Miami Heat Roundtable: Feelings On A Boston Celtics Playoff Matchup
Miami Heat Roundtable: Boston Celtics Playoff Matchup – Eric’s Take
During the Celtics Heat matchup last Wednesday there was a great moment during the game. It was extremely nuanced and probably not of much relevance to those that aren’t total basketball nerds.
Eric’s Take (@FrittsWrites)
The broadcast had a split-screen of the two coaches, Erik Spoelstra and Ime Udoka, which is pretty normal of an NBA broadcast. What caught my attention was that both were constantly—well, coaching.
Meaning they were both intently analyzing the floor, giving direction, pointing, calling plays, and they both just didn’t stop. These are two front runners for Coach Of The Year in my eyes, which speaks to more about this overall matchup than there is on the surface.
This was a close game. Both teams performed well, stars showed up, and the coaches were busy all night.
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The Heat ended up winning, 106-98, but the result could have gone either way. The game was conflicting for me, personally, as I grew up a Boston fan but now cover the Miami Heat.
Where does that put me in this question: Do we want to see this matchup in the playoffs? There is only one answer here and that is “absolutely”.
Any athlete will tell you, you play to win the game. You want the best opponent on the other side of the court.
In this talk of “if Eastern Conference contenders are going to try and manipulate seeding to get the best matchup”, I think it’s clear that both the Heat and Celtics just want to win. They both believe they are the best in the conference and want to prove it to everyone.
They’ve had similar stories that mirror each other in a way. As mentioned, both coaches are doing a great job, but they’ve also had their struggles.
The Celtics had issues early this year and there were talks of Udoka being fired after only a few months.
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The Heat have had internal issues late this year, with Spoelstra and Professor Udonis Haslem getting into an altercation with Jimmy Butler on the sidelines.
The East is a difficult conference this year, but I think these teams want each other along the way to trying to win it. The 2020 Bubble playoffs started something with these teams and another series could really develop it into a full-blown rivalry, which would only get the best out of both teams.
As a fan, it would be stressful and antagonizing, but this series could be the most fun of the whole playoffs. Expect it to go seven games and to get all the drama a proper seven-game series generates.