‘A crazy story’: Heat make it to Eastern Conference finals with one more grinding win

MIAMI — Finally, Erik Spoelstra allowed himself to unwind, just a little bit. He walked through the hallway of this arena off Biscayne Bay with a white disposable coffee cup in hand — hold the coffee and add something stronger — and let victory set in. He had been tight-lipped for nearly a fortnight as the Heat and the Knicks crashed at one another in an intense series. Everyone had; a hard shell built around a whole team. A survival mechanism to get through a matchup that served as a modern homage to some of the rivalry’s finer moments.

This was a time to let go, for at least an evening. The Heat had made it through 48 more grueling minutes, nearly whipsawed by a 6-1 tank impervious to all of its defenses, and came out with a 96-92 win in Game 6 to close out this Eastern Conference semifinal.

Jimmy Butler took to the postgame press conference podium shirtless; Kyle Lowry laughed sitting alongside him. Spoelstra sat there minutes earlier, cup in hand.

The game, he said, had been a nod to Pat Riley, the Heat don who had catalyzed those late ’90s grudge matches. It was a brutish exhibition, with no signs in sight of the well-nourished style the NBA has pivoted to over the last few years. But it ended in a way the Heat have become accustomed to, played at their pace, and on their terms.

They sanded the Knicks down possession after possession, turning Julius Randle’s All-NBA season into dust, sealing off the paint and forcing wayward 3s by the dozens. It was close, anxiety-ridden until the end thanks mostly to Jalen Brunson’s unceasing artillery, but it was a win all the same. A win on a date on the calendar that seemed so unlikely even a month ago, as the Heat nursed a Play-In Tournament loss and hoped to just scrape into the postseason as the No. 8 seed.

Now, they’re going to the Eastern Conference finals, just the second eighth seed to get that far in NBA history. Miami had struggled so much all season, and yet here they are, at a destination that may just feel like a birthright with their third trip in four years.

“It’s a crazy story being written,” Bam Adebayo said. “Through all the ups and downs of this season, a lot of people counted us out. Saying we weren’t even going to make it past the first round. Now we’re in the Eastern Conference finals. It just shows the determination and the will that this team has.”

Miami spent the regular season in a malaise. Their offense sputtered, so they turned to the defense as a foundation and a propellant. They finished with the seventh-best record in the conference and then lost to the Atlanta Hawks on their home court in the first Play-In game. The playoffs no longer felt like a surety.

The film session the day after that loss proved to be a moment of reassurance. Spoelstra was convinced that the Heat still had a run left in them. He felt, he said, how much Miami wanted to keep playing.

He had felt it over the preceding months, but the ebbs and flows of the season take a toll. When he arrived that day, a month ago, it sunk in.

Gotta turn your sound all the way up for this one! pic.twitter.com/uZ9CtW6lRy

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) May 13, 2023

Spoelstra left the session and told his coaching staff he felt the team still had a chance, brought together by the adversity they had faced to that point. The Heat were united in their desperation. They had taken their game against the Hawks for granted, Adebayo said, and lost, and were left in a precarious spot.

“I know a lot that I don’t know, but I know when a team really wants to keep a season going,” Spoelstra said, “and this team really wants to keep their season going.”

The Heat scraped by the Bulls in the second Play-In game, then shocked the top-seeded Bucks in five, losing Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo along the way. They relied on Playoff Jimmy in the first round, but his powers were sapped by a right ankle injury in the fourth quarter of the Game 1 win against the Knicks.

While Butler recovered to miss only the next game, this series was a testament to the Heat’s resourcefulness. Kyle Lowry brought verve off the bench, rejuvenating what had been a difficult season. He had 11 points and nine assists Friday. Max Strus and Gabe Vincent, two undrafted products of Miami’s development program, offered firepower at times.

Adebayo stood tall against what had been a dominant Knicks frontcourt, and New York could not play to its strengths. The Heat drew even with them on the boards and turned the Knicks into jump shooters, and poor ones as they missed 25-of-35 of their 3s. Game 6 was a resounding example. The Heat outscored them 38-20 in the paint and took 27 shots within 4 feet of the rim, while the Knicks took only 12. New York made more 3s (10) than shots in the paint (eight). He helped keep Randle — who scored 15 points but missed 11 of 14 shots — quiet and surveilled the interior, as he had for the five preceding games.

Adebayo was also an offensive fulcrum, a two-way force. Butler scored a team-high 24 points Friday night, and Adebayo scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds and served as a defensive anchor. He prolonged possessions with offensive rebounds and saved them with late jumpers.

“He’s been the anchor for us on the defensive side of the ball, but my goodness, when he’s attacking and making shots and getting to the free-throw line on the offensive side of it, he looks virtually unguardable,” Butler said.

Miami squeezed the Knicks, shrinking the floor and beguiling everyone but Brunson. Yet, it nearly failed anyway. Brunson kept making shots and nothing Spoelstra threw at him worked. They tried to tire him out, after Brunson played all 48 minutes two days prior, and keep the ball out of his hands. They started sending two defenders on him on inbounds passes after some made baskets in the first half, and Vincent hounded him for all 94 feet. In the second half, Miami started sending two defenders at him in the half court too. He still had 41 points in 45 minutes on 14-of-22 shooting. Everyone else on the Knicks made just 13 shots combined.

Brunson befuddled the Heat but just could not do it alone, though he tried. They advanced not because he ran out of buckets but because he couldn’t get enough opportunities. With 9:55 left in the second quarter, he finally sat for the first time since Game 4 because he had picked up two fouls and it swung the night as the Heat finished off a comeback from a 14-point deficit with an 8-0 run for the 127 seconds he rested and took the lead.

It was back and forth from there. The Heat almost pulled away late in the fourth, holding a six-point lead with 65 seconds left as Butler sloughed off double-teams to facilitate the offense through patience and a willingness to make the right passes, but Vincent popped Brunson in the face with a forearm for a Flagrant 1 foul with 59 seconds left and New York pulled within two.

The Knicks’ last hope, down 92-90 with less than 30 seconds remaining, ended unceremoniously as the Heat finally overwhelmed Brunson along the baseline with a trap. He tried to hit a cutting Randle in the paint but Vincent threw a hand in to deflect the ball and Miami grabbed possession. Still, Spoelstra admitted the Heat were powerless to stop him.

“How is that dude not an All-Star or All-NBA?” he wondered. “He should be on one of those teams. I wish he was still out west.”

If Brunson was a problem, they’ll soon find out if they face Joel Embiid and James Harden or Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who could be even more treacherous to face. But for the Heat to even be at this point seems surreal.

They nearly capsized against the Bulls. Their recovery to upset the Bucks and make this run has been almost ineffable. How else to describe it?

The Miami Heat, a pillar of success in the league for two decades, turned into underdogs in April and suddenly found themselves all over again. They’ve come this far on the backs of Butler and Adebayo and a roster of castoffs, aged All-Stars, and unheralded finds who have been molded to fit this franchise’s particular demands. They’ve taken down a recent champion and an old foe, and speak as if they are primed for more.

Another round and another series await. The NBA playoffs keep moving along and the Heat keep making space for themselves in it, expectations be damned.

“It is really freaking hard to get to the Eastern Conference finals,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve had our normal, big, audacious goals for this season but when you get to one step like this there’s great gratitude because there’s a lot of teams that would love to be in this position and we’ve had to fight and claw for everything we’ve gotten in this postseason.”

(Photo of Jimmy Butler defending Jalen Brunson in Game 6: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)