So this is how it's going to be? For seven games?
Yes, please.
The Miami Heat survived the Boston Celtics, 117-114, in overtime to take tightrope-tight Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals in the Orlando bubble Tuesday night. The Heat trailed most of the game, from the start, but went ahead on Jimmy Butler's layup past Celtics star Jayson Tatum with 12 seconds left _ and then held on with Bam Adebayo's block of a Tatum dunk attempt to seal it.
Wow. Just, wow.
America wants a Lakers-Heat NBA Finals _ LeBron James vs. the former team he jilted after four years and two championships. And of course by "America wants" I mean South Florida, about half of Los Angeles and other assorted random strays want that.
I'm trying very hard to sell the Miami Heat as America's Team _ the lovable underdog, the little team that could. It has been a tough sell.
This has been a joyfully unexpected postseason run by the fith-seeded Heat.
They'd been only 3-5 in the eight-game bubble restart after the long coronavirus/COVID-19 layoff prior to the playoffs. No reason to foresee something special, right? Move along. Nothing to see here.
They weren't supposed to beat better-seeded Indiana in the first round. But swept the Pacers.
They certainly weren't supposed to oust overall No. 1 seed Milwaukee and legend-in-waiting Giannis Antetokounmpo in the second round. But did so easily, 4 games to 1.
Now, in the Eastern finals, Boston opened as the betting favorite given a 69% likelihood of winning this best-of-seven series by ESPN's Basketball Power Index formula.
Surprise. Again.
The Heat had no answers Tuesday for Boston stars Tatum and Marcus Smart (56 combined points), but Miami had plenty enough with Goran Dragic's 29 points and Butler and Adebayo's late heroics.
Miami on Tuesday began a postseason 9-1 for only the third time in franchise history. The first was in 2005, when the Heat lost in the Eastern finals. The previous was in 2013, when it won the club's most recent of three NBA titles.
Miami this postseason is striving for a sudden affirmation that the club has officially moved past the Big 3 era that dissolved when LeBron bolted after the playoffs in 2014, but taking his sweet time, in a parting that caused a rift with Heat president Pat Riley and many fans.
And the Heat are doing this without another Big 3 or even a classic Big 2 of the sort the Lakers trout out with LeBron and Anthony Davis.
Miami has the Pretty Big 2 in All-Stars Butler and Adebayo and a deep rotation of valuable parts including the fearless 20-year-old Tyler Herro, the delightful anomaly to Riley's preferred blueprint of relying almost solely on veterans come crunch time. Herro (second team) and Kendrick Nunn (first) were named Tuesday to the NBA all-rookie teams.
All of this is in the hands of Erik Spoelstra, whom ESPN analyst Amin Elhassan on my podcast this week called the best coach in the NBA and a certain future Hall of Famer.
This, on the club's deepest playoff run post-LeBron, is a still-in-transition team waiting on its youth to grow up, waiting for next summer's whale-hunting in free agency.
Yet Miami as the lovable underdog is what's a tough sell nationally, perhaps because what lingers of the 2010-14 Big 3 era conjures such the opposite feeling when you mention "Miami Heat."
LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh threw a party to celebrate their own certain dynasty, which nobody but Miami loved. We hadn't had a team this hated since the glory-era, camouflage-wearing Miami Hurricane football team.
That team was relentlessly the favorite.
This team is the opposite _ the underdog that keeps waiting for you to believe, and daring you not to.
They did it Tuesday night. Again.
In pandemic 2020, in these strange days of bubbles and digital fans, this team you hate to love is the most fun ride going in sports right now.
