Back to the Miami Heat Newsfeed

Who gets Cleveland’s fourth spot in East? Sizing up how Heat and the others measure up

Steve Smith, the NBA TV analyst and former Heat guard, said with LeBron James headed to the Lakers, the Eastern Conference’s new math is pretty simple.

“Everybody moves up a spot,” he said off the air this week.

But in what order is the question.

If Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto end up the top three teams in the East in some order — as many expect — that leaves the Heat, Indiana, Washington, Milwaukee and possibly Detroit in heated competition to claim the fourth seed, which means home-court advantage for a first-round playoff series.

Latest news by email

The afternoon's latest local news

Recaptcha requires verification.