Random Musings About the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are in the NBA Finals. The second 8-seed to ever accomplish this feat, and the first to do so in an 82-game season. We have witnessed history these playoffs. More than that, though, we have witnessed the legendary ideology born of Pat Riley and embodied by Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Erik Spoelstra, and, yes, Udonis Haslem: Heat Culture. Below is several thousand words on this team and this run. I wanted to put them somewhere, and so here they shall live. I hope that through my rambling, you can ascertain something of value.
No discussion about this Heat team can begin without Jimmy Butler. The physical and spiritual leader of this team, Butler’s play these playoffs has further cemented him as one of the game’s very greatest, as well as one of the best playoff performers we’ve ever seen. His 56-point Game 4 versus Milwaukee followed by 42 points and the game-saving bucket off of an incredible lob play to take Game 5, and the series, in overtime will live on forever. His 10-point outburst late in Game 6 versus Boston, including three made free throws in the final seconds to put Miami up, will only be forgotten about because of Derrick White’s ludicrous game-winning tip-in. Butler has been nothing short of legendary during this run, but I want to take a step back and focus on something else.
After the Heat lost in the exact place they just advanced from — Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals versus the Boston Celtics — in 2022, Butler sat at the media podium postgame and said this when asked about how the team needed to improve: “I think we had enough. I think we do have enough. It sucks cause, like, you don’t know who’s gonna be on the roster any given year, you know what I’m saying? So, like I said, I’m just grateful for the opportunity to play with the guys that I did have the opportunity to play with, and it’s been like that every year I’ve played in the league. So, we had enough. Next year we will have enough, and we gon’ be right back in this same situation, and we’re gonna get it done.” PJ Tucker, after a one year stop-in and after playing a key role for the Heat, left that summer. The Heat struggled mightily throughout the regular season, falling from first in the East in 2022 to seventh, and then eighth after a Play-In Tournament loss. And here they were, right back in the same situation, and they got it done. Oh, and by the way: Miami won Game 7 one year to the day after their heartbreaker in ‘22, and one year to the day after Butler proclaimed they’d do it.
After Miami’s season nearly ended in the Play-In Tournament at the hands of the Chicago Bulls, requiring a fourth quarter comeback full of moments that have come to define the Heat during these playoffs, Butler and Max Strus were interviewed on the court by Chris Haynes. When asked about their impending matchup with the Bucks, Butler had this to say: “Man, it’s going to be tough. They swept us, what, two years ago? But I think we got a shot. A really good shot at that. As long as we stick together through the good and bad, I’m telling you we’re a really good team and we’re going to go out there and play as such.” I’m telling you. The Heat entered the playoffs with the worst championship odds of any team since 2009, facing the team with the NBA’s best record in Round 1. They won that series in five games, and are now four wins away from a championship.
After Miami went up 3-0 on the Celtics in the Conference Finals, Boston reeled off back-to-back impressive victories before Butler nearly ended the series himself in the final minutes of Game 6 despite a brutal shooting night from both him and Bam Adebayo. But on the game’s final play, Derrick White tipped in a Marcus Smart missed 3 at the buzzer to send the series back to Boston for Game 7. It also put the Heat on the precipice of history, as if they already weren’t enough: no team in NBA history has ever gone up 3-0 in a playoff series and lost. A loss like that is prone to elicit any number of reactions from those on the losing side — anger, frustration, almost certainly shock. For someone in Butler’s position, who had gone from ultimate hero to the wrong side of history in the blink of an eye, all of those emotions would have been justified. But when Butler sat up on the podium after the game, his mood could best be described as nonchalant. This is what he said when asked about what just transpired: “Basketball for you. Basketball at its finest — very, very, very entertaining. That’s good basketball, and I think — I believe, as we all do, like, you gon’ get the same test until you pass it, I swear. We were in the same position last year, and we can do it. I know that we will do it. We gotta go on the road and win in a very, very, very tough environment, but we’re capable of it. So let’s get busy.” Butler then took accountability for his rough shooting night, described the ways in which he planned to rally his teammates, mentioned how proud he was of them for nearly winning Game 6, and continued to exude the ultimate confidence in himself and his team that they would win Game 7. Fast forward two days, and Miami is headed to the Finals after a blowout in Boston.
If you have the time, watch the aforementioned interviews (I’ve linked all of them), if only to physically see them. I wanted to share these moments with you because for all that happens and can be discussed on the court (and trust me, there is a lot), times like these are a rare and exceptionally valuable window into the inner workings of a team. The consistency of Butler’s messaging in the public, in tandem with the way any and all around the Heat talk about him, show us on the outside that this is who Jimmy Butler is. This is who Jimmy Butler always has been. The amount of sheer, indomitable, possibly irrational belief that he has in not only himself, but every member of his team is unprecedented around the league. You can interpret these snippets as mere moments before and after more important moments, but to me, this is Butler inviting us to believe in him the way he believes in himself. Surely, he doesn’t care if anyone actually does; the confidence that man has in himself can only be mustered internally. But everything Butler’s said he and the Heat will do, he and the Heat have done. This is a special player, a special leader, showing the world what hard work and willpower as a collective can achieve. Words will be written about Butler’s on-court body of work by smarter basketball minds than I. I wanted to share another part of Butler’s story during this run, a part that arguably makes it even more special. We are all calling this run miraculous; you can bet anything that Jimmy Butler isn’t.
When Tyler Herro broke his hand in Game 1 of the playoffs, it could have spelled doom for the Heat. Herro had firmly established himself as the team’s third best player this season, and its best perimeter shot creator next to Butler by a lot. Without Herro, Miami’s margin for error got a whole lot smaller — they would need to hit tons of timely shots, capitalizing on as many opportunities Butler and Adebayo created for them as possible. That happened. But they’d also need players on the roster to step up as shot creators, in order to keep pressure off of the two top guys, as well as keeping pressure on defenses. So often in late playoff series, we see role players become unplayable as defenses simply ignore them, and they can’t make them pay (see Jarred Vanderbilt, a key defensive piece for the Lakers these playoffs whose lack of offense ended up tanking them in his minutes). Miami’s other guys would really need to up their games. And, well, that happened too.
Gabe Vincent, who became Miami’s full-time starting point guard over the course of this season, turned into a shot creating monster for stretches of this run. He’s upped his field goal attempts per game from 8.3 to 11.2 and increased his true shooting in the process, in large part due to his 3-point percentage spiking from 33.4% on 5.1 attempts per game in the regular season to 39% on 6.2 attempts per game. In the Heat’s closeout Game 5 victory versus the Bucks in the first round, Vincent took 23 shots, including an absolutely gigantic 3-pointer at the end of regulation, on the way to 22 points in the overtime victory. In Game 2 versus the Knicks in the next round, a game they played without Butler, Vincent played 40 minutes and took a team-high 17 shots. Vincent shot 11/14, including 6/9 from 3, in their blowout Game 3 win against Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals.
In a flash, Vincent went from a role player in every traditional sense to a key piece of several moments that got Miami to the Finals stage. What’s truly of note in that sense is the amount of confidence he has played with. Vincent is an adept pick-and-roll player, able to create shots for himself behind the line, in the midrange, and getting downhill. Without Herro, the need for someone to put pressure on opposing defenses in that way heightened; Vincent’s skillset made the most sense to step into the role. In Game 2 versus New York, Vincent was the Heat’s primary offensive option — read that again. For a game in the second round of the playoffs, Gabe Vincent was a team’s primary offensive option. And he played like it. He was gunning off of screens, not giving the defense any time to relax. That lets everyone else play off of bent defenses in the way they’re accustomed to. It restores the pecking order. The level of confidence Vincent is playing with may belie his status around the league, but it tracks with the way he’s played. For a team that has absolutely needed an ensemble offensive performance in order to win games, Vincent has given this Heat offense necessary juice.
Speaking of juice, how about Caleb Martin? From not touching the floor during last season’s seven-game loss to Boston on this stage to nearly winning Eastern Conference Finals MVP, Martin has been beyond essential for the Heat during this run. Like Vincent, Martin’s shot attempts have gone up during this run from 7.7 per game in the regular season to 9.2, and like Vincent, his efficiency has come up with it. In fact, according to Cleaning the Glass, Martin’s field goal percentage has increased from everywhere on the floor during this run — at the rim, from everywhere in the midrange, and from both the corners and above the break from 3. At 44% from distance and an absolutely scorching 70% from the midrange areas of the court, Martin has become an offensive dynamo. It’s come in a variety of ways, too.
Sequences that begin with one of Miami’s perimeter players digging their way to the rim, only to kick out to a waiting shooter have been a hallmark of their run, but they require shotmakers just as much as the drive-and-kickers in order to work. Martin has hit tons of humongous 3s as the beneficiary of his teammates’ bending the defense, a necessary ingredient for a run like this to happen. But Martin can also handle the ball, and has demonstrated a knack for incredibly tough shotmaking. The end of the third quarter of Game 7 versus Boston encapsulates Martin’s run as well as any single moment these playoffs: Boston was attempting to cut into Miami’s lead to close the quarter, and a strong finish could set the stage for a continued run into the fourth. But Martin responded with a sidestep 3 and a baseline turnaround fadeaway jumper — the type of shot you normally see from a star — to keep the lead at 10. Miami never looked back. Role players are often looked at as guys that can provide a shot in the arm for their teams when they enter the mud. Martin has been more like a macrodose for the Heat. Like Vincent, it all stems from the confidence they’ve been given by the Heat’s coaching staff and their teammates. The collective belief in one another within that locker room empowers everybody, from the top down. We’re currently watching what that looks like on the court.
Martin and Vincent exist on one end of the Miami Heat veteran corps; two undrafted players who have worked their way into prominent roles on this team, and turned themselves into valuable NBA players in the process. On the other end of that spectrum exist Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love, accomplished veterans whose primes saw them amass Hall of Fame resumes, and who came to Miami to keep their winning ways alive. Love has been a valuable shotmaker and floor spacer in a limited role, but Lowry has been nothing short of a revelation at times. Often maligned by Heat fans and pundits alike during his two seasons with the team, which have seen injuries, inconsistent play, and an eventual benching this season, Lowry has found his role with this team as its sixth man.
Lowry has always been the king of “non-box score impact” dating back to his days as a perennial All-Star, and the numbers for this run track with that: 8.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game in just over 25 minutes per game isn’t outwardly impressive, and he did struggle down the stretch of the Boston series. But Lowry’s presence manning Miami’s bench units, often featuring an outwardly appearing cast of misfits, has been felt in a loud way these playoffs. His basketball IQ screams off the screen as he organizes offensive possessions, gets to his spots or finds his teammates in theirs, and makes several tiny winning plays all the time. Spoelstra has gushed about Lowry’s presence off the bench all postseason, and watching his impact on winning games in his limited minutes makes it pretty evident as to why. He outplayed Bobby Portis, the third-place finisher for Sixth Man of the Year, in Round 1 versus Milwaukee. He outplayed Sixth Man runner-up Immanuel Quickey (rather badly, might I add) in the second round versus New York. And, while the Conference Finals was easily his worst series so far, he outplayed the Sixth Man of the Year winner in Malcolm Brogdon, who was playing through injury. Not bad for a 37-year-old.
The piece of Miami’s puzzle that is probably the most misunderstood and underappreciated is Bam Adebayo. So much focus gets put on his inconsistency as a scorer, which to be clear absolutely matters and should be talked about. But if that’s the main thing you can talk about with regards to Bam, you’re missing a lot. It doesn’t necessarily help that the things Adebayo is elite at are things that aren’t often talked about in mainstream basketball media circles, but that’s why we’re here, right? Another reason why is that a lot of what Bam does impact-wise is for his teammates, not himself. If you spend a Miami Heat game just watching Adebayo, you’ll pick up on so many ways in which he leaves a massive impact on games outside of putting the ball in the basket.
We’ve already talked about Gabe Vincent’s prolific pick-and-roll play these playoffs. Well, whenever he gets a screen from Adebayo, Bam doesn’t just screen his man — he pummels him. If a defender is trying to dodge the screen, Bam will rescreen. And rescreen again. And rescreen again. Changing angles and directions, but remaining solid as a rock until contact is made and Vincent has a legitimately open look wherever he wants to take it. In the NBA playoffs, and especially when you’re relying on a player like Gabe Vincent for consistent offense, any marginal advantage in a possession is critical and welcome. Bam takes those margins and keeps them as wide as possible. His screens have also created many open shots for Martin, Max Strus, and Duncan Robinson, whose two-man game with Adebayo has been honed for years and put on full display again these playoffs after a year in the dog pound. Adebayo’s head is always on a swivel, ready to dime cutters or play out of dribble handoffs with the Heat’s shooters. These are skills that don’t necessarily have a loud impact, but they’re the kinds of skills that win you playoff series.
On the other side of the court, Adebayo’s impact is genuinely enormous; he is one of the very best defenders in the entire NBA. What sets him apart is his versatility; at 6’9, he isn’t a ridiculous rim protector (the most traditional route for an elite defensive big man), but he is the sport’s premier switch defender, legitimately able to guard all the way up and down a lineup. That kind of switchability and versatility unlocks a ton for the Heat’s defense. The Heat are an incredibly aggressive defensive team, and that requires immense connectedness and intelligence from all five players on the court in order to shore up any potential openings that aggression creates. This has taken the form of switching, hard help, jumping passing lanes, and Miami’s vaunted zone, among other things. Adebayo sits at the center of all of it, able to stifle most actions he’s directly involved in, and cover for teammates in the actions he isn’t. The sheer number of different things the Heat are able to throw at an opponent defensively has been one of the hallmarks of this run, and Bam is the player that unlocks all of it. Versatility wins championships in today’s NBA; from that point of view, Bam Adebayo is every single bit of a championship-caliber player. Say what you will about his offensive shortcomings, but the Heat aren’t here without Bam. They probably aren’t even close.
These playoffs have been crazy — like, banana bonkers crazy — for many reasons, but chief among them has to be the sheer amount of seeding upsets. In the first round, we had an 8 seed beat a 1 seed, a 7 seed beat a 2 seed, a 6 seed beat a 3 seed, and a 5 seed beat a 4 seed. Almost naturally, that has led to an increased discourse about the relevance of the regular season in today’s NBA. There are arguments to be made that trying as hard as possible to get a top seed might not matter as much any more, and there are some teams (most prominently the Los Angeles Clippers of the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George era) that simply aren’t trying all that hard to anyway. Two of the last four teams standing came out of the Play-In Tournament; one has beaten the teams with the two best records in the NBA to make the Finals. Is it fair to say that teams should just stop trying as hard to get a higher seed?
The NBA itself is surely looking for ways to incentivize increased regular season competitiveness; the implementation of the Play-In and the new games played minimums for end-of-season awards agreed upon in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement are evidence of that. But when you properly contextualize each of these upsets, I believe that this issue is being somewhat overblown. And, within the context of the Miami Heat, you can actually use this run as an argument for the regular season.
Let’s start with the 5/4 upset, usually regarded as a coin toss anyway. The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games, a series that exposed many of Cleveland’s roster shortcomings while simultaneously championing New York’s depth and big man play. Knicks center Mitchell Robinson destroyed the Cavs’ highly touted big man duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen on the glass, a Knicks strength and a Cavs weakness. Both of these things were on display for the entire season, but this is an upset that could have happened every year. It wasn’t particularly shocking.
Working in descending order, the reigning champion Golden State Warriors endured a true season from hell relative to the standard they’ve set over the last decade while rostering a healthy Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Their “two timelines” plan failed rather spectacularly, as the lack of veteran presence this team is accustomed to placed extra (and unfair) pressure on the youngsters, who were supposed to take the mantle. Combine that with internal turmoil the likes of which this team has never dealt with during this run, and you get what we got: an exceptionally dysfunctional season from a normally hyper-functional group. Their season-long inability to win road games and the inconsistency they continually showed throughout the regular season was on full display in their playoff run, but let’s focus on their first-round matchup with the Sacramento Kings. The Kings had a Cinderella regular season for the ages: a franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs in 16 consecutive seasons finally breaking through, securing a top-3 seed in a brutally competitive Western Conference behind the most efficient statistical offense in NBA history, the league’s first ever unanimous Coach of the Year in Mike Brown’s maiden season at the helm, and two All-NBA performers in Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox, also the winner of the league’s inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award. It was the reigning champions, the league’s modern dynasty, against the literal new kids on the block. On paper, that feels like an upset waiting to happen. In fact, Golden State was favored to win the series. It still took seven games, and an all-time closeout performance from Curry. This Warriors season was never destined to win the championship; they completely ran out of gas by the end of Round 2. But within the context of upsets, you can’t say this one was all that stunning either.
Now, let’s talk the Western Conference runner-ups: the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers, led by their championship duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Above all else, that should be the headliner of this team. They have a duo that has proven can win it all with the right pieces around them, seed be damned. To start this season, they didn’t. After famously starting 2-10 with an ill-fitting roster, the Lakers completely remade themselves at the trade deadline, shipping out players like Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley and Thomas Bryant for much better-fitting pieces around their star duo. That catalyzed an epic late-season run to secure the 7-seed and face the Memphis Grizzlies. Just like the Lakers weren’t your ordinary 7 seed, the Grizzlies weren’t your ordinary 2 seed. Memphis was down its starting center in Steven Adams, and its primary backup center in Brandon Clarke. Adams, the league’s best offensive rebounder, has been a huge boon to Memphis’ halfcourt offense during his tenure as a Hoover on the glass, getting extra possessions for a team that needs it. And Clarke, one of the league’s premier backup bigs, allowed for truly unfair levels of versatility when paired with the Defensive Player of the Year, Jaren Jackson Jr.. That loss of frontcourt depth likely doomed Memphis from the start during this run; going against one of the most dominant interior forces the league has seen in quite some time (which is what Davis was these playoffs) didn’t help things at all. Combine that with all of the off-court issues plaguing star Ja Morant and the play (and talk) of wing Dillon Brooks, and it was pretty clear that this just wasn’t going to be Memphis’ year even before the playoffs began. This upset can’t really be described as a shocker.
Now, to the meat. (This section will be longer.) The Miami Heat, after dropping their first Play-In game to the Atlanta Hawks and nearly dropping the second to the Chicago Bulls, faced up against the Milwaukee Bucks for the third time in four years since Jimmy Butler came to town. These two teams had split the series 1-1 to this point, with Miami beating Milwaukee in the Bubble in five games in the 2020 second round, and the Bucks exacting revenge the next year in a four-game first round sweep en route to their first championship in 50 years. (It’s important here to note that Miami was a 5 seed and Milwaukee was a 1 in their Bubble win; in fact, the Bucks were holders of the league’s best record that season.) Flash forward to 2023, and the top overall seeded Bucks again faced a much lower-seeded Heat team. But if there’s anything we know about the Miami Heat, it’s that they’re not a team you can quantify by their seeding like you could most others. This was a matchup Miami was confident in even before Antetokounmpo got hurt in Game 1; that much can be seen from their wins in Games 4 and 5 with Antetokounmpo in the lineup. I should also note here that Milwaukee’s only win of this series came without Antetokounmpo on the floor; that Miami won Games 1 and 3 without him also very much mattered, but it’s not like the Bucks played markedly better when Giannis played. In fact, Miami dominated the Bucks down the stretch of those final two games.
They did this by executing. And executing. And executing. Their three-point shooting, after disappearing from under their feet all regular season long, bounced back in the most emphatic of fashions. Their defense became completely locked in to every schematic detail, and every aspect of the game plan was executed to perfection. After losing Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo to serious injuries, key role players stepped up in the loudest of ways: Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, Kevin Love, Max Strus. To assume all of this is a coincidence would simply be foolish. The Heat played in a markedly absurd 54 clutch games over the course of the regular season, and this was when they ranked 27th in the entire NBA in 3-point percentage at 34.8%. From the outside, we (reasonably) interpreted this as a struggle; for the Heat, they were reps. This is an organization whose sole directive, every single day, is to win. Win games, win series, win championships. They will work until they win, and then they will continue working so that they can win again. The Heat were given a lot of work for 82 games. They embraced it, and now they’re in the Finals. The clutch reps, the clutch struggles, the shooting woes, they all mattered so much more than anyone outside of those walls could have ever imagined. When the lights got bright, this team was ready. If you don’t believe me, find any of Spoelstra’s references to the regular season in his postgame pressers. This team was a 1 seed last year. They know how to win games. This group just needed to put in extra work to get there, and the regular season gave it to them.
Now, none of this is to say that this is a copy-and-paste formula for all 30 teams. Rather, it’s a cautionary exercise to warn against making too broad generalizations about a league full of thirty completely different teams, thirty different mental makeups, thirty different organizational goals, thirty different ways to go about those goals. The Miami Heat are a gold standard in sports; if any 8 seed would make the Finals, it’d probably be them. This level of nuance, the context necessary to reach that conclusion, should be applied to every single team. But it’s unabashedly true that they got here in no small part due to the trials and tribulations of the regular season. Miami weaponized them and got better. A team like Boston, who had much more success in the wins column but whose issues were still apparent, did not. One of those teams is going to the NBA Finals. The other will be watching at home. (By the way, so will the aforementioned Clippers after bowing out in Round 1 to the Suns). The 2022-23 Miami Heat are a testament to the NBA’s regular season — this stuff still matters!
Perhaps Miami’s most impressive feat during this run, aside from just how much more efficient the entire squad has shot relative to the regular season, has been their adaptability. They faced three opponents with three distinct styles of play, and in each series, the Heat’s gameplan directly reflected the unique strengths of each opponent, while maintaining the core tenets of aggression and a commitment to playing the right way.
Against Milwaukee, a team built around Brook Lopez’s drop defense and that doesn’t often send defensive help on the perimeter, Miami tore the Bucks apart in isolation and out of ball screens. Butler famously torched Jrue Holiday, named to this year’s All-Defensive First Team and who may be the best perimeter defender in the league, nonstop for five games. On the other end, Miami successfully shrunk the floor around Giannis Antetokounmpo and goaded the Bucks into falling into their worst offensive tendencies in the halfcourt. The familiarity between these two was apparent, and the Heat approached this series with the confidence of a team that knew it could win. Antetokounmpo’s injury certainly helped — this article may not exist had he been healthy all series — but the Heat’s tactical decisions played a major role in the upset.
The Knicks presented a different challenge. An elite offense all season but severely lacking in efficient jumpshooting, the Knicks’ attack was built on offensive rebounding and isolation play. Mitchell Robinson dominated the offensive glass in their first round win; the Heat committed to putting bodies on him at every available opportunity, and his impact waned. Jalen Brunson proved to be the biggest thorn in their side, but that was offset by Miami’s defense selling out on just about every perimeter player not named Brunson or Quentin Grimes in order to clog the lane. The Knicks, as the Heat predicted, couldn’t make them pay, shooting under 30% from 3 as a team. It took Butler missing Game 2 and a 48-minute, 38-point masterpiece from Brunson in Game 5 for New York to win in this series. Miami’s gameplan worked.
Against Boston, the most talented overall team of this bunch, it took consistent and constant defensive effort to slow their machine down. Part of their strategy involved running Boston off the 3-point line. The Celtics attempted 42.6 threes per game in the regular season; that number fell to 38.1 in the Conference Finals. In Miami’s 4 wins, Boston attempted 29, 35, 42, and 42, respectively, all at or under their season average. Beyond that, Miami made a commitment again to finish possessions on the glass, in order to eliminate as many offensive possessions as possible for the Celtics. So many times, Adebayo would sell out on grabbing a rebound just to box out his man, while another Heat player (or two) swept in to finish the play themselves. That is the type of unselfish team play that coaches love to see, and it’s those types of plays that Spoelstra evidently drilled into all of his players. These tactics, combined with prolific use of their zone, folded Boston’s offense in Miami’s four wins, as it devolved into the one-pass, one-shot, mucky excuse of an offense that the Celtics so often default to. Miami played them to their worst tendencies, and it worked.
Teams are built around identities. Milwaukee’s is its defensive infrastructure with Holiday, Lopez and Antetokounmpo. New York’s is its offensive rebounding and isolation scoring. During this playoff run, Miami’s identity has been twofold: play as hard as humanly possible, and try as hard as humanly possible to take away everything the other team wants to do. They’re a chameleon. Whatever unique challenge they face, they face it head-on, and it’s worked like a charm through three playoff series. This is one of the many reasons to credit Spoelstra; his tactical genius has played out all postseason in front of everybody. He hasn’t just schemed his way to the top, though; we are witnessing a full season’s worth of leadership, accountability, and the instillation of belief in every one of his players to go out and perform together at a level higher than any of them could achieve individually. The Heat’s strength is in their flexibility, in all the different ways they can beat you, on either end of the floor. Spoelstra has unlocked that; it’s the mark of a special coach.
When Pat Riley took over the Miami Heat 28 years ago, he was, in effect, given a blank canvas to create his very own franchise, one that embodied his ideologies to a T. We now live in a world where that canvas has been completely filled out. Since their first Finals appearance in 2006, no franchise has made it to that stage more than Miami, who just secured their seventh trip. Riley’s maniacal work ethic and single-minded, borderline psychotic dedication to winning was imbued into the lifeblood of this organization, and can be described today as Heat Culture. Born of that ethos were legends like Alonzo Mourning and Dwyane Wade. It attracted superstars ready to win Riley’s way — first, LeBron James and Chris Bosh; then, four years ago, Jimmy Butler. Erik Spoelstra rose through the ranks to become Riley’s successor in 2008, a position he has held ever since. They talk the talk because their entire existence is about walking the walk. The only desire for the Miami Heat, the only goal, is to win championships. Every game, every practice, every moment is in preparation for that exact thing. Since Butler arrived in 2019, giving the franchise its first bona fide star in years to build with, no team has won more playoff games.
When put that way, does this run really surprise anyone? A run by an organization helmed by a maniacal winner, coached by a maniacal winner, and led by a maniacal winner, all three of whom hold quite the track records when it comes to winning, coming together to beat the odds with nothing but the strongest belief in themselves and each other and a burning desire to win? This playoff run, this once-in-a-generation moment, this is Heat Culture. We are incredibly privileged to see the fruits of their labor play out in such spectacular fashion, but truly, if anyone were to pull something like this off, would it not be these guys? The Heat have reached an organizational standard that the entire NBA should look to. Their way works. And they’ll keep on working until it stops.