‘It’s going to be a dogfight’: What the Heat said of playoff rematch against Celtics
The Celtics will take on the Heat in the playoffs for the fourth time in the last five years.
The Celtics and Heat are set to face off again in the postseason for the third straight year, and Miami is preparing for it to be an intense battle.
With their 112-91 win over the Bulls in Friday’s play-in tournament game, the Heat locked up the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, setting up a first-round date with the one-seeded Celtics. The last two matchups between the two teams went the distance, with the Heat winning the Eastern Conference finals in seven games last year and the Celtics winning the Eastern Conference finals in seven the year before that.
It’ll also mark the fourth postseason meeting between the two teams in five years, as they also met in the Eastern Conference finals in 2020, which the Heat won in six.
But one of the main characters from those previous three battles likely won’t partake in this year’s series between the teams. Heat star Jimmy Butler is expected to be out for at least a couple of weeks with an MCL injury he suffered on Wednesday. He averaged a team-high 24.7 points per game in last year’s series.
Still, Heat star Bam Adebayo is expecting another intense duel between both teams.
“It’s going to be a dogfight,” Adebayo told reporters Friday. “It’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be in the mud. It’s not going to be pretty basketball. That’s usually how it is when we play that team.”
While the Heat will likely be without Butler for the series, they’ll have Tyler Herro this time around. The standout guard missed the entirety of last year’s Eastern Conference finals due to a hand injury.
If Friday was any sign, the Celtics will have to be prepared for Herro to be the focal point of the Heat’s offense. He nearly recorded a triple-double, scoring 24 points with 10 rebounds and nine assists.
Even with Butler out and the 18-win difference between Boston and Miami, Herro is also preparing to go toe-to-toe with the Celtics.
“They’re obviously the best team, statistically, numbers in the league,” Herro said. “They’ll be a huge challenge for us, but we’re built for this, we’re excited. We gotta cover for Jimmy [Butler], so we’re gonna go into Boston with a great mentality, mindset, and we’ll be ready to roll.”
One of the surprise characters from last year’s battle is also returning. Caleb Martin broke out in last year’s series, scoring 19.3 points per game on 60.2 percent shooting from the field and 48.9 percent shooting from deep.
Martin doesn’t expect his performance to surprise Boston if he plays well again this time.
“I’m assuming so,” Martin said when asked if he’d be on the Celtics’ scouting report. “You never know. I’m going to try to come prepared mentally. It’s a new game, new series.
“Part of [my success] is I’m sure I wasn’t on the scouting report. Leaving guys open, you take stuff like that as disrespect and some people use it as fuel to the fire. Also, just taking chances and opportunities, too. You can’t be scared of those moments. They fell in my lap and I was able to knock down some shots.”
The Celtics have been able to contain Martin in the two games he’s played against them this year, scoring 23 points on 8 of 24 shooting.
That’s just one of the many reasons why the Celtics are massive favorites entering the series. Boston added Kristpas Porzingis after having some struggles against Miami’s zone defense and getting buckets at the rim in previous years. In the three regular-season matchups, Porzingis proved to be a difference-maker, scoring 20.1 points per game on 50.1 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from deep.
Even as the Celtics swept the regular-season series and hold one of the best point differentials in NBA history, the Heat remember what happened last year.
“It’s a great underdog story, David vs. Goliath, we’ve been the eighth seed before,” Kevin Love said. “That’s why you have to roll the ball out there and play. You have to understand that anything can happen in this game. A team like Boston is an incredibly uphill battle. They’ve played like the best team in the league all year, but I know some teams will have something to say about that. But they’ve certainly made some moves with Jrue [Holiday] and Porzingis that have made them so much better, and their entire lineup has guys stepping up as well.
“We know what they’re capable of, but again coach [Erik] Spoelstra will have us ready to compete on Sunday.”
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