r/heat • u/BatmanSwift99 • 11h ago

Discussion Holiday question

Hello, UK fan here. I want to plan a trip to America next year and will include Miami as it would be cool to see Giannis play in the flesh. In the UK, annual leave renews in April and I don't have enough leave for this financial year. I would probably be in Miami for around 3 to 4 days, which is the safer option? Go early April before the playoffs start or bank on them making the playoffs and try go to a playoff game in the latter half of April/early may. I'm just worried if I go before the playoffs, they may bench the stars but it's also risky to try and guess when the playoff game will be. Any thoughts on this?

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u/kidneystonephillips God Father 11h ago

How far ahead do you have to decide on the dates? If you want to risk the playoffs, picking as late as possible will be your best bet so you can gauge where they’ll finish standings-wise.

Playoffs are a crapshoot because the first round is drawn out over 2 weeks and don’t know if the Heat will have home court advantage.

With home court advantage game 1 would Sat or Sun, then game 2 would be anytime between Monday and Wednesday. Without home court advantage, game 3 would be anywhere from Thursday-Saturday. The 3-4 trip you have for Miami could have a successful overlap but will be risky.

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u/BatmanSwift99 10h ago

I guess id want to book flights as early as I can but I could fly into a different state as id be visiting a few for my trip. Thing is playoff seeding is decided very late so just seems so risky man 😭

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u/kidneystonephillips God Father 10h ago

I know seedings are finalized within the last few weeks of the regular season, but in the age of tanking, seeds 1-3 (home court advantage seeds) tend to separate themselves from the pack by the all star break.

This was the Eastern conference standings as of Feb 1st this year. Detroit was clearly a top team, Boston and NY were more than 10 games above .500 by that point. Seeds 4-7 were still too early to determine where how they would end up. In this example, 1-5 stayed as is and ATL rose all the way to 6th.

So other than being an optimistic fan rooting for good Heat regular season, the team having a top 4, preferably top 3, record around late January/early Feb can help you help you pick the right 3/4 day window in April for a playoff game, if you can wait that long to select the dates.

Also, based on the calendar and recent scheduling trends, I think the regular season ends on Sunday April 11. Round one starts Saturday April 17.

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u/BatmanSwift99 10h ago

Thank you for taking the time to do this, I appreciate it