Heat players motivated by underdog status

As the Heat and Celtics face off in the Eastern Conference finals, there’s one big, noticeable difference between the two rosters.

Forward Andre Iguodala is the only Heat player who was a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft.

Miami features a rotation that includes undrafted players in Derrick Jones Jr., Duncan Robinson and

Kendrick Nunn; latelottery picks in Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and

Kelly Olynyk; a late firstround pick in Jimmy Butler; and two second-round picks in Jae Crowder and

Goran Dragic.

Meanwhile, the Celtics’ top five players were top-10 selections. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum both selected at pick No. 3, Marcus Smart went at No. 6, and Gordon Hayward and Kemba Walker were both picked at No. 9.

“It’s a lot of motivation,” Nunn said of the Heat’s underdog roster prior to Tuesday’s start of the conference finals at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. “You go down the line and look at the list of guys we have and they have, and we’ve got a lot of guys that got out of the mud.

“The next step for us is Boston, Eastern Conference finals, and that’s one of our motivations. A lot of undrafted guys, got it out the mud. Their roster is a little different, drafted guys, high picks. So we’re looking forward to that, and competing against those guys and showing our value and what we can do.”

For the Heat, it’s not about where a player was drafted. It’s about the makeup of the player.

“That’s part of our philosophy, part of our culture are guys that are extremely motivated, driven, have a passion for this game, have a passion for competition and have a willingness to work for it and fight for it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s our fabric. But it doesn’t matter where you’ve been drafted or what path you had to take. There are so many different paths to get to this point, to be one of the 450 but also to be part of a winning team. You know, we feel we have a roster full of guys that share the same values about competition.”

But this Heat roster is certainly different than the one Spoelstra helped lead to four conference finals appearances during the

Big 3 era.

That roster was anchored by superstars Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who were each top-five draft picks.

“I have two sons now. It’d be like trying to compare kids,” Spoelstra said when asked if this season’s run to the conference finals has been more rewarding than his four others as Miami’s head coach. “I’m in this profession to do my job for an organization that I believe in. I feel like I’m a steward of this culture. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of the RileyArison leadership for 25 years. And we’ve built many different teams that looked a lot different. All with the same goal.

“I feel very fortunate to be with this group and think everybody feels the same way in our locker room. We just want to make the most of it for each other.”

HEAT-CELTICS SERIES SCHEDULE

The full schedule for the East finals has not been released yet, but the dates and times for the first three games of the series have been announced.

After Tuesday’s Game 1, Game 2 will be played Thursday at 7 p.m. and Game 3 will be played Saturday at 8:30 p.m. All East finals games are expected to be televised on ESPN.

The NBA has not set the schedule for the other four games of the best-of-7 series yet, with a gap in between Games 3 and 4 possible to allow for the Western Conference finals to catch up to the East finals and also to avoid going head-to-head with Monday Night Football on Sept. 21.

While conference finals games aren’t televised locally on Fox Sports Sun, there is a one-hour pregame show featuring the Heat broadcast crew on Heat.com. There’s also postgame coverage on Fox Sports Sun, and all games can still be heard on 790 The Ticket for the English broadcast and WRTO Mix 98.3FM for the Spanish broadcast.

The Heat’s only player on the injury report for Game 1 was rookie center Chris Silva, who remains out because of a groin injury.

The Celtics were without one rotation player for the start of the conference finals. Hayward has missed most of the playoffs after spraining his right ankle in Boston’s postseason opener, and he was ruled out for Tuesday’s game.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens said he expects Hayward to “play at some point in this series.”