Will Heat continue to make playoff history as No. 8 seed in second round vs. Knicks?

The history of the Miami Heat-New York Knicks rivalry will be a popular topic during their second-round playoff series. But the Heat is hoping to make its own history in the coming weeks.

After becoming only the sixth No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs since the current 16-team NBA playoff format was instituted for the 1983-84 season, the Heat is now only four wins away from becoming the second No. 8 seed to make it to the conference finals. The Knicks are the only team to pull that off since 1984 when they made it to the Eastern Conference finals before losing in the NBA Finals as the eighth seed in 1999.

The Heat, which was outscored by a total of 26 points this regular season, is also looking to become the first team since at least 2000 to advance to the conference finals after posting a negative point differential in the regular season.

But in order to continue its historic run as the East’s No. 8 seed, the Heat will need to find a way to get past the fifth-seeded Knicks in the second round of the playoffs. Game 1 of the series is Sunday at Madison Square Garden at 1 p.m. on ABC.

What does the schedule for the Heat’s second-round playoff series vs. the Knicks look like?

“We just play hard,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “We know what we’re capable of. We don’t listen to the outside noise and we will not listen to the outside noise. We’re going to do what we do.”

The Heat is in a position not many No. 8 seeds have been in before because it’s not the typical No. 8 seed.

▪ The Heat’s roster is filled with many of the same players who were part of last season’s run to the East finals as the top playoff seed.

▪ The Heat is led by an All-NBA talent in Butler, who has averaged 25.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.9 steals while shooting 49.6 percent from the field in the playoffs since joining the Heat.

▪ The Heat features a head coach who was named one of the 15 greatest coaches in NBA history last year by a panel of current and former head coaches in collaboration with the NBA Coaches Association. With Wednesday’s series-clinching win over the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra became the sixth coach in NBA history with at least 100 playoff wins.

So, why does the Heat find itself as the No. 8 seed? A frustrating regular season that didn’t meet internal or external expectations.

The Heat closed this regular season with the NBA’s 25th-ranked offensive rating (scoring 112.3 points per 100 possessions) and ninth-ranked defensive rating (allowing 112.8 points per 100 possessions) for a net rating that ranked last among teams that qualified for the playoffs.

Much of the Heat’s offensive issues in the regular season stemmed from its three-point shooting regression. Miami finished this regular season with the NBA’s fourth-worst team three-point percentage at 34.4 percent after finishing last regular season with a league-best team three-point percentage of 37.9 percent.

For most of the season, the Heat’s winning formula was built around a quality defense but there was even slippage on that end of the court toward the end of the schedule. Miami entered the mid-February All-Star break with the NBA’s fifth-best defensive rating (allowing 111.2 points per 100 possessions) but recorded the 16th-best defensive rating (117.1 points per 100 possessions) in the final 23 games of the regular season following the break.

Injuries didn’t help matters. The Heat ended this regular season with the second-most missed games in the NBA (289) due to injury, according to Spotrac.

And the Heat is already dealing with injuries this postseason. Starting guard Tyler Herro broke his right hand in Game 1 of the first round and he’s not expected back for at least the next five weeks, and reserve guard Victor Oladipo will miss the rest of the playoffs after tearing the patellar tendon in his left knee in Game 3 of the first round.

What changed in the first round of the playoffs that led to the Heat’s historic upset of the Bucks?

The Heat’s offense suddenly turned into one of the most efficient in the league against an elite Bucks defense that closed the regular season as a top-five unit.

The Heat entered Friday with the NBA’s second-best offensive rating in the playoffs with 119 points scored per 100 possessions.

The Heat also entered Friday with a league-best team three-point percentage of 45 percent in the playoffs. Miami became one of only five teams in NBA history to shoot 45 percent or better from three-point range on at least 150 attempts over five games in a playoff series, joining the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers, 2017 Cavaliers, 2020 Utah Jazz and 2021 Brooklyn Nets, according to Couper Moorhead from Heat.com.

“I think our shooters have been trending in a great way for a while,” Spoelstra said. “A lot of this league for shooters is just feeling comfortable with your role, consistency, how you’re fitting into the offense, all that. That’s stabilized now for the last couple months. So I think you’re seeing the guys just a lot more comfortable, and we’ve needed it.”

It also helps that Butler has again elevated his game in the playoffs to add a 30-plus point weapon the Heat didn’t have in the regular season.

After averaging 22.9 points while shooting 53.9 percent on 13.9 field-goal attempts and 35 percent on 1.6 three-point attempts per game in the regular season, Butler averaged an incredible 37.6 points while shooting 59.7 percent on 23.8 field-goal attempts and 44.4 percent on 5.4 three-point attempts per game in the first round of the playoffs.

LeBron James (averaged 30.3 points per game in 23 games during the 2012 playoffs) and Dwayne Wade (averaged 33.2 points per game in five games during the 2010 playoffs) are the only players in Heat history who have averaged 30-plus points per game during a postseason run.

“We have a group and we’re an organization that we just want to embrace competition,” Spoelstra said. “Even if it’s not necessarily going how everybody expects it to go. That develops grit.

“We’ve earned a chance to be in the playoffs and then we earned a chance to get to the second round to compete against a very good basketball team.”

The question is, can the Heat replicate this type of production moving forward after struggling to generate efficient offense for most of the regular season?

Whether or not the Heat’s offense can continue to produce at an above average level after finishing the regular season as one of the NBA’s worst units may determine whether it will continue its historic run as a No. 8 seed.

“A lot of people didn’t believe in us,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “The guys in the locker room, coaching staff and everybody who gets in that bus, everybody has faith.”