Facing 3-1 Finals hole, Heat leaning on experience, resilience: ‘Everybody is counting us out’
.jpg "Miami Heat forward Kevin Love (42) shoots the ball as guard Kyle Lowry (7) reacts during a practice session on media day before the 2023 NBA Finals at Ball Arena.")
Only one team in league history has overcome a 3-1 hole in the NBA Finals to win the championship. Those are the long odds the Miami Heat faces against the Denver Nuggets.
But as the Heat stares at a daunting 3-1 series deficit in the best-of-7 NBA Finals entering Game 5 on Monday in Denver (8:30 p.m., ABC), Miami has one player on its roster who has overcome those odds.
Current Heat forward Kevin Love was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers when they overcame a 3-1 hole against the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Finals to become the first and, so far, only team in NBA history to rally from such a deficit in the championship series.
“I think there’s a lot to be taken from that situation,” Love said in Denver during the media session Sunday afternoon when asked how much he’s thought about that historic 2016 comeback since the Heat fell behind 3-1 in the Finals on Friday. “Naturally, when your back is up against the wall, you start to look for answers, solutions. But we’re a team that has been super resilient.”
The Heat has another player on its roster who has recently been on the opposite side of a 3-1 Finals series. Veteran guard Kyle Lowry was with the Toronto Raptors when they pulled ahead of the Warriors 3-1 in the 2019 Finals before losing Game 5 and eventually closing out the series and winning the championship in Game 6.
“Kevin’s voice is always heard in our locker room, a champion, vet. He’s been through it,” Heat forward Max Strus said. “Kyle has been in the 3-1 game, too. They’ve both had stories that they’ve shared with us and ways to motivate and help us and understand the situation. We’re always listening to guys like that.”
What has been Love and Lowry’s advice?
“Just take it one game at a time,” Heat forward Haywood Highsmith said. “Just the main focus right now is getting back to the 3-0-5 and just go from there. It’s not easy to be in the situation the Nuggets are in, up 3-1, because they’re playing back at home for Game 5.”
While it’s certainly preferable to be ahead 3-1 than trailing 3-1 in a series, the Nuggets understand the challenges that come with the situation they’re in.
“My biggest concern going into any close-out game is human nature and fighting against that,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “You’re up 3-1. Most teams, when you’re up 3-1, they come up for air. They relax and they just kind of take it for granted that, oh, we’re going to win this.
“We know anything is possible. That’s why my message to our team before we came down to the media and open practice was our approach has to be that we are down 3-1. They are desperate, we have to be more desperate. They are hungry, we have to be hungrier.”
It appears that Nuggets players received that message loud and clear.
“I think this team is different than the other teams we’ve faced,” Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. said of the Heat. “They’re relentless. They’re going to come in full force. We ended up actually blowing Phoenix out in Phoenix, but we know tomorrow is not going to be like that.”
The Heat has already overcome long odds during its historic playoff run, becoming just the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to advance to the Finals and the first team since at least 2000 to advance to the Finals after posting a negative point differential in the regular season.
But that’s not enough. The Heat is still hoping to become the first No. 8 seed in league history to win the NBA championship.
“We didn’t come this far to stop playing now, no matter what the odds are, the analytics,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “When we get out there, we’ve just got to compete. We’ve got to win one, and then we’ve got to win another one and then we’ve got to win another one.
“That’s where we’re at. All the odds, eight seed, yadda yadda yadda, none of that matters. It’s just two really good basketball teams. One has to get one win, and one has to get three. Let’s just hope that the other that has to get three, gets three.”
But the bottom line is history is not on the Heat’s side after the Nuggets earned the luxury of three close-out opportunities in the series.
Not only have NBA teams that have led the Finals 3-1 gone on to win the the series 97.2 percent of the time (35-1), but NBA teams that have led any best-of-7 playoff series have gone on to win the series 95.4 percent of the time (267-13).
“Everybody is counting us out. We’re used to that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But ultimately it has to be decided between those four lines. The crowd is not going to decide it. The narratives are not going to decide it. Whatever the analytics are about 3-1, that ain’t going to decide it. It’s going to be decided between those four lines, whose game can get to whose game and ultimately win at the end. That’s what our guys love. So we’re looking forward to it.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2023 at 5:12 PM.
