dealt with a number of injuries and adversity throughout the regular season, and Spoelstra believes it hardened his team in a positive way and prepared them for the rigors of another playoff run.

"It was a blessing to be able to go through all of that," he told reporters. "I have not been part of a regular season like that, and I think we all grew and got better from it. To not let it collapse our spirit, but really to harden us, and steel us and bring us closer together and develop that kind of grit and perseverance that's needed in the postseason."

It has helped, of course, that Jimmy Butler (31.5 PPG) has had an otherworldly postseason. The Heat wouldn't still be alive without his heroics.

But as Spoelstra noted, because the Heat were just fighting to secure a playoff berth, they couldn't afford to do the "typical stuff of like load managing or just counting games; we were doing whatever we had to do to try and put ourselves in a position to win."

Veteran point guard Kyle Lowry, meanwhile, believes it helped the team build positive habits.

"We've built our habits to know what we're gonna do and that's play hard every single night," he told reporters. "Be ready to go no matter what the situation is, who we're playing against, what we have out there lineups wise, I think that's the one thing we did build through this year. The habits—that we know that we can go and play anywhere with anyone at any time."

The play-in tournament overall has been a resounding success. Fans have enjoyed the drama that it adds and the fact that it keeps more teams engaged in the hunt for a playoff berth rather than tanking in the final weeks of the regular season.

Plus, the fact that two play-in teams from this season—the Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, who recovered from a 2-10 start to the season, restructured their roster and made the postseason—should give teams in the future more incentive to fight for a playoff berth, since anything can happen in the postseason.

Look no further than the Heat.