Stunning. Astounding. And the Miami’s Heat’s unexpected, magical playoff run continues | Opinion
Something very strange is going on here. The kind of thing that makes you believe in magic and miracles and all that other stuff with no ties to logic.
The Miami Heat keeps winning. Relentlessly. Astoundingly.
Now Miami is two wins from reaching the NBA Finals. After not even making the postseason last year. After being the underdog in all three playoff rounds so far in the surreal pandemic bubble that is 2020.
For the Heat, the Disney bubble is not bursting. It is lifting this team.
Thursday night Miami trailed by 13 points at halftime. By as many as 17 at one point. It was understandable. The desperate Boston Celtics, after losing Game 1, had to have this. The Heat was so due a loss.
The third quarter score was 37-17, Miami. Bam Adebayo lit it up for 15 in the quarter, of his 21 total.
Final: Miami 106, Boston 101.
Heat, now up 2-0 entering Game 3 of this best-of-7 Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night.
Thursday’s rally was after Miami had trailed by 14 points in the fourth quarter in the series opener, only to win in the frenetic last seconds on Jimmy Butler’s basket and then Adebayo’s epic block of Jayson Tatum’s attempted last-second winning dunk — a play instantly installed as an heirloom of Heat legend and lore.
Thursday’s magic? How about Goran Dragic, the Dragon breathing fire, with seven consecutive points of his 25 total to forge the late lead?
Magic? Consider: None of the Heat’s three championship-winning teams had ever begun a postseason on the 10-1 run this Miami team is on. None with Dwyane Wade. None with LeBron James.
Yes, something strange is going on here.
It is sort of why we love sports. The anything-is-possible quality. The never underestimating what you never see in a boxscore.. The heart. The belief and fight.
“We got to do everything right,” Jimmy Butler had said before this series. “Almost perfect.”
They have been close enough.
So much has gone right for Miami in the past two years — meaning not luck or happenstance, but good choices by the braintrust led by godfather Pat Riley.
All-star Adabeyo arrived as a 14th overall draft pick and then fearless 20-year-old Tyler Herro as a 13th — mid-round gems.
Undrafted free agents such as Kendrick Nunn (NBA all-rookie first team this year), Duncan Robinson (six 3-pointers Thursday) and Derrick Jones Jr. blossomed.
Josh Richardson and Hassan Whiteside were flipped for the all-star Butler and others.
Trading away Justise Winslow led to key parts Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder.
And all of that maneuvering left Miami still with cap space to go whale hunting in 2021 free agency.
This isn’t happening. It can’t be, can it?
Miami was an underdog to better-seeded Indiana in the first round. But swept the Pacers 4-0.
Heat was given little chance in the second round vs. overall No. 1 seed Milwaukee. But cruised 4-1.
Now it’s 2-0 vs. the better-seeded Celtics.
It isn’t over, of course.
There isn’t a Heat fan out there who wants it to be.
This is the ride, so unexpected, that you only hope goes on and on.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 10:02 PM.
