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Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, More Out for Heat vs. Wizards with No. 6 Seed on Line

Tyler Conway

The Miami Heat are apparently punting on trying to win the Eastern Conference's No. 6 seed.

Miami will be without Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jović for Friday's game against the Washington Wizards. The Heat are one game behind the Brooklyn Nets for the No. 6 spot, which would allow them to avoid the play-in tournament.

Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma will be on the bench for the Wizards, so not all hope is lost—besides for the fans who will see precisely zero stars on the floor Friday night.

That said, it's interesting that the Heat chose to sit all those players rather than play them limited minutes in what may have been a gimme win. It's likely Miami could have played its starters half of their regular minutes loads and still been victorious.

As it stands, the Heat are listed as four-point favorites at FanDuel Sportsbook.

Meanwhile, the Nets will play the Orlando Magic, who have lost two straight and are jockeying for position in the draft lottery.

   

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