Miami Heat looked like a broken team after the deadline for trade, abandoning ten consecutive games after transmitting Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors. Slowly but surely, Erik Spoelstra has managed to bring together some of his new parts in the wake of the successful agreement which gave him four new additions of players.
The Heat arrived in Boston Wednesday evening after winning five consecutive games in total, which suddenly handed them over in the mixture as a first -round adversary for the Celtics. Their momentum continued at TD Garden as they led up to 22 points on Wednesday evening before retaining a rally of Celtics in the second half to withdraw for an impressive 124-103 victory.
The scene is very ready for the heat to continue to set up the eastern classification after their upset victory in Boston in the middle of a sequence of six consecutive victories. They are currently sitting in first place, just 1.5 games from The Magic and Hawks for a place in the East 7 tournament match against 8 who will determine the first opponent of Boston.
The heat ends with a very soft calendar, with four of their last six games against sub500 teams, including three Tanking teams in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Washington. Miami will also be found with an equal break in the Hawks in the ranking via the division record.
With two meetings in mind
The Celtics and Heat clashed in four of the last five dishes, with the only missing season to come during the 2021 eliminatory series when Boston lost against Nets in the first round. The Celtics beat the heat in the first round of last year and also in the East final in the Eastern 2020, 2022 and 2023 finals. The two teams divided these four series in total with Boston winning in 2022 and 2024 and the winning heat in 2020 and 2023.
Despite the years of battles, there remains a level of respect between the two franchises, in particular for the coach of Heat Erik Spoelstra after spending time leading Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday to the American team this summer.
“All of this experience was an incredible blessing,” said Spoelstra on Wednesday. “I mentioned all the Celtics that summer: I hated myself to love them. And then admit it, I hated myself even more. Just quality human beings. Major competitors. Large basketball players. “
The Celtics would stand out as overwhelming favorites in any potential heat match given the massive talent gap between the two squads. However, Spoelstra still finds creative means of testing Boston in the playoffs. Another potential test of rivals would add an additional layer of intrigue to what would otherwise be considered a series of Walkover for Boston.
The last Celtics to win the ratings of the Eastern Conference
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