Just in case their six-game elimination of the Knicks didn’t make believers of every New York hoops fan, this run by the Heat is starting to look as if it just might not be able to be stopped.
The 1999 Knicks still remain the only No. 8 seed to ever reach the NBA Finals, but no one should be surprised if Jimmy Butler and the Heat finally become the second after they stole a third-straight Game 1 victory on the road in these playoffs with a 123-116 win over the Celtics to open the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night in Boston.
The Heat — trailing 66-57 at halftime — seized control of the game with an explosive 46-point third quarter.
The Heat also won the opening game on the road in each of the first two rounds: in Milwaukee before taking out the top-seeded Bucks in five games and at Madison Square Garden before ousting the Knicks in six.
And “Playoff Jimmy,” who is averaging 31.5 points per game in the postseason, was unsurprisingly at the center of it all once again.
“One of the premier two-way basketball players of this association. … That’s what we needed.” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said afterward about Butler. “Down the stretch, Jimmy was able to do everything we needed, as a scorer and as a facilitator.”
Butler outplayed opposing star Jayson Tatum in the series opener, finishing with 35 points, seven assists, and, most importantly, six steals in 43 minutes.
His supporting cast also was terrific with Bam Adebayo netting 20 points and four others – Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Caleb Martin, and championship-winning veteran guard Kyle Lowry – all contributing 15 apiece.
Butler and Adebayo were able to will the Heat past the Knicks, despite a team-wide shooting percentage from 3-point range of .306.
But Game 1 against the Celtics was more reminiscent of the Heat’s long-range efficiency against the Bucks, when they shot 45 percent from beyond the arc to pull off the 1-8 shocker.
Miami connected on 51.5 percent from deep Wednesday night (16-for-31), with six players burying multiple 3-pointers.
“It shows the group of guys that we have,” Butler said. “Everybody’s poised, everybody’s confident, everybody’s comfortable, and we’re playing some good basketball.
“[Winning Game 1 is] very-much critical. We want to win as many games as we can in the shortest amount of as time as we can…We got a win, but that’s not enough for us and we want to get another one [on the road on Friday].”
The defeat dropped the Celtics’ home record in these playoffs to 4-4, including a Game 5 loss to the Hawks at TD Garden in the first round. They also dropped Game 1 and Game 5 on the parquet floor to fall behind 3-2 against the 76ers last week before taking Game 6 in Philadelphia and Game 7 at home to set up this matchup with the Heat.
Coming off a Game 7 record 51 points Sunday against the Sixers, Tatum nearly matched Butler with 30 points, but he only attempted four shots in the second half – and none in the fourth quarter.
Tatum committed three late turnovers as the Heat pulled away.
His postgame analysis felt similar to the head-shaking of the Knicks following each of their four losses in the previous series against Miami.
“I don’t know why, but we gave up some transition baskets, they were comfortable, we didn’t close out their shooters and gave up some offensive rebounds. That’s what happened,” Tatum said. “We just gotta be better.”
The 1998-99 Knicks finished the lockout-shortened 50-game slate with a 27-23 record and, as the No. 8 seed, they took out the Heat, the Hawks, and the Pacers in the Eastern playoffs before getting swept by the Spurs in the NBA Finals.
Interestingly, no other No. 8 or even No. 7 seeds ever have reached the league’s championship round, but there remains a possibility of one of each making this year’s Finals if the Heat and the Lakers can advance.
“I think we just go out there and try to win basketball games,” said Lowry, who won a ring with the Raptors in 2019. “At the end of the day, we are the 8-seed so we know we’re [starting] on the road…and we know we don’t have the advantage of having four games at home, so we have to win on the road.”