MIAMI _ Each time The Process schools an opponent, Victor Oladipo makes them forget Paul George, Kristaps Porzingis scores over the top, the reality hits home a bit more.
The East no longer is least and another 41-41 finish by the Miami Heat might not even be enough to bring playoff tiebreakers into play.
Not with how Joel Embiid is processing things for the Philadelphia 76ers, Oladipo is making the Indiana Pacers more feared than a season ago, and Porzingis is leading a post-Carmelo Anthony revival for the New York Knicks.
Unlike last season's abyss at this stage, when talk of Heat playoff contention would have delivered a Jim Mora-like reaction _ "Playoffs? Don't talk about ... playoffs?! You kidding me? Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game! Another game!" _ the occasional glance at the standings has become part of the equation for coach Erik Spoelstra and his staff.
"We always do," he said. "We're a results-based league. We understand that. But that doesn't change our process.
"We're trying to improve, get more consistent in the areas that are important to us. We're not anywhere near where we want to be as a basketball team. And hopefully that will change sooner than later."
A year ago, amid an 11-30 first half of the season, the Heat had little use for the standings. It was only during the 30-11 second-half revival that delivered them to 41-41 that the numbers became transfixing, ultimately losing out on the eighth and final spot to the Chicago Bulls by a tiebreaker.
Even this season, taking stock too soon only would have created confusion, with the Orlando Magic hot at the outset and then not so much thereafter, the Detroit Pistons displaying the ability to be as streaky as anyone.
Spoelstra said getting caught up in the inconsistency of others is outweighed by dealing internally with such concerns.
"I don't know how that changes your process," he said of fixating on an East race that appears far more competitive for his team than anticipated. "You can obsess about what other teams are doing or you can try to improve the things that you need to improve to change where you want to be.
"And, right now, we don't have a defense that's consistent to where we thought it would be at the start of the season and we're paying the price for that. Our offense is not as fluid or efficient, where we thought it would be. And we're paying a price for that as well."
The ultimate price would be falling just short of the playoffs, with the Phoenix Suns to get the Heat's first-round selection as long as it is not among the first seven picks, as the first of two payments for the 2015 acquisition of Goran Dragic.
Last season, falling into the lottery meant there at least was the No. 14 pick that turned into Kentucky big man Bam Adebayo.
This time around 41-41 could come without consolation.
"Who knows? I don't know," Spoelstra said of sizing up how the East playoff race will shake out. "I don't get into how many games it'll take to get in. I'm trying to improve specific areas that we need to improve, and we think the result will change or the results will change if we can do the things that we want to do."
Already there have been losses this season to the Pistons, Pacers and Knicks, with head-to-head the first playoff tiebreaker. That could make the standings particularly significant depending on where those teams eventually fall.
So is the East definitively better than last season, when 41-41 was the minimum qualifying record?
"Could be," Spoelstra said. "We'll see."
