After season-ending Finals loss, Heat reflects on historic run: ‘One for the journal books’

What was on track to become one of the most frustrating seasons in Miami Heat history turned into one of the most memorable seasons in Heat history. It just didn’t end with an NBA championship.

After an underwhelming 44-38 regular season that forced the Heat to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament just to get in as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, a historic postseason run ensued.

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The Heat eliminated the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, the fifth-seeded New York Knicks in the second round and the second-seeded Boston Celtics in the East finals to become just the second No. 8 seed to advance to the NBA Finals and record the most wins by a No. 8 seed during a single postseason in league history.

But the Heat couldn’t become the first No. 8 seed to win the NBA championship, suffering a season-ending 94-89 loss to the Western Conference’s top-seeded Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of the Finals on Monday night at Ball Arena. The result ended the Heat’s season but clinched the Nuggets’ first NBA title in franchise history.

“We would have liked to be able to climb the mountaintop and be able to get that final win,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Monday’s loss before the team flew back to Miami.

There was disappointment in Spoelstra’s voice as he spoke to reporters with the Nuggets celebrating their championship down the hallway, but he could also verbalize his appreciation for what was accomplished over the last two months.

“I think this is a team that a lot of people can relate to,” Spoelstra continued. “If you ever felt that you were dismissed or felt that you were made to feel less than. We had a lot of people in our locker room that probably have had that, and there’s probably a lot of people out there that have felt that at some time or another.

“Hopefully these are lessons that will transcend this beautiful game, hopefully these are lessons that we can pass along to our children. That even though it is a sport, that you can learn lessons of life from this game, that you can persevere, that you can handle what people may view as mini-failures along the way and become stronger from it and to be able to overcome things and find beautiful things on the other side of that.”

There were memorable moments sprinkled throughout the Heat’s magical playoff push, which included seven double-digit comeback wins. That’s tied for the most such wins in a single postseason in the last 25 years, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

There was Heat star Jimmy Butler’s incredible start to the playoffs, when he dominated the Bucks in the first round to average 37.6 points, six rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game while shooting an ultra-efficient 59.7 percent from the field and 12 of 27 (44.4 percent) from three-point range in the five-game series. That includes a 56-point performance in a Game 4 win over the Bucks to set a new franchise record for the highest-scoring playoff game in Heat history.

There were three home wins against the Knicks in the second round by a combined 31 points.

There were two wins in Boston to begin the East finals before a third victory in Boston in Game 7 to clinch its seventh NBA Finals appearance in franchise history and sixth NBA Finals appearance in the past 13 seasons. It marked the Heat’s first Game 7 road win in franchise history.

And there was the Heat’s only win of the NBA Finals, which came in Game 2 in Denver. It represented the Heat’s first win in Denver since 2016.

“I think this is one of my favorite teams I’ve ever been a part of because we willed our way through ups and downs,” Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo said. “We willed our way through the things that people said we couldn’t do. So for me, the future, I just take these lessons and I apply them to the next season. Whenever we go through adversity, I’m always going to look back and be like, we’ve been through adversity before.

“Having the eight seed in the Finals isn’t normal. It isn’t easy. People think it depends on what seeding you are is how good you’re going to be. To me, that’s [expletive], and obviously this season showed different.”

Adebayo and Butler led the way, but essentially every member of the Heat’s supporting cast delivered moments to remember during the team’s journey to the Finals.

That includes most of the seven undrafted players (Udonis Haslem, Haywood Highsmith, Caleb Martin, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Omer Yurtseven) who played minutes for the Heat during this year’s playoffs. It’s the most undrafted players to log minutes in a postseason for a team to reach the NBA Finals in the modern draft era since 1966-67, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

“The only thing I can say is, man, they need to put more respect on undrafted players,” Adebayo said. “They are still basketball players at the end of the day, and obviously you’ve seen, they can take you there. So for me, it was a joy to get this far and have these type of guys, undrafted, fighting to make a name for themselves. And they fought to the Finals. Came up short, but I don’t care what anybody says, you can never count these guys out.”

But the Heat was also missing one of its best players and another key contributor for most of its playoff run.

The Heat lost starting guard Tyler Herro to a broken right hand in the opening game of its playoff run and and reserve guard Victor Oladipo to a torn patellar tendon in his left knee in Game 3 of the first round. Herro and Oladipo did not play again after their injuries.

Herro, who was the Heat’s third-leading scorer in the regular season, was available and in uniform on Monday for the first time since his injury. But Spoelstra chose not to play him in what turned out to be Miami’s final game of the season.

Herro declined to speak to reporters after Game 5.

“That’s the hardest-played, most physical competition you can have, and that would be a tough thing for a guy that’s been out for two months that hasn’t had any kind of ramp up,” Spoelstra said of his decision to not play Herro on Monday. “But that won’t save me from thinking about that for the next few weeks.”

Heat coaches and players will have plenty to think about over the next few weeks after again falling just short of winning a championship. The Heat has advanced to the East finals in three of the last four years and the NBA Finals in two of the last four years, but has not been able to win the title during that otherwise successful four-year stretch.

“We didn’t want to be done,” Strus said. “I think the biggest part about that was the fun we had together, this group, after we picked up Kevin Love and Cody Zeller. It was just unique how we all came together and enjoyed this run together and just had fun. I didn’t want it to end tonight. Wanted to keep going. Through all the adversity we had all season, it’s hard to put into words how grateful we are for the year and grateful to be in the position we had.”

Grateful is a word Butler used, too.

“Probably how grateful I am to be able to compete with these guys,” Butler said of his biggest takeaway from the season. “You never know what the team is going to look like next year, the year after that. I’m just grateful. I learned so much. They taught me so much. I wish I could have got it done for these guys because they definitely deserve it.”

The Heat’s roster will likely look at least a little different next season.

The only players on the Heat’s roster with guaranteed salaries for next season are Butler, Adebayo, Kyle Lowry, Herro, Robinson, Martin and Nikola Jovic ($2.4 million). And Vincent, Strus and Love are among those who will become unrestricted free agents this summer.

“I told each one of the guys, I love them,” Spoelstra said. “I love this team, and I’m just super grateful that we are able to go through all of the experiences, even the tough times during the year, to be able to have a season like this. This is one for the journal books. I don’t know about all the guys journaling, but this is certainly one that I’ll journal and remember this team forever.

“Years from now, I’ll bump into some of these guys and we’ll have this bond, even though we didn’t get that final prize.”