FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Miami Heat are well aware of the meaning of Sunday’s visit by the Boston Celtics. Now, they also know what they will be getting at AmericanAirlines Arena.

If there were any doubts about what the Celtics still could be, Thursday’s nationally televised victory over the San Antonio Spurs quickly quelled them.

Among those watching was Heat coach Erik Spoelstra in his Minneapolis hotel room, duly impressed.

“You’ve got to go through the team that’s the Eastern Conference champion,” Spoelstra said. “They were the Eastern Conference champion.”

Thursday, in fact, offered dual statements, with the Los Angeles Lakers storming past the Dallas Mavericks in the nightcap of the nationally televised doubleheader.

“Both those teams have a lot of pride, have had a lot of success the last three years,” Spoelstra said. “So while everybody’s making speculations and predictions, I’m sure they both feel confident this time of year.”

While the Lakers have quieted doubters by dominating since the All-Star break, the Celtics have been a bit fussier when it comes to their statements. But what Thursday showed was that presented with a challenge, all the intervening losses can prove meaningless, including Friday’s setback to the Atlanta Hawks.

“There’s certain teams when you play, they have the exact same aspirations that we have,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “So when you play a team like that, you really want to play them.

“That’s just human nature. When we play Miami and the Lakers and Orlando and Chicago, it’s the same way.”

That will make the Celtics’ upcoming Thursday game against the Chicago Bulls another rallying point. Then comes the Heat’s regular-season home finale, a game that could be for homecourt advantage in a potential second-round, No. 2-No. 3 Eastern conference semifinal playoff series.

“It’s nice to have some of those in the regular season,” Rivers said.

The Heat could have Mike Miller and Mario Chalmers back for that game, although Udonis Haslem remains a longshot for meaningful minutes any time soon.

To Heat guard Dwyane Wade, that is the regret of the close to this regular season.

“At this time of the year,” he said, “you want to try to be as healthy as possible. I think we’ve gone the opposite way. Hopefully, we can get guys back on the basketball floor, be as healthy as possible.

“This time of the year, you should know your game, you should know your rotation, you kind of should be settling in on how things are going into the playoffs.”

The Celtics looked awfully settled against the Spurs. This wasn’t just Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen in lockstep, it was Rajon Rondo getting back his edge. By contrast, the Heat remain without definitive answers beyond Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, with Miller possibly to return Sunday in New Jersey.

The difference between the Celtics and Heat is the Celtics have shown they can reach another level, especially after playing .500 down the stretch last season. The Heat, by contrast, have been implored by Spoelstra to reach another level over these final months, but instead have remained stuck in neutral.

That essentially leaves next Sunday against the Celtics as one final chance to make one final statement before the playoffs.

Boston made its statement Thursday night.

“We talk about the age, the fatigue,” former Celtics and Lakers forward Rick Fox said on TNT’s coverage. “It seems like they’re limping into the playoffs, yet they go on the road after struggling here for the last 12 games and they beat a San Antonio Spurs team. That’s a statement.”