MIAMI — To this point, at the midpoint of their schedule, the Miami Heat:

– Have not been good enough to shake free from the spin cycle of mediocrity, at 21-20.

— Have not been good enough to escape seeming permanent residence in the play-in bracket of the Eastern Conference standings, once again bunched with longtime play-in neighbors Chicago and Atlanta.

— Have not been good enough, even when playing at a league-leading pace, to show an upgrade on offense, entering the weekend 21st in offensive rating.

— Have not been good enough to compete with the NBA’s best, now 8-17 against teams with winning records after Thursday night’s 119-114 loss to the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center.

Arguably, their lone measure of consistency might be their insistence that they have enough in place to be better.

“We feel like we’re better than where we are,” coach Erik Spoelstra reiterated, as his team turns it attention to Saturday night’s conclusion of this three-game homestand, against the league-best Oklahoma City Thunder, “but we are what our record is right now.”

It is a theme as common as the Heat being unable to close, as again was the case against the Celtics, blowing an early 19-point lead and then a double-digit fourth-quarter advantage.

“We are better than what our record says,” center Bam Adebayo said. “But until all of us commit to doing role-player things, we’ll keep being in the middle of the pack, mediocre.”

It is a theme as common as being beaten off the boards at moments of truth, outrebounded 51-40 on Thursday night and outscored 31-7 on second-chance points.

“I agree with Coach. We’re a better team than our record,” guard Norm Powell said, in adding to that chorus. “We’re just not completing enough games where we play a full 48 minutes, collectively. I think that’s the hurdle that we’ve got to get over at some point, if we want to make something of the season.”

Thursday night’s loss came exactly three weeks shy of the Feb. 5 NBA trading deadline. As a team stuck in the middle, with a middling record and in the postseason middle ground of the play-in portion of the standings, the fork in the road is real.

“We got to continue to play the right way, our style, for a full 48 minutes,” Powell said. “And not even just like on the offensive end, just collectively making winning plays and efforts every single possession and holding each other accountable.”

The question now is whether the front office holds itself accountable for a roster that might be good, but also not good enough.

Injuries certainly have factored into that equation, with Davion Mitchell and Jaime Jaquez Jr. sidelined from Thursday night’s loss. But the reality is that being whole at this stage remains more abstract than reality, with the Heat’s primary rotation available in just four of these first 41 games.

“It has to be a collective mindset that you’re going to do whatever it takes in your minutes, in your time, to make winning plays for a 48-minute game,” Powell said.

Instead, inconsistency, maddening inconsistency at times, the type of inconsistency that has produced losses to East-worst Indiana and West-worst Sacramento.

“If you played games on paper, I think right now we’d have a better record,” Spoelstra said. “But that’s not the case right now.”

Close, but not close enough.

“We all know what we’re capable of. We’ve got to collectively get these wins,” guard Tyler  Herro said. “I think we’re right there. We’re in every game. We have to close games better, sustain leads better.”

With the theme continually cycling back to the lack of consistency.

“It’s in the margin, honestly,” Powell said. “It’s not like we have to reinvent the wheel. It’s right in the margins for us. But are we going to do it, or not? We can go up and down, win two games, lose three, win a game, whatever.

“It’s on us to win the game within the margins. If we do that, we’re fine. If you look on paper, look at our averages, we’re right there with teams.”

The thought is of being better, the reality of not.

“We’re right there, and it’s literally on us,” Powell said, “to have the mental fortitude and the competitive will to want to win and what we want to make out of this season.”

Until then . . . stuck in the middle.

Again.

“Until guys get sick of that middle ground of being seven, eight and not wanting to really make a push,” Adebayo said of the standings, “we’re going to stay right here.”