But they lost to the Hawks in the play-in!
Here’s a free preview of today’s subscriber-only post. Become a GMIB subscriber to see the whole thing and all of our other daily posts. But they lost to the Hawks in the play-in!Miami, who almost didn't make the playoffs, is a win away from the NBA Finals.Good morning. Let’s basketball. Let’s briefly review the Miami Heat’s 2023 postseason to date. LOSS vs. Hawks, trailing by as many as 24 points WIN at Bucks by 13 WIN at Knicks by 7 WIN at Celtics by 7 It was less than six weeks ago when the Hawks pummeled the Heat in the East 7-8 play-in game. Miami had struggled to the finish line of the regular season, unable to catch the Brooklyn Nets for a guaranteed playoff spot after the Nets traded Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving for a bunch of wings. The Nets went well below .500 after the trade deadline, but Miami wasn’t much better than .500 and simply couldn’t catch them. Still, given that the Heat had been the East No. 1 seed a year ago with a substantially similar roster, there was a little bit of that “you don’t really want the Heat in your bracket!” talk. And then Hawks beat them. THE CHICAGO BULLS had a lead over the Heat late in the fourth quarter of the knock-out game of the play-in tournament. Miami was 3 minutes, 47 seconds from elimination from the 2023 NBA postseason. They survived with a stirring endgame performance (sound familiar?) and won the No. 8 seed. And now, a little more than a month later, the Heat are poised to have lost as many games in best-of-7 series against the top two seeds in the conference as they did against THE HAWKS and THE BULLS in the play-in tournament. The Heat appear poised to have lost more games to the KNICKS than to the Bucks and Celtics combined. The Heat are 5-3 this postseason against the No. 7 Hawks, No. 9 Bulls and No. 5 Knicks. The Heat are 7-1 against the No. 1 Bucks and No. 2 Celtics. None of this makes any sense. Home teams who lose Game 1 almost always win Game 2. Heck, the Celtics did just that in the conference semifinals after James Harden and the Sixers stole the first game of the series in Boston. Friday’s Game 2 against the Heat felt like an obvious Boston win going in, maybe even a blow-out. Instead … It became clear at that point, if it weren’t already clear from Game 1, that the Celtics were in real trouble against a team as resilient and talented as the Heat, a team that could defend well enough to disrupt Boston’s offensive plans and a team that could beat the excellent Celtics defense in idiosyncratic ways... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Good Morning It's Basketball to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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The NBA coaching carousel reaches terminal speed
Monday, May 15, 2023
Monty Williams is dismissed by a baffling billionaire. PLUS: Jayson Tatum chokes out the Sixers and Ja Morant is the bad influence.
Naptime for the Warriors
Saturday, May 13, 2023
Golden State's season comes to a premature end. PLUS: Jalen Brunson literally isn't enough.
We should have 9 All-NBA teams, not 3
Friday, May 12, 2023
Let's go back to the top 10% of the league getting honored.
Devin Booker can't miss
Monday, May 8, 2023
PLUS: James Harden is clutch now and the Warriors are back on the ropes.
James Harden put on his big boy pants
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
PLUS: Nikola Jokic is the best player in the Suns vs. Nuggets series, in case you were wondering.
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