MIAMI – After all the numbing moments, the lamentable losses, the stumble down the standings, it turns out this will be a record-setting season for the Miami Heat.

Because they always will have the play-in.

With their impending play-in game against the Charlotte Hornets, the Heat will move into the NBA all-time lead for play-in games since the 2020 inception of the second-chance tournament.

Heat-Hornets will be the Heat’s seventh play-in game, breaking their tie with the Atlanta Hawks, Sunday night’s opponent at Kaseya Center, who are safely on to the playoffs with their top-six finish.

For the Heat, this fourth consecutive trip to the play-in will tie Atlanta’s record of four appearances in the round, with the Heat’s four victories in the round already a play-in record.

Still, not the path of preference, even if it has led to playoff appearances in each of the previous three seasons for Erik Spoelstra’s team.

“It’s harrowing,” Spoelstra said of having to navigate the event for the Nos. 7-10 seeds in each conference, with only half the participants moving on to the playoffs proper. “We say it every year that we’ve been in there, you don’t want to be in there. But that’s sometimes the path you have to take.”

With the Heat each time doing it the hard way, a path with no other choice this time around.

The Heat have been pushed to the limit in each of their previous play-in visits, in each case taking a win-or-go-home game in order to advance to the best-of-seven opening round of the playoffs.

“It’s like the NCAA. It’s like playing in the Olympics,” Spoelstra said of those single-elimination rounds. “The one-game eliminations, they’re harrowing. There’s nothing else. It’s game seven.”

This time there will be two Game 7s, if the Heat is fortunate enough to get past the Hornets in their play-in opener, needing to then defeat the loser of the Nos. 7-8 game to make the playoffs.

“You want to be in the playoffs. You want to punch your ticket,” Spoelstra said. “And it doesn’t always happen in the way that you want it to happen.”

For the Heat, it has not happened the preferred way in any of the past four seasons, Spoelstra’s team not advancing directly to the playoffs after the regular-season finale since 2022.

In 2023, there was an opening play-in loss to the Hawks before securing a playoff ticket with a victory over the Chicago Bulls.

In 2024, there was an opening play-in loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, before a making the playoffs with a victory over the Bulls.

Both of those play-in rounds came with the Heat as a higher play-in seed, afforded the opportunity of two chances to secure one victory to advance.

Last year, the Heat for the first time had to play from the Nos. 9-10 portion of the play-in bracket, therefore requiring a 2-0 run, one achieved with an opening victory in Chicago, followed by an overtime victory in Atlanta.

This season, it will be a similar pathway from down below, the unforgiving Nos. 9-10 portion of the play-in bracket that requires two victories without a loss.

So very much a different life than when the Heat were ruling the regular-season standings, afforded the time off while others played on in the play-in.

“The top four or five teams in the league, the top seeds, they kind of understand where they’re going to be three months before the end of the regular season,” Spoelstra said of this season’s likes of the Pistons, Celtics, Knicks and Cavaliers in the East, and the Thunder, Spurs and Nuggets in the West. “Everybody else is jostling, and they’re probably not in the exact position they want to be.

“And that includes the teams that have to go through the play-in to do it.”

As in where the Heat again find themselves.

“We have an opportunity,” Spoelstra said, with hope at this stage arguably all that remains.

NBA play-in

When: Tuesday-Friday.

Television: All play-in games are exclusively streamed on Prime Video. There is no FanDuel Sports coverage of the Heat beyond the regular season.

Format: No. 10 in each conference plays at No. 9, with the loser eliminated and seeded into the NBA draft lottery based on regular-season  record.

In that same opening round of the play-in, No. 8 in each conference plays at No. 7, with the winner of that game receiving the No. 7 playoff seed and facing the No. 2 playoff seed in the best-of-seven opening-round of the playoffs.

In a last-chance game, the loser of the Nos. 7-8 game hosts the winner of the Nos. 9-10 game, with the winner of that matchup facing the No. 1 playoff seed in the best-of-seven opening-round of the playoffs. The loser of that game is seeded into the NBA draft lottery based on regular-season record.

Playoff matchups: The winner of the East Nos. 7-8 game will play the No. 2 Boston Celtics in the best-of-seven opening round of the playoffs. The other team advancing in the East will play the No. 1 Detroit Pistons in the opening round of the playoffs.

Playoffs: The best-of-seven opening round of the playoffs begins Saturday. Should the Heat advance, their playoff opener would be next Sunday in Detroit,