Before the 2021-22 playoffs officially began, Las Vegas offered odds for this year's championship attribution: The East Side leaders heat only ranked seventh, while the Nets, who were seventh in the division, were in third place.
After 10 days, the Nets have fallen behind the Celtics 0-3, and they will be swept away by another loss, and the Heat, who are not optimistic, are 3-1 ahead of the Hawks, and it seems that they are about to advance smoothly.
The Heat, accustomed to being underestimated, are using their actual performance to remind the world that they are also the strongest contenders for this year's championship. This "dark horse" with a complete staffing and all the conditions for success may be the biggest potential threat to the Warriors' "death five small".
The Hawks made it all the way to the East Finals last season, but this season's form has declined significantly, and it took two play-off games to grab the last playoff ticket, and it should have been a normal result for the Heat to win this set of showdowns. However, the content of the game they embodied in this series is still convincing enough to be valued.
The Heat are not the first team to make a first-round fixture point, and before that, the 76ers, Celtics, Bucks and Warriors have all held three wins, and the Green Army is unbeaten. However, the Heat won 14.5 points over their opponents in 100 rounds, but they ranked first in the league.
The Hawks' disappointing performance this season, the problem is mainly focused on the defensive end, the offensive end of the 115.4 points efficiency of 100 games, but the second highest in the league. Their star, Trae Young, played his career-best, with 2,155 points and 737 total assists being the league's number one, with a true shooting percentage of 60.3 percent, and a new personal record.
But in the four-game series against the Heat, Trae Young was completely locked up, except for G3's last-minute big heart trait, even taking 10 points to defend the home, most of the rest of the time, it was difficult.
In the first game of the series, he scored only 8 points on 12 shooting; in the second game, the feel was recovered, but there were as many as 10 mistakes in the whole game; in today's crucial fourth game, he was defended against 3 of 11 shots, and only scored 9 points in the whole game.
In four games, Trae Young averaged only 16.5 points per game, shooting 35.1% and 21.2% from three-point range, and delivered 6 assists per game, but also 6 turnovers, compared with last year's playoff average of nearly 29+10.
The limitation of Trae Young's success is only a microcosm of the Heat's excellent defensive performance, in this series, they only conceded 104.0 points per 100 rounds, second only to the Bucks in defensive efficiency, but their offensive efficiency of 118.4 points per 100 games is much better than the Bucks (107.7 points).
For the excellent performance of the Heat's offensive and defensive ends, people should not be surprised. The reason why this team lacks pursuit is not because of lack of strength, but only because there are no superstars such as Curry, Durant, and Alphabet Brother, in terms of the staffing of the whole team, they are absolutely worthy of the status of the number one in the East.
First, the Heat have one of the best head coaches in the league today. Monty Williams led the Suns to the best record of the regular season, Taylor Jenkins' internal digging was successful, Steve Cole had many championship experiences... but all of this, Eric Spoorstra has done. If you are looking for a coach who has both qualifications, prestige, and achievements, who is good at tapping talents and does not lack the ability to adapt to the scene, Shuai will never think of the second person.
Second, the Heat have a credible leader who has proven itself. Although Jimmy Butler's position in the league has not been recognized, his performance in the big scene is not inferior to many so-called "superstars".
In the 2020 Finals, Butler averaged 26.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 2.2 steals per game, shooting 55.2% from the field, even against LeBron James, he did not fall behind! In the second game of the Hawks series, he scored 45 points to set a new career high in the playoffs, while contributing 5 rebounds and 5 assists without any turnovers, and today, he once again gave 36 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 0 turnovers.
The Heat also have a young interior core — Bam Adebayo, who is good at attacking and defending, smart at playing, and almost the perfect representative of the modern center; a super sixth man full of explosive scoring power - the first player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game as a substitute, Taylor Hilo; a good backcourt commander - six-time All-Star Kyle Lowry who is fierce in defense, fierce in style and able to shoot; a seasoned top 3D - PJ Tucker, who just helped the Bucks win a championship last season; and a group of quality shooters like Duncan Robinson and Max Strus.
More importantly, the Heat have excellent lineup depth. This season, the Heat's four core Butler, Adebayo, Lowry and Hiero have missed a total of 86 games due to injuries and other reasons, but the Heat can always come forward to fill the main vacancy and make the Eastern Conference number one more gold.
A simple set of stats: Strus started 16 regular season games this season, averaging 16.1 points; Caleb Martin made 12 starts, averaging 13.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game; Dwayne Dedmond made 15 starts, averaging 8.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game; and even rookie Jurt Cevin, who also had 12 starts, averaged a double-double of 12.1 points and 12.7 rebounds per game.
Today Lowry was suspended due to injury, and Gaby Vincent took his place, contributing 11 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists on 3-of-6 shooting from outside the three-point line without any mistakes, and the restrictions on Trae Young were also very good.
Almost forgot, at the end of the heat bench, there was also an Oladipo. He didn't get any playing time in the first three games of the series, and Today Lowry gave him a chance with an injury stop, and finally contributed 6 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in 23 minutes of playing time. Although missing most of the season due to injury made it difficult for Oladipo to return to the level of the former All-Star, his amazing performance of 40 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in the finale of the regular season reminded the coaching staff that he still had a battle when the team needed it.
Usually, in the playoffs, the importance of lineup depth decreases because of the tightening of the rotation. But this year's playoffs, the league has frequent injuries, Booker, Middleton, Simmons, Capela, Barnes, Doncic... Almost every team has important players missed the game due to injury, and it is not known what will happen next. In such a situation, the Heat's lineup depth is particularly important, and the ability to resist risk may become their most critical advantage.
This year's playoffs have been played so far, the number one favorite to win the championship is none other than the Warriors, the new death five composed of Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, green, in the series with the Nuggets to show terror combat effectiveness, has become a common problem faced by the whole league.
And if the Heat can rush out of the East, they may be more of a threat to the Warriors than the Bucks, Celtics, and 76ers, because compared with the other three major Eastern Conference contenders, the Heat's interior combination (Adebayo & Tucker) is obviously more suitable for dealing with the Warriors' infinite air cut and unlimited blocking.
Before a team has officially advanced to the divisional semifinals, it seems premature to discuss who can win the championship. But the Heat, who claimed to be a dark horse all the way to the Finals two years ago, shouldn't they get more respect after upgrading the lineup in all directions?
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