Celtics, Heat are still the class of the East

BOSTON — From the pandemic to the play-in tournament, not much has kept the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat from crossing paths in the Eastern Conference finals recently.

When they tip off Game 1 of their latest playoffs pairing Wednesday night, it will mark the third East finals matchup between Miami and Boston in the last four seasons and the second straight after Boston prevailed in seven games last spring.

The Heat and Celtics still playing this late in the season can’t be a surprise anymore.

Yet, despite all that familiarity, Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown sees a different Miami team from the one they outlasted a year ago.

“It’s not the same team as last year. Jimmy is still Jimmy and Spo is still Spo,” Brown said of Heat star Jimmy Butler and coach Erik Spoelstra. “But we’ve got to make sure that we’re aware of everybody else.”

Everybody else includes veterans with NBA Finals experience like Kevin Love, along with players like Max Strus, who has been a steady contributor since Tyler Herro was sidelined after breaking his hand in the opening game of Miami’s first-round series with Milwaukee.

But as the Celtics looks to refocus after an emotionally taxing seven-game series with Philadelphia, they know that stopping a Heat team that’s been rolling since the play-in round must begin with trying to contain Butler.

“He doesn’t back down. He doesn’t quit. He’s not afraid of nobody,” Brown said of Butler, who is averaging career playoff highs in points (31.1) and field-goal percentage (52.7%). “We’ve got to be ready for that challenge. We’ve got some great guys.”

The Celtics have a pair of star scorers as well. Firstteam All-NBA selection Jayson Tatum (30.1 points) is coming off a playoff-record 51-point performance against the 76ers and has scored 30 or more five times this postseason. Brown is averaging 26.6 points.

“It’s been a tough year, but we’re right where we want to be,” Strus said. “This is what we talk about all season.”

The Heat’s season didn’t come without major challenges. Miami didn’t spend a day over .500 until mid-December, had a stretch where it lost 12 out of 20 games late in the season, lost a play-in game to Atlanta and trailed in an elimination play-in game against Chicago with 2:18 remaining.

“I wish I could have scripted this or told the team the first day of training camp, ‘Hey, we’re going to go through a lot of stuff this year and sometimes it’s going to feel like we’re in basketball hell ... and at the end of the day we’re going to face Boston in the conference finals,’ ” Spoelstra said.