New York Knicks trying to drag Heat into something they want no part of

For a proud franchise that earned the East’s No. 1 seed and advanced deep in the playoffs less than a year ago, nobody inside the Heat organization expected “avoiding the play-in” would become a paramount priority as the calendar folds into February.

But that’s the Heat’s reality during this uneven season and what makes Thursday’s road game against the Knicks — the first of four meetings between the teams in a two-month span — as significant as any games the Heat will play during their final 30 contests.

Thursday’s game at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) will be followed by Heat-Knicks games March 3 and March 22 in Miami and March 29 in Manhattan.

The “play-in” seems beneath a Pat Riley-run franchise, now both literally and figuratively.

The Heat’s 100-97 win in Cleveland on Tuesday, coupled with the Knicks’ home loss to the Lakers, left Miami two games ahead of the No. 7 Knicks for the sixth seed — the final seed that avoids needing to qualify for postseason through the play-in.

Avoiding the play-in is “very important,” Tyler Herro said. “You don’t want to be in a play-in game. You want to feel security going into postseason. We should more focus on home court than the play-in.”

There’s also a seemingly better chance for upward mobility after Tuesday’s win against a Cavs team that had been 21-5 at home. Miami (29-23) began Wednesday 1.5 games behind No. 5 Cleveland and three behind No. 4 Brooklyn, which was scheduled to play at Boston on Wednesday night.

“It’s tight in the East right now,” Bam Adebayo said. “The East is tough this year. It’s going to be tough for a long time.”

For those unfamiliar with the NBA’s play-in tournament — which was instituted in the 2021 season — the rules are simple: The top six teams in each conference make the playoffs.

The teams that finish seventh through 10th in each conference must compete for two remaining playoff berths. The East’s seventh seed hosts the eighth seed, with the winner of that game advancing to the playoffs and holding the seventh seed.

The loser of that 7-8 game then hosts the winner of the game between the ninth and 10th seeds, with the winner of that game claiming the eighth seed.

Finishing out of the play-in essentially assures Miami won’t play Boston in the first round (barring a Celtics collapse), and lessens the chance of a first-round meeting with Milwaukee, which stood second in the East entering Wednesday — two games behind No. 1 Boston and one ahead of No. 3 Philadelphia.

Other than the Knicks, there’s some distance between the Heat and the other play-in candidates.

Atlanta entered Wednesday’s game in Phoenix in eighth in the East, 3.5 games behind the Heat. No. 9 Washington is four behind the Heat, and No. 10 Indiana is five games behind Miami, as are the Chicago Bulls.

Miami has one big edge over the Knicks if they split their four games. After head-to-head record, the next tiebreaker between teams that finish with the same records gives an edge to teams winning their division. So if the Heat and Knicks split their four games and finish tied — and if Miami finishes ahead of Atlanta and wins the Southeast (good chance of that), Miami would win the tiebreaker over the Knicks, who are well behind Boston in their division.

That tiebreaker conceivably could keep Miami out of the play-in tournament.

If the Heat and Hawks split their final two meetings and finish tied, a tiebreaker would come down to division won-loss percentage. If they’re tied in that area, conference won-loss percentage would be the next tiebreaker.

And keep this in mind: According to Tankathon, the Knicks have the third-most difficult remaining schedule; the Heat’s schedule is rated 12th.

The Knicks have a somewhat difficult Western swing remaining at Sacramento, the Clippers, the Lakers and Portland and home games against West-leading Denver and the Clippers and an April 7 game at New Orleans which could be important for the Pelicans.

The Heat, conversely, has only five Western Conference games left and all at home: Houston, Utah, Denver, Memphis and Dallas.

The Knicks have a combined six games remaining against Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, but none after March 5. The Heat has seven games against those four teams (none against Boston), including April 6 at Philadelphia.

Herro said players don’t discuss seeding much, but Erik Spoelstra sometimes brings it up.

“You want to get as high as you can,” Max Strus said. “Hopefully get to a position where you get home-court advantage. That’s the end goal.”

When will Jimmy Butler start paying attention to seeding? “Me no care,” he said, smiling.