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The Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics have faced one another six times in the NBA playoffs since 2010, and the teams are now meeting for a seventh time.
Each year they match up, the winner goes on to make the NBA Finals. In fact, a top-seeded team hasn’t advanced to the Finals since the 2016-17 Warriors.
After defeating the Heat in seven games of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics went on to lose the NBA Finals in six games to Golden State.
During the fourth quarter of Miami’s 112-91 win over the Chicago Bulls in Friday night’s play-in tournament, Heat fans were heard chanting “We want Boston!” over and over.
Despite losing Jimmy Butler (sprained knee) for several weeks, the Heat are once again back in the playoffs. Tyler Herro scored 24 points and was an assist shy of a triple-double against Chicago. Rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 21 points.
Check out the previous Heat-Celtics playoff series results since 2010 below.
Miami Heat are 4-2 against Boston Celtics in NBA playoffs series since 2010
NBA Season |
Series Result |
|
2009-10 |
Celtics Win Series 4-1 |
|
2010-11 |
Heat Win Series 4-1 |
|
2011-12 |
Heat Win Series 4-3 |
|
2019-20 |
Heat Win Series 4-2 |
|
2021-22 |
Celtics Win Series 4-3 |
|
2022-23 |
Heat Win Series 4-3 |
“I have an appreciation for the things you can’t buy, the things that you have to earn,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had to earn this. You can’t influence it, and you can’t pay money for it. You actually have to collectively come together to earn it — and we had to do it the hard way, just to get this first ticket punched for the invitation to this dance.”
Furthermore, Kevin Love scored 16 and Bam Adebayo finished with 13 against Chicago as well.
For the second straight year, the Heat are once again the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. Last year, Miami upsetted the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round and advanced all the way to the NBA Finals.
“Ultimately, we’ve just got to bring that Miami Heat culture and that toughness,” Jaquez said. “We’ve got two games in Boston. We’ve got to set the tone extremely early, impose our will on them and make it real physical.”
Additionally, the Celtics won an NBA-best 64 games this season. They lost Game 7 of last year’s East finals to the Heat at home. However, Boston will have the upper hand in this upcoming series, since Butler is out for Miami.
NBA sportsbooks show the Heat as heavy 13.5-point underdogs at TD Garden ahead of Game 1. Per ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, the Celtics hold an 80.3% chance of defeating Miami.
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