(WSVN) - South Florida fans are entering some unfamiliar territory compared to recent years as both the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers will watch the entirety of the playoffs from home after coming up short in separate, disappointing seasons.
It’s the first time since 2019 that the Heat and Panthers are both on the outside looking in for the start of the playoffs in their respective leagues.
The Heat’s bid for the postseason ended in a crushing defeat in the final seconds of overtime against the Charlotte Hornets during Tuesday night’s play-in tournament.
After the game, head coach Erik Spoelstra reflected on the year filled with ups and downs.
“It’s amazing how fast these seasons go and that’s the message that you try to implore during the season, that you have so few opportunities, you have less opportunities at getting to the playoffs, at making a run, than you think you do,” said Spoelstra.
Throughout the 2025-2026 season, Spoelstra faced many challenges, including long-term injuries to critical players on the team, like Tyler Herro. He also had to juggle many players facing illnesses, resulting in the coaching staff experimenting with 27 different starting lineups.
Now with the season in the rearview mirror, players and coaches will get some much-needed time off while the organization figures out its next steps to get back into playoff contention.
“Moving forward, we’ll all take some time off, you know, the front office has already, they’ve already gone to work,” said Spoelstra.
Heat captain Bam Adebayo made his desire to get back to competing for championships crystal clear.
“Everybody in this building knows I wanna win. I put on that jersey almost every game, through hell and highwater just because I wanna win, I wanna put us in a position to win. The business side is not my side, you know, to me, being able to share my opinion is more important because that means you have somebody actively listening to you,” said Adebayo. “For them to listen is me telling them I wanna win.”
As for the Panthers, this season went far from where expectations were, given the team was coming off three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances and back-to-back championships.
From the very beginning of the season, the Panthers were riddled with injuries to multiple key players, including team captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed the entire season after suffering a knee injury on the first day of training camp.
In total, 14 players suffered a number of injuries, leading to most of their roster missing large chunks of the regular season and a hobbled squad struggling to keep the team afloat in the standings and ultimately being eliminated weeks before the regular season ended.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said his team was relieved to have the season end so they could use the offseason to reset and fully reload for next season.
“They’re tired; they need their rest. They get all that, but they’re excited about the rest for recovery and to be better,” said Maurice. “It’s not, ‘I wanna get out of this rink and I don’t wanna think hockey.’ That’s not what they’re saying. They’re saying: ‘I can’t wait to get some rest so we can get after it again.'”
Both South Florida teams will have their eyes on potential lottery draft picks in their respective drafts happening next month.
On July 1, the Heat will start Summer League games for rookies and younger players in San Francisco.
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