MIAMI — To go through the Miami Heat’s just-released 2025-26 regular-season schedule and select the most meaningful or important games is to miss the point.

When you are coming off a 37-45 season and third consecutive trip to the play-in round, every game is meaningful, every game is important. To think otherwise is to lose sight of a team and roster with little margin for error, even in the injury-diminished Eastern Conference.

Yes, it is cliche, but this is not a team that can afford any days off. Charlotte at home in November and Utah on the road in January are as significant as any rivalry game against the Knicks or Celtics or matchup against Jimmy Butler or Duncan Robinson.

Or, for those who look at it the other way, about how the Heat are in possession of their first-round pick next June, how any loss in any game could be meaningful in the possible chase for the team’s first lottery pick since Tyler Herro was added at No. 13 in 2019.

For now, we’ll put the doom scrollers aside, with ample tank time, if needed, over the latter stretches of the schedule.

But even for those sipping on the every-game-matters Kool-Aid, a case can be made for a few mattering (or at least feeling like they matter) more than others.

That said, a dozen moments during the season worth noting of what now is officially scheduled to follow for Erik Spoelstra, Bam Adebayo, Kel’el Ware, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, Nikola Jovic and Herro.

— Oct. 26 vs. Knicks: Yes, Oct. 22 in Orlando is the season opener, the night to potentially set a tone for the season. But it won’t be until Oct. 26 that the Heat open their season at home.

And that’s when it will get interesting, because while the ultimate fan embrace tends to come in home openers, Knicks fans tend to take over the building when their team is in town.

The Knicks are coming off their deepest playoff run in a quarter century; the Heat are coming off the most-lopsided playoff-series loss in NBA history. It could be a night of unique emotions (especially if the Dolphins lose earlier in the day in Atlanta).

— Nov. 7 vs. Hornets: A meaningful game against Charlotte? No, nothing like those fly-swatters raining down on the court at Miami Arena when the Heat won the teams’ inaugural Miami meeting in 1989.

But this game will start the Heat’s four-game group-play schedule in the NBA Cup in-season tournament.

In a season when an NBA title is the longest of longshots, the lone chance for hardware well could be the NBA Cup.

— Nov. 10, Nov. 12 vs. Cavaliers: The last time the Cavaliers were in town, they defeated the Heat 124-87 and 138-83 to close out last season’s first-round sweep.

Almost immediately, three weeks into their season, the Heat will be able to take stock where gains have been met … or whether the widest of gulfs remains against the conference elite.

Playing Cleveland close would be a quality first step back toward relevance.

— Nov. 19 vs. Warriors: Jimmy Butler’s return last season after his trade to Golden State was met with a chorus of jeers.

Does time heal all wounds? Or, for that matter, does Jimmy Butler turn into Jimmy Butler and simply take the night off? (The Warriors are in Orlando the night before.)

The Heat won last season’s Kaseya Center matchup against Butler and the Warriors 112-86 on March 25, with Butler closing with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting and six assists, on a night Stephen Curry was out for Golden State.

— Nov. 24 vs. Mavericks: This will stand as Cooper Flagg’s only scheduled visit to South Florida, which could be accompanied by a degree of regret.

For those who forget, had the Heat missed the playoffs last season, they would have been the No. 10 seed in the lottery. Instead, the Mavericks were the No. 10 seed … and zoomed to the No. 1 overall pick, Duke’s Flagg.

As a result, Flagg visits for one night only per season.

— Nov. 29 vs. Pistons: For the first time, Duncan Robinson will be facing the Heat in opposing colors, as he arrives in the wake of last month’s trade to the Pistons in exchange for Simone Fontecchio and salary-cap relief.

Typically, the Heat only offer video tributes to returning players who either won championships with the team or were All-Stars as members of the Heat. But this will be no typical return, rather a return by the franchise’s all-time leader in 3-pointers.

— Dec. 19 at Boston: It has been years since Heat-Celtics looked anything like this, both teams as likely to wind up with play-in fates — or worse — as to make it back to previous playoff heights, when meetings in the conference finals were routine.

Any, yet, still with meaning. With Jayson Tatum out with his Achilles tear and the Celtics shedding salary, this season’s meetings well could be about which team secures one of the East’s six automatic playoff spots.

— Dec. 26 at Hawks: For years, the Heat had stood comfortably at a perch atop the Southeast Division. Now not only have the Magic taken major steps forward, but the Hawks, with their acquisitions of Kristaps Porzingis and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, appear to have distanced themselves from the Heat, as well.

With eight combined games against Atlanta and Orlando, divisional play could go a long way toward determining the Heat’s postseason fate.

— Jan. 11 at Thunder: How far are the Heat from moving back into contention? The first of the season’s two meetings against defending-NBA champion Oklahoma City could offer a midseason glimpse, with the teams then also meeting six nights later at Kaseya Center.

Another element of the matchup will be Thomas Sorber, the Georgetown big man the Thunder drafted at No. 15 in June, a pick that initially belonged to the Heat.

— Feb. 28 vs. Rockets: The biggest Heat offseason personnel buzz was yet another run at Kevin Durant. Instead, Houston trumped the Heat’s offer to the Phoenix Suns, with Durant’s lone visit to South Florida coming in an Amazon Prime national telecast.

The Heat then will face Durant and the Rockets on the road three weeks later in Houston.

— March 19 vs. Lakers: This could prove fascinating — if LeBron James makes it past the Feb. 5 NBA trading deadline still as a member of the Lakers.

The matchup could be: A) James’ final visit to his former multi-championship home, should he retire at season’s end; B) a potential recruiting visit, with James to be a free agent next summer; C) or merely a reminder of what once was.

The Lakers play in a nationally televised game the previous night in Houston, so this also merely could be a night off for LeBron.

— April vs. Wizards/Raptors: Four of the Heat’s final five games will be split two apiece against the Wizards and Raptors. That could have the matchups against those two teams determining Heat playoff, play-in or lottery seeding.

With the Raptors and Wizards viewed as playoff longshots, it could be part of a late playoff charge by the Heat … or an ultimate tank-a-thon for lottery seeding in a regular season that ends April 12.

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