After defeating the Boston Celtics, The Miami Heat are now headed to the NBA Finals.
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
The Miami Heat are currently on track for one of the greatest playoff runs ever. Going into the playoffs the Heat were the 8-seed and were almost eliminated in the play-in tournament.
The team has been the underdog in every round of the playoffs so far, yet they have been able to win and advance every time.
In round 1, they pulled off a huge upset to defeat the 1-seed Milwaukee Bucks. In the conference semi-finals, they defeated the Knicks, who had a better regular season record than them. Now they have defeated the Boston Celtics in the conference finals, in which the Heat were given only a 3% chance of winning.
The Heat are now the second-ever 8-seed to make it to the finals, and the first 8-seed to ever win a playoff game by more than 25 points.
Additionally, entering the playoffs the Heat were 150-1 odds to win it all, which means they are now the biggest underdog to ever make the finals.
The biggest part of this strong showing from the Heat was the impressive play of Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin. Butler had a few really good games and some not-as-great games, while Martin consistently played very well in every game.
In this series, Butler averaged:
24.7 Points
7.6 Rebound
6.1 Assists
2.6 Steals
42% of shots made
In this series, Martin averaged:
19.3 Points
6.4 Rebounds
1.7 Assists
60.2% of shots made
(Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images)
The Miami Heat will now face the Denver Nuggets In the Finals.
The Nuggets won both of the times that these teams met in the regular season.