The Heat have made this season matter

After a frustrating season, Miami defeated the No. 1 overall seed in five games.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Last week, I wrote that the Miami Heat had turned the tables on their season narrative. At the time, Miami held a 2-1 series lead over the Milwaukee Bucks, and Giannis Antetokounmpo had not yet returned from the back injury he sustained in the first half of Game 1.

I said then that the Bucks were still favored to win the series. They were. Even after falling down 3-1, Milwaukee was a 13-point favorite in the Game 5 overtime two-point Heat victory. Now we’ve seen the Heat knock off the Bucks — after Antetokounmpo returned for Games 4 and 5. And the Heat have done more than flip the script on the narrative of a dreary regular season. They’ve made this season matter. They’ve made this season memorable. (Remember when Butler played Nickelback in the locker room after a loss to the Orlando Magic?)

All throughout the season, many thought we’d head towards a repeat of the Heat's finish from two years ago — a first-round sweep. And losing the first play-in game to the Atlanta Hawks didn’t inspire confidence. Even Tyler Herro’s broken hand in Game 1 seemed to turn that upset into a pyrrhic victory.

After an embarrassing Game 2 loss to the Bucks, the Heat steamrolled past Milwaukee in Game 3. Duncan Robinson scored 20 points on his birthday, playing well after Herro’s injury forced him back into the rotation. Miami could afford to rest Butler for the entire fourth quarter with a bruised glute.

Then in Game 4, Butler lifted the Heat. First in the first quarter, when the Bucks jumped out to an early 15-5 run. And then facing a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter. His 56 points set a Heat playoff franchise record — more than LeBron James or Dwyane Wade had ever scored.

When I first saw that Butler set the Heat playoff record, I thought of LeBron’s 45-point performance in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Boston Celtics. But that actually wasn’t his highest-scoring playoff game as a member of the Heat. LeBron scored 49 points in a playoff game against the Brooklyn Nets in 2014. As Wade once said, though, the fourth Big Three year was like a “bad marriage.” I didn’t even remember that 49-point performance.

We’ll remember the 56 points. We’ll remember, in Game 5, Butler telling Jrue Holiday, “I own you.”

And now the Heat are off to face the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs. A confident Heat would say that the Bucks team the Heat just defeated are better than the Knicks. And that Herro could be back for the NBA Finals.