BOSTON — The Heat weren’t favorites entering the NBA playoffs — or in their case, the play-in tournament — but that didn’t matter in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference finals series with the Celtics on Wednesday night.
Miami came away with a statement in the series opener, defeating Boston 123-116 at TD Garden to win its third consecutive Game 1 on the road. That may come as a surprise to many who doubted the Heat at the start of the NBA playoffs after they finished as the No. 8 seed in the East and lost their first play-in contest to the Atlanta Hawks. But to Miami, it’s simply business as usual.
“Damn right, I did. Damn right, we did,” Jimmy Butler said on whether or not he envisioned Miami reaching this point. “The best part about it is we still don’t care what none of y’all think, honestly speaking. We don’t care if you pick us to win. We never have, we never will. … We go out there and we hoop. Play basketball the right way, knowing we always got a chance.”
Butler played spoiler in Boston, finishing with a game-high 35 points and six steals, becoming the first player in Heat history to do so in a playoff game, according to ESPN. The 33-year-old also provided five rebounds and seven assists, while taking ownership of Boston’s parquet, getting whatever shot, whenever he wanted it.
But while having that level of confidence is standard for a franchise player like Butler, he wasn’t the only one to express the feeling that Miami isn’t, nor should be, considered an underdog team in the postseason.
“No, no,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra replied when asked if making history — no eighth seed has ever won the NBA Finals — at all runs through Miami’s mind.
For the better part of the first half, Game 1 was a head-to-head battle. Both teams responded and exchanged spurts of offense with one another. But when it came time to elevate in order to dodge a series deficit, Miami came through while Boston folded. The Heat outscored the Celtics, 46-25, in the third quarter and supplied the nail in the coffin — a Caleb Martin jumper to put Miami ahead, 117-110 with 2:10 remaining in the fourth.
“I think we just go out there and we try to win basketball games,” Kyle Lowry said. “At the end of the day, we are the eight seed so we’re on the road, so we gotta go out there and try to win games on the road. We don’t have the advantage of having four at home so we gotta try to out there and find ways to win games on the road.”
