I don’t need to remind you how we got here. I don’t need to remind you where LeBron James took his talents or how he left the Miami Heat scrambling. I don’t need to remind you of the season-ending injuries to Josh McRoberts or Chris Bosh. I don’t need to remind you of the 30-something starting lineups Erik Spoelstra had to use or the runway of players coming in and out of Miami all season.

I don’t need to remind you that the Heat will fall to the lottery, precisely where the Cavs fell when they lost LeBron.

There was a time, at the beginning of the season, when the Heat were 3-0 with Shawne Williams as the starting at stretch-4, Chris Bosh was still a pace-and-space 5, and Hassan Whiteside was eating hummus in Lebanon or something.

And, holy hell, Shannon Brown was on the team!

That seems like eons ago. Since then, the Heat have cut Brown, Danny Granger had a three game stretch in December when he scored 18, 21 and 14 points, Whiteside was signed and upped his 2k rating, Granger, Norris Cole, Justin Hamilton and Williams were traded for Goran Dragic, Michael Beasley was rescued from China, Henry Walker hit a game winning shot against the Orlando Magic and Tyler Johnson became a fan favorite. Speaking of Hamilton, remember when he was the starting to center?

Eons.

The story of this season has had a lot of different chapters. One chapter that won’t be written, though, is the one about the Heat making the playoffs. This season was a clumsy race to the finish line. Every time it seemed like the Heat were about to figure things out, the mighty, unmerciful basketball gods struck them down. In a weak Eastern Conference, the weakened Heat won’t make the post-season after four straight trips to the NBA Finals.

Blame injuries. Blame LeBron. Shit, blame Norris Cole some more why dontcha?

It doesn’t matter why this season didn’t work out. It only matters how the Heat went about it.

Apr 5, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and Heat players watch Indiana Pacers forward David West shoot foul shots for a flagrant foul at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Indiana defeats Miami 112-89. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Pat Riley wanted his team to show some grit after they lost in last year’s NBA Finals. After years of coasting through the first 82 games, this year was more of a Tough Mudder than a marathon.

The Heat encountered more obstacles this losing season than they had during the entire Heatles Tour. Bosh’s abdominal strain during the 2012 playoffs seems like nothing next to blood clots on his lung. Dwyane Wade bounced back from years of maintenance to carry his team during one of his most impressive individual seasons. The flu bugged this team all year and injury after injury, strain after strain, plagued the Heat from the first game to the last. And, yet, they were still a hair from making the playoffs.

Does it make it anymore a triumphant season if the Heat get swept in the first round by the Hawks or Cavs? Riley wanted to make the playoffs. It’s why he traded two future first rounders for Dragic at the deadline in one more attempt to deceive the basketball gods and push the boulder up the hill. Despite pleads from fans to tank the season and hold on to a top-10 draft pick, the Heat didn’t take no for an answer. They wouldn’t purposely lose. They wouldn’t prove LeBron right by giving up in his absence or bow down to the basketball gods and ask for forgiveness.

They decided to grind this thing out, for better or for worse.

This season was never about making the Finals, it wasn’t even about advancing through the playoffs. This season was about grit and, more than ever, the Heat showed they have it.