These Heat Comparisons From NBA Finals Will Make Celtics Fans Lose Sleep

The Miami Heat outplayed the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals and ultimately deserved to advance to the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets. That is fair to say.

However, the Heat were not a great 3-point shooting team this season. That much is also fair to say. Miami proved that during the 82-game regular season when it finished 27th in 3-point percentage. The Heat proved it again when they advanced past the New York Knicks, after they shot 30.6% from beyond the arc in the conference semifinals. And it’s ultimately why it shouldn’t come as a major surprise that Miami made 34.3% from long range during the NBA Finals.

The outlier was against the Celtics. And it played a key role in Erik Spoelstra’s team advancing to the sport’s biggest stage.

Miami shot 43.4% from long range against the Green. That was more than 10% better than its regular season average (34.4%), nearly 13% better than the series against the Knicks and 9% better than what proved to be a five-game series against the Nuggets.

In their four losses against the Nuggets, the Heat shot 33.3% or worse from long range. In three of their four wins against the Celtics, they shot better than 50%.

Miami’s team dynamic unsurprisingly played out that way because of the eye-popping differences in the production of role players.

Gabe Vincent, who shot 51.6% on 31 3-pointers against the Celtics, hit 33.3% on a near identical 30 attempts against the Nuggets.

Caleb Martin, who many argued should have won Eastern Conference MVP after he shot 48.9% on 45 treys against the C’s, regressed noticeably against the Nuggets and converted 33.3% of his 40 attempts.

The same can be said about Max Strus, who went from hitting a more modest 34.3% of his 38 3-pointers against Boston to a far less impactful 18.8% of 32 3-pointers against Denver.

Only Duncan Robinson — 48.4% of 31 attempts vs. Celtics, 42.9% of 21 attempts vs. Nuggets — was in the same stratosphere.

It’s obviously not fair to completely discount what the Nuggets did defensively. They made it difficult on Miami. And it’s not fair to completely overlook the fact the Celtics played with a lackluster defensive effort for the first three games of the conference finals. Head coach Joe Mazzulla and Celtics players pointed that out at the time, and an increased awareness on that end was key in the Green wining three straight to ultimately force a Game 7.

Of course, Miami then went out and hit 50% of their 28 3-pointers and ran away from Boston in the winner-take-all contest. Even on its best day against Denver, Miami didn’t eclipse that percentage in the NBA Finals. Again, it shot better than 50% in three games against Boston.

With these statistics laid out, it’s clear to see how the Celtics-Heat series was so impacted by shot-making. Makes sense. And because of that Celtics fans long will remember Game 2 of the conference finals as Boston’s biggest flub. Miami shot 34.6% from beyond the arc in that contest only for Boston to go MIA in the fourth quarter and be forced into a 2-0 series deficit.

Should that game have went differently, who knows how the series played out? Perhaps Miami wouldn’t have even had the chance to confirm that its true 3-point shooting identity in the Finals.