At the end of the season, the Heat advanced to the playoffs in eighth place in the East, while the Lakers advanced to the playoffs in seventh place in the West; However, compared with the Western Lakers, who were optimistic about the "Black Seven", the Heat were not optimistic about advancing at first.
After all, their opponents are the Bucks, who are strong and have repeatedly played the top three in the East + won the championship (21 years), not the "recruit eggs" like the Grizzlies. Unexpectedly, in the first round of the series, under Butler's anti-heavenly play - averaging 37.6 points, 6.0 boards, 4.8 assists, 60.9% shooting percentage, the Heat "easily" eliminated the Bucks 4-1 by a big score...
In the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, they faced a team like the Knicks without superstar blessings and overall strength was not outstanding enough - even if Butler did not have the "explosive" output of the first round against the Bucks, even if the Heat lacked Teddy Hiro, Oladipo and others, they could easily eliminate the Knicks 4-1.
Heat vs Green Kai: At one point, he forced Green Kai to 0-3 adversity, but did not seize the opportunity to be turned over three games in a row
Before the start of the Eastern Conference Finals, compared to the Heat's "easy" advance (five advances) after the first two rounds of the series, Green Kai was repeatedly frustrated. After six games with the Hawks in the first round and a tie-break against Philadelphia in the second round, the series was caught off guard by the Heat at the beginning...
In the end, Green Kai was forced by the Heat to fall 3-0 down, and almost lost the possibility of continuing to advance. After all, 150 times in NBA history, trailing 3-0, no team behind can do a miracle. The Heat, who led 3-0, may feel that the promotion is stable, or they may feel that the confidence of Green Kai has been lost, but there is a slack after G3.
You know, the reason why the Heat won in the first three games of the series has a lot to do with their 46.8% three-point shooting percentage, but in G4 they only shot 25% three-point percentage. This also allowed Green Kai to find a glimmer of life in the adversity of 0-3 down, successfully winning G4 and retaining the hope of promotion.
After losing the series G4, many people thought that Butler would stand up and reap the game like in the first round, and would not give Green Kai the opportunity and hope to advance. But I didn't expect that G5 Butler shot 5 of 10 in a single game, only scored 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, far from the level of leading the team to harvest the game.
And when the G6 win was imminent, Butler was invisible in the first three quarters. He shot 2-of-16 from the field and scored just nine points when the team needed him to step up and score consistently. Fortunately, Butler stood up at the end of the quarter, led the team to overtake the score with 15 points in a single quarter, and was about to stage the script of the counterattack again, but unfortunately it was destroyed by White's basket "lore"...
Chase from 0-3 to 3-3! Even if Butler breaks out in seven, the Heat will have a hard time winning the series
1. Home field advantage + winning streak, Green Kai has a better chance to win. After the Heat took a big 3-0 lead, they should have swept their opponents 4-0 like the Nuggets than left them with the illusion and hope that they might advance.
However, under the premise of a 3-0 lead, the Heat lost G4, G5, and G6 one after another, allowing Green Kai to chase the big score to 3-3. As the so-called one blow, then decline, three exhaustion, after losing three consecutive games, the momentum and confidence of the Heat also fell to the bottom.
On the contrary, from 0-3 down to a 3-3 draw, this is when Green Kai's momentum and confidence reached its peak. In particular, the G6 goal can be even more inspiring, making people believe that luck is still on the side of Green Kai. Coupled with the fact that the big seven battles have a home field advantage, then Lvkai is equivalent to occupying the time, location, people and ...
2. Even if Butler breaks out in a seven-steal breakout, the Heat will be difficult to beat Green Kai. In any game of this year's Eastern Conference Series G4, G5, G6, as long as Butler can break out, the Heat may have already won the series. But Butler never played an explosive performance, and if he waited until the Big Seven to break out, the Heat might also have defeated Green Kai.
Because after Teddy Hiro and Oladipo retired from injury, the Heat have actually been overloading output. If the series can be finished in five games, it really won't affect them much. But once the series is dragged to the sixth and seventh games, the Heat's core physical disadvantage will become their fatal flaw.
In contrast, now Lvkai is undoubtedly the party with better physical strength and momentum. What's more, Tatum also has the strength to burst out to kill the game, and when he played Philadelphia against Philadelphia this year, Tatum shot 17 of 28 from the field and shot 51 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists to lead the team to win directly.
So the most direct way for the Heat to win is to count on Butler to keep breaking out. But even if Butler breaks out in the Seven World War, it is not necessary that the Heat can defeat Green Kai. After all, from the perspective of the comprehensive strength of the two teams, Green Kai is the more dominant side, and as long as they can play steadily and steadily, they may not have the opportunity to win the game easily.
To sum up, now the Heat have missed the best time to harvest the game, and the Green Kai chased from 0-3 down to 3-3, coupled with sitting on home-court advantage, the big seven games occupy the right time and place. Next, as long as they stabilize and do not collapse, it is only a matter of course to advance to the finals...