2023 Heat-Celtics East finals primer: Full schedule, ticket info, who’s favored and more

This season’s Eastern Conference finals features a familiar matchup.

The Miami Heat will face the Boston Celtics in the East finals for the third time in the last four years, with Game 1 set for Wednesday in Boston. This year’s series will be the tiebreaker between the two teams, as the Heat won the 2020 East finals over the Celtics and the Celtics eliminated the Heat in the 2022 East finals.

SCHEDULE:

Game 1 on Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. at TD Garden in Boston (TNT)

Game 2 on Friday, 8:30 p.m. at TD Garden in Boston (TNT)

Game 3 on Sunday, 8:30 p.m. at Kaseya Center in Miami (TNT)

Game 4 on Tuesday, May 23, 8:30 p.m. at Kaseya Center in Miami (TNT)

Game 5 on Thursday, May 25, 8:30 p.m. at TD Garden in Boston (TNT)*

Game 6 on Saturday, May 27, 8:30 p.m. at Kaseya Center in Miami (TNT)*

Game 7 on Monday, May 29, 8:30 p.m. at TD Garden in Boston (TNT)*

* if necessary

HOW THEY GOT HERE: The Celtics finished the regular season with the NBA’s second-best record at 57-25 behind only the Milwaukee Bucks. The Celtics then eliminated the seventh-seeded Atlanta Hawks 4-2 in the first round and ousted the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers 4-3 in the second round to advance to the East finals.

The Heat needed to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament, getting in as the East’s No. 8 seed with a 44-38 regular-season record. The Heat then upset the top-seeded Bucks 4-1 in the first round and got past the fifth-seeded New York Knicks 4-2 in the second round to become just the second No. 8 in NBA history to get to the conference finals.

HEAD TO HEAD: The Heat and Celtics split their regular-season series 2-2. But those results probably don’t mean much, considering Heat star Jimmy Butler missed two of those games, the Celtics were without Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon in one of those games, and their regular-season series ended before the Heat added forward Kevin Love and center Cody Zeller in February.

TICKETS: Tickets for the Heat’s home games in the East finals against the Celtics are already on sale. Tickets can be purchased online at Heat.com/postseasontickets or Ticketmaster.com.

ODDS: The Celtics are a big favorite. BetOnline has the Celtics as a 1-to-6 favorite (-600 or 85.7 percent chance) to win the series, with the Heat’s odds to win the series listed as 23-to-5. The betting line for Wednesday’s Game 1 opened with the Celtics as an eight-point favorite, according to DraftKings.