The Heat advanced 4-3
As the eighth-seeded player in the East, the Heat have been looked down upon by opponents in this playoff journey. But I never expected that the true strength of the Heat is not as simple as we think. Not only were they able to defeat the Bucks and Knicks, but they were also able to overturn the favorites to win the Green Shirts in the Eastern Conference finals and reject their opponents to create a 3-0 turnaround by a big score of 4-3. After winning the Eastern Conference finals, the Heat not only became the second team in NBA history to reach the Finals as a black eight, but also became the best black eight team in nearly 20 years.
It must be admitted that from the Bucks, who broke through the first place in the East, to the Dark Horse Knicks who defeated the regular season later, to the 7-game battle with the Green Army, refusing the Green Army to complete the miracle of letting three chases four, the Heat can no longer be simply defined by dark horses. They have only Butler on the team, and the core players who can barely get their hands on it, similar to Adebayo and Lowry, have no consistent statistical contributions at all. Moreover, what is even more unexpected is that the role players that the Heat rely on in the process of going dark in the East are similar to Strus, Vincent, Martin and Dunroe who have lost drafts.
If Butler, as a tough guy in the league, can successfully reach the top with a group of players who are not drafted in the next Finals, they will set an unprecedented record in the league and create a milestone journey to the championship.
Butler MVP, Martin shows his true colors as a superstar
It is worth noting that after winning this game, the Heat became the Eastern Conference champion, and the league also voted for the best player in the Eastern Conference series. Butler, as the leader of the team, also successfully won the East Final MVP with a 1-vote lead. There is no doubt that Butler did have a sluggish performance on the stage of the Eastern Finals, but from the overall result, Butler still deserves the recognition and respect of the league. Because, while showing the league's tough guy demeanor, he led the team to create the best results of the Black Eight team in nearly 20 years and won the opportunity to impact the championship trophy.
However, we also have to admit that Caleb Martin, who received four votes, also showed the style of a superstar player on the stage of the East final. According to statistics, he has never scored 25 points in a single game during the regular season. But on the stage of the Eastern Finals, he scored more than 25 points in two games, and the statistics of 26 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists in this game even set a new career and playoff single-game scoring high.
Interestingly, according to the statistics of the history of the Heat, Martin and Butler also became the duo in the history of the Heat, and the second team played in the playoffs, both scoring 25 points. Previously, only James and Bosh achieved this achievement against the Pacers in 2014.
epilogue
After winning the game, the Heat were exhausted after playing seven games, but reality did not give them a respite. According to the NBA's official Finals schedule, the Heat will come to the home of the Denver Nuggets on June 2 for the G1 battle of the Finals. Objective analysis, the Nuggets have been resting for more than a week after defeating the Lakers 4-0, and now with the announcement of the schedule, they will actually get nearly 10 days of rest, and the tight schedule is obviously not optimistic for the Heat.