Spoelstra, Udoka have Heat, Celtics ready to go
He grew up in Portland, bas- ketball in his blood. Wasn't ex- actly a big-time recruit before eventually playing some college ball in the West Coast Conference. Took a circuitous route into coaching, guided along the way by one of the game's legendary sideline bosses. And last summer, he was part of the brain trust that helped USA Basketball win Olympic gold. That is Erik Spoelstra's story. That is also Ime Udoka's story.
There is enormous respect between those men, who have known one another for decades and have deep ties. Spoelstra coaches the Miami Heat, Udoka, who briefly played for USF, is in his first season coaching the Boston Celtics, and one of them will be representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. Game 1 of the East title series is tonight, the top-seeded Heat playing host to the secondseeded Celtics.
“We have great respect for what they've done during the regular season, to develop the right habits,” said Spoelstra, now in his 14th season after taking over as Miami coach for Hall of Famer Pat Riley. “And like I said, this is the way it should be — the two teams that played most consistently at the top of the East for most of the year, and we're meeting in the conference finals to figure it out.”
The Heat needed five games to get past Atlanta in Round 1, then six games to oust Philadelphia in the East semifinals. Boston swept Brooklyn in Round 1, then ended Milwaukee's reign as NBA champions by finishing off a seven-game series win in the other East semi that ended Sunday.
It's a rematch of the 2020 East finals, held in the restart bubble at Walt Disney World, when Miami topped Boston 4-2 to earn a berth in the NBA Finals. That was the third East finals loss in a four-year span for members of the Celtics — and many of the players from some of or all those defeats, like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, are Boston's core today.
Boston, which won the regular season series 2-1, may not have Smart (mid-foot sprain) available tonight. The Heat, meanwhile, will play without Kyle Lowry (hamstring) tonight.
MIDDLETON MAY NOT HAVE RETURNED
IF BUCKS WON >> Khris Middleton might not have been available for the Eastern Conference finals even if the Milwaukee Bucks had made it that far.
The three-time All-Star missed the Bucks' last 10 games after spraining the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in Game 2 of a first-round series with the Chicago Bulls. Middleton sat out Milwaukee's entire second-round series with the Boston Celtics, who beat the Bucks in seven games and open the conference finals Tuesday in Miami.
“I don't know if I would have been ready for (tonight),” Middleton said Monday. “I don't know if I would have been ready if it went to Game 7. It was almost a day-by-day thing, just waking up and seeing how I felt, seeing if there's swelling in there, and there's a point where you have to make sure the ligament's completely healed.”
Middleton's absence was an unfortunate turn of events for the Bucks, who benefited from injuries to other teams during their title run last season. The Bucks won a seven-game East semifinal with the Brooklyn Nets after injuries knocked out James Harden for most of the first four games and Kyrie Irving for the last three games.
The Bucks did lose Giannis Antetokounmpo to a knee injury for two games in the East finals, but he returned to become MVP of the NBA Finals.