Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Miami on edge of NBA Finals return
It is not the NBA’s ultimate hallowed ground, but just to get footing in the conference finals represents more than a mere steppingstone for the Miami Heat.
They appreciate just how difficult getting here can be, let alone making the next step, to the NBA Finals.
“I want our guys to just step back at least for a night, if not two nights, and just reflect,” said coach Erik Spoelstra, who gave his team Wednesday off following Tuesday night’s 103-94 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks that gave the franchise its first berth in the Eastern Conference finals since 2014.
“It’s not easy to get to the conference finals and our organization knows that. We’ve been trying desperately to get back to the conference finals. It’s not our ultimate goal, we get it. But you can still acknowledge the journey and how hard it is just to get to this point.”
It is the franchise’s eighth trip to the league’s penultimate playoff perch, five times making it to the NBA Finals and three times securing championships.
In 1997, in Pat Riley’s second season as franchise steward, the initial trip to the playoff’s third round meant a 4-1 exit to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
In 2005, there was the sting of a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Pistons, with injuries creating a sobering reality.
Then, in 2006, a 4-2 breakthrough against those same Pistons and the franchise’s first championship, behind the play of Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal.
A five-year gap would follow, before reloading with the Big Three of Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh in the 2010 offseason and making four successive trips to the NBA Finals.
In 2011, it was winning the Eastern Conference finals in five games against the Bulls, before losing the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks.
In 2012, it was a tenuous seven-game escape against the Boston Celtics in the East finals before securing the franchise’s second championship, against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In 2013, it was the challenge of another seven-game survival, against the Indiana Pacers, before championship success against the San Antonio Spurs.
And, most recently, before this latest breakthrough, a 4-2 push past the Pacers in the 2014 East finals, before losing the NBA Finals to the Spurs.
Since then, every front-office move by Riley and every check signed by Micky Arison has been based on reclaiming these heights, and taking that ultimate step toward more fabric waving from the rafters at AmericanAirlines Arena.
In the interim, there was the loss, reunion, and then retirement of Wade; the blood clots and retirement with Bosh; the failed reloading with Hassan Whiteside, James Johnson and Dion Waiters; the brief youth movement with Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson.
And, then, back-to-the-drawingboard success with this next wave.
“That is why we brought Jimmy Butler here,” Spoelstra said. “That is why we put this team together with the veterans, adding Andre [Iguodala] and Jae [Crowder], building around Goran [Dragic] and Bam [Adebayo], and having a young core — was to try to do something in the playoffs.
“It’s not easy to get to the conference finals. Otherwise every team would be doing it. And we’ve been at this for 25 years under the Riley-Arison leadership. We’ve tried every single year to just get to this level.”
For five seasons, it never was quite good enough. For the previous three seasons, there had been a single playoffgame victory.
Then came the league’s March 11 shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic and July restart at Disney World in a quarantine setting, and games without fans on the neutral courts of the Wide World of Sports complex.
And now, this most unique of opportunities, a best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals with no road games, no travel, but very much the prospect of further molding something enduring, something sustainable for when the times eventually again are normal.
“It just shows you how competitive this league is,” Spoelstra said of the getting knocked down, reloading so many times, before being back on this footing. “It doesn’t happen every year and we don’t take it for granted. We’re grateful for the opportunity that we’ve had.
“It has been an extraordinary year. There’s been so much going on and we’re just grateful to be a part of this bubble and this opportunity.”