Heat ‘grateful’ for 2020 Finals experience vs. Lakers: ‘We know what it takes to get there’

As the Miami Heat continues to establish itself as a legitimate championship contender this season, a reminder of the organization’s last NBA Finals run arrives this weekend.

The Heat, which fell to the Atlanta Hawks 110-108 at State Farm Arena on Friday night, hosts LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday (6 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and NBA TV) to open a four-game homestand at FTX Arena. The Heat and the Lakers also faced off in the 2020 NBA Finals in the Walt Disney World bubble, with Los Angeles winning the championship series 4-2.

“I think about it a lot,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said to the Miami Herald of the 2020 Finals. “It’s probably heightened because we were [in the bubble] 100 days. You always have everything invested into it. But that was very unique, obviously, because of the circumstances and the camaraderie and the emotional investment was as high as any group that I’ve been around. I think all the factors led to that.”

Eight players from the roster that the Heat carried into the 2020 Finals remain: Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Udonis Haslem, Tyler Herro, KZ Okpala, Duncan Robinson, Chris Silva and Gabe Vincent.

Five players from the Lakers’ 2020 championship roster remain: Avery Bradley, Anthony Davis, Talen Horton-Tucker, Dwight Howard and James. As Los Angeles has worked to incorporate Russell Westbrook this season, it has struggled at times and enters Sunday’s game in Miami with a 23-23 record.

But the Heat is again in the championship conversation this season, as it entered Saturday in third place in the Eastern Conference at 29-17 and just one-half game behind the first-place Brooklyn Nets. Spoelstra believes the experience of going through a deep playoff run that ended two wins short of an NBA title a little over a year ago will help the Heat’s core of Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Robinson if it has to go through that type of unique pressure again this season.

“I think any time you have an opportunity to compete at the highest level and compete in that final round, you can see how great the competition is and how much is required to be able to get over the top,” Spoelstra said. “I’m just really grateful that we had that experience.”

Adebayo, who averaged 17.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game during the Heat’s 2020 playoff run, agrees.

“I think it’s great for us because we’ve been there, we’ve gotten there and we know what it takes to get there,” Adebayo said. “I feel like that’s the biggest lesson in life is experience. So just having that experience, you always want to get that feeling back again. We all feel like we came up short, so the biggest thing for us is finding a way to get back and come away with a different outcome.”

Part of the motivation to return to the Finals stage stems from the “What if?” questions surrounding the Heat’s championship series against the Lakers.

The Heat was without both Adebayo and then-starting guard Goran Dragic for a chunk of the 2020 NBA Finals because of injuries. Adebayo missed Games 2 and 3 of the series because of a neck strain and Dragic missed four games during the series because of a torn plantar fascia in his left foot.

“I always think about what if,” Adebayo said. “But you just got to keep going with life.”

For Spoelstra, he wonders what could have happened if the Heat would have one more game at some point in the series to force a Game 7.

“If we could have just found a way to get one of those earlier games, that’s what frustrates me about it as much as anything,” Spoelstra said. “If we could have somehow gotten that series deeper, if we win one more game.”

But Haslem doesn’t look back. Despite the obvious question of how a healthy Adebayo and Dragic would have changed that series, he has moved on.

“If I get into the could’ve, would’ve, should’ve then I’m just like the people who say Miami was a bubble team,” Haslem said. “So I don’t get into the would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. I get into the facts. The fact was we just didn’t get it done. The fact was we were the best team in the East no matter what anybody says.”

A few years later, the Heat is again among the East’s best. The organization believes that the postseason experience from 2020 will help during this year’s playoff push.

“Just trying to get to the next opportunity to see who can be the champ in 2022,” Haslem said.

HEAT INJURY AND TUCKER UPDATE

Heat forward P.J. Tucker started Friday’s loss to the Hawks, but left with 3:56 remaining in the first quarter and never returned because of left knee irritation. Tucker missed four games in late December because of lower left leg nerve inflammation.

“P.J. wanted to [play] coming out of halftime,” Spoelstra said. “We just told him we got to think big picture. The knee irritation was a little bit stiff. We’ll give him treatment and evaluate him when we get back to Miami.”

Tucker is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Lakers with left calf tightness.

The Heat has already ruled out Herro (health and safety protocols), Kyle Lowry (personal reasons), Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning), Okpala (wrist sprain) and Victor Oladipo (knee injury recovery) for Sunday’s contest. It will mark the fourth straight game that Lowry has missed because of personal reasons.