The Miami Heat had the eighth-best regular season and were forced to win in the play-in tournament to play in the NBA playoffs. After coming out of the play-in the Heat had to face some of the top teams in the East.
The Heat were underdogs against the No. 1 seed Bucks but got through them with relative ease. Following that they beat the Knicks in six but still were seen as underdogs to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Going Up 3-0
After the first three games the Heat found themselves up three games to none and on the verge of upsetting the Celtics. Miami won two games on the road and one at home. They still were the underdogs in game four.
Celtics Force a Game 7
There was little hope for Boston but they clawed back and won three games in a row against the Heat after losing the first three. Now they were heavy favorites back at home for game seven after a game-winning put back by Derrick White in game six.
Closing the Series
The Heat were 7.5-point underdogs in game seven but controlled the game the whole way. An injury to Jayson Tatum in the first 26 seconds of the game limited what the star could do. Jimmy Butler and the emergence of Caleb Martin pushed this team over the edge in their final effort of the series to advance to their second NBA Finals in the past four years.
Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jimmy_Butler.jpg
