For the past two seasons, the Miami Heat have been the team to go through on the road to the NBA championship. In 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals to win their 17th franchise title.
Last season, the Milwaukee Bucks eliminated the Heat in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, only to go on to win the championship. If you look at Jimmy Butler, this trend goes back an extra year, in which he lost in 2019 against the Toronto Raptors as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.
This season, the Miami Heat were eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. If the trend were to continue, the Celtics would have to defeat the Golden State Warriors, who have reached the Finals in six of the last eight seasons.
The Celtics already have a 1-0 lead on the Warriors. They are now three wins away from being crowned champions.
Will they be able to win the Finals? Will the Heat lose to the best team for the third straight season?
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The Celtics match up very well with the Warriors. The two greatest strengths of the Warriors are their shooting and their defense.
The Celtics showed in Game 1 that they can keep up with Golden State, if not outplay them, in both of these areas. It is true that Golden State has more depth and the best player on both teams in Stephen Curry.
However, the Celtics have more physicality and size.
Their ability to switch on screens makes them better equipped to defend Steph Curry and Golden State’s offense.
Just because the Celtics have the ability to defend the three does not mean they always execute well though. They allowed Curry to shoot several open shots in the first half of Game 1.
They made their adjustments, but it should still be considered unacceptable for Boston. Although the Miami Heat had a big collection of shooters, they did not have any shooter as dangerous as Steph Curry.
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The Celtics will need to defend him differently than any other player they have faced so far. Another issue for the Celtics is the shooting of Jayson Tatum.
Although he made the adjustment of finding his teammates, he shot an inefficient 3/17 from the field in Game 1. It seems that when Tatum goes cold, Jaylen Brown gets hot and vice versa.
That was the trend in the Miami Heat series. If that continues, the Celtics might have a hard time winning the series.
The Celtics will need Tatum to be more of a scorer going forward and they cannot expect to win without contributions from both of their stars. At this point, the NBA Finals series could go either way.
Right now, the slight edge should belong to the Golden State Warriors based on their championship experience. However, the young Celtics team is playing well as a team right now.
So, yes, Boston has a very good chance to become the third consecutive champion the Miami Heat have lost to.