For the first time this century and the second time in the history of the NBA, the 8th seed has made the NBA Finals behind star Jimmy Butler, or as he likes to be called, “Himmy Buckets”. There are only eight teams per conference, so they were the worst in their conference to make the playoffs. In fact, the Heat didn’t even have a guaranteed spot in the playoffs at the end of the regular season, as the 7th through 10th seeds had to battle in the play-in to earn their playoff spot. They barely made it past the play-in, as they lost to the Hawks in their first game and were on the verge of elimination, as they were down to the Bulls with 3 minutes left in the final play-in game. To nobody’s surprise the Heat were given no chance to make the NBA Finals or even make it past the first round against the championship favorites, the Milwaukee Bucks. But now here we are with the Miami Heat being just the second 8th seed to ever make the NBA Finals and we can only sit back and wonder how this even happened.
In the first round, the Heat were expected to be absolutely demolished by the 1st seed Milwaukee Bucks, but with a little luck and great play, the Heat not only beat the Bucks, but flat-out demolished them. In game 1, Bucks superstar, Giannis Antetotkounmpo, went down hard with an injury and would not return until Game 4, allowing the Heat to jump out to a 2-1 series lead behind strong performances from Jimmy Butler and several role players. But with Giannis coming back for Game 4, their little miracle run was going to come to an end, or at least that’s what we all thought. For the first three quarters of Game 4, the Bucks did what we all thought they would and held a double digit lead going into the 4th quarter. Then Jimmy Butler and the Heat absolutely flipped the script and outscored the Bucks 41 to 24 in the 4th quarter reading to a Miami Heat win behind Jimmy Butler’s jaw-dropping 56 point performance. Not to be outdone by their prior performance, the Heat in Game 5 made another double-digit 4th quarter comeback to force an overtime where they would eventually win by just 2 points. Again Butler did his best Michael Jordan impersonation, with another masterclass performance. The Heat not only upset the Bucks, but destroyed them in 5 games with miraculous comebacks and Jimmy Butler performances throughout the series. This series made the Heat adjust the fifth ever eighth seed to make it past the first round and they did it in just five games in a series against the championship favorite Milwaukee Bucks.
The Heat would then go on to face the Knicks, who themselves had also led their own upset over the favored Cleveland Cavaliers in 5 games. Although Jimmy Butler was injured in Game 1 and forced to sit out Game 2 as a result, Heat role players such as gabe Vincent and Caleb martin would step up to keep the series tied at 1 win each. Returning from injury, Butler had a 28 and then a 27 point performance to lead the Heat to a commanding 3-1 series lead. Despite the efforts of Knicks star Jalen Brunson, strong performances from Butler, Bam Adebayo, and Max Strus helped close out the series in 6, sending the 8th seed Miami Heat to the conference finals, just 4 wins away from the NBA Finals.
The Heat would now face the extraordinarily favored Boston Celtics to make the NBA Finals, a team that was arguably better than the Bucks they faced in the first round, and unlike the Bucks, all their stars were fully healthy. The two teams had some history, as the Heat had fallen just short against the Celtics last year, losing by just 4 points in Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat defied all expert predictions and jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, which of course featured another Jimmy Butler master class as in Game 1 he had 35 points, 7 assist, 6 steals, and 5 rebounds. Even still, the Celtics were still given a 72% chance by ESPN to beat the Heat despite their massive deficit. And at first the Heat proved them right, as the Heat, who needed to win just one more game to make the NBA Finals, repeatedly dropped the ball and lost the next three games to tie the series 3-3, forcing a Game 7 in Boston. Game 6 was particularly brutal as the Heat were just three seconds away from winning, but Derrick White tipped in a rebound with just 0.2 seconds left on the clock as the ball left his hands and went into the basket. The Heat now had to go to Boston to steal a Game 7 on the Celtics home floor against a rowdy Boston crowd after having all their momentum zapped. This was perhaps their toughest challenge yet. But this Heat team is not new to adversity and they absolutely wiped the floor with Boston, winning by nearly 20 points with the game almost never in doubt.
Jimmy Butler and the Heats officially became just the 2nd ever 8th seed to ever make it to the finals, defying the odds and fighting their way to the top. Despite being an eighth seed and consistently being picked against by experts and fans. The Heat were able to become just the second ever 8th seed to make the NBA Finals.
