The Miami Heat missed an opportunity to face the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs when they lost their initial game of the play-in tournament.
But after taking down the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks, the eighth-seeded Heat still got their chance to exact revenge on the Celtics. And they are now one win away from ousting yet another team this postseason.
Facing the Celtics is something the Heat sought all along, motivated by having their season ended by Boston on the conference finals stage last year.
"I just think that we got the matchup we wanted," Heat forward Caleb Martin said, per MassLive's Matt Vautour. "We got to see the team who took us out last year, and there's nothing like a second crack at it. So, I think that we are just trying to take advantage of that, and you know, we are playing like we have something to prove. We're just a bunch of guys with a chip on our shoulder, so we just want to continue to prove that."
Heat star Bam Adebayo hasn't forgotten about last year's playoff loss to the Celtics, either. Boston won Game 7 on the road to send Miami packing. And that experience has ignited the Heat to complete the job this time around.
"Being No. 1 in the conference and you lose in the Eastern Conference finals, it does sting. But I think the grit and the motivation and the aggression that we play with has just been through this up-and-down season," Adebayo said, per Vautour. "That experience has built us for these moments and we're all expressing ourselves throughout the playoffs."
