No. 1 Miami Heat vs. No. 2 Boston Celtics

■ Season series: Celtics, 2-1.

■ Schedule: Tuesday and Thursday at Miami, Saturday and May 23 at Boston, May 25 at Miami*, May 27 at Boston*, May 29 at Miami* (*- if necessary)

■ How they got here: The Heat beat No. 8 Atlanta 4-1 and No. 4 Philadelphia 4-2. The Celtics beat No. 7 Brooklyn 4-0 and No. 3 Milwaukee 4-3

■ Storyline: After getting past Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Boston’s Jayson Tatum now goes against Jimmy Butler in the first 1 vs. 2 matchup in the conference finals since 2019. In 2020, the Heat beat the Celtics 4-2 in the Eastern Conference finals in the bubble at Walt Disney World.

■ Key matchup: Butler vs. Tatum. Butler (28.7 points per game) and Tatum (28.3) are the Nos. 4 and 5 scorers in the postseason, with only Luka Doncic ahead of them among those who are still playing. Butler doesn’t have the diversity of Tatum’s offensive skills but is as good as anyone in the game at the things he does well. He has a pair of 40-point games this postseason. Tatum, who scored 46 points with the Celtics facing elimination in Game 6 at Milwaukee, will be the focus of a Heat defense that has already slowed down high scorers Trae Young and James Harden.

■ Injury watch: Miami point guard Kyle Lowry is expected to be out at least for the opener with the hamstring injury that sidelined him for the final two games against Philadelphia. Boston center Robert Williams didn’t play in the last four games against Milwaukee. He sat out three with knee soreness and then didn’t appear in Game 7, even though he was available.

■ Numbers of note: Boston is in the conference finals for the fourth time in the last six years, but the Celtics haven’t advanced in any of those attempts. … Butler is leading all players in the postseason with 2.1 steals per game. … Boston’s Al Horford is the career leader in postseason games without ever reaching the NBA Finals (135). … The Heat are 6-0 at home in the playoffs.

The Celtics are 4-1 on the road.