Winderman: Heat-Celtics a rivalry with meaning, mouthiness, melodrama | Commentary
That the Miami Heat’s 2021 playoff-race fate well could be decided in Boston should come as no surprise.
Heat-Celtics has a way of elevating the stakes.
Last season, it was the Heat eliminating the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.
A decade earlier, it was the Heat ending Boston’s Big Three era after establishing a Big Three of their own.
So as the Heat approach their Sunday and Tuesday games at TD Garden that will impact both the play-in and playoff races, a reminder of how we have arrived at this juncture of a rivalry with meaning, mouthiness and melodrama.
What is Heat-Celtics? It is this:
1. Game 6, 2012 Eastern Conference finals: Down 3-2 in the series, the Heat, a year after a humbling 4-2 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals in the first year of the Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, arrive to TD Garden facing another humbling demise.
Instead, arguably the most impactful game of James’ Heat career, with 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in the Heat’s 98-79 victory. The Heat would go on to eliminate the Celtics in Game 7 at AmericanAirlines Arena and then capture the first of their two Big Three championships.
2. The Bam block: With 3.7 second left in overtime of Game 1 of the 2020 Eastern Conference finals, Heat center Bam Adebayo blocked a potential game-tying dunk attempt by Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, sealing the Heat’s victory and sparking the 4-2 series win.
“The best defensive play I’ve seen ever in the playoffs!” said no less than Magic Johnson.
3. Wade’s vow: Sometimes a loss to a rival can prove pivotal. Such was the case with the Heat’s Game 5 elimination from the first round of the 2010 playoffs at TD Garden.
After that loss to the Celtics, Wade vowed, “This will be my last first-round exit for a while. I can tell you that.”
Just over two months later, the Heat added James and Bosh . . . and everything changed, with the Heat advancing to the NBA Finals each of the next four seasons.
4. Benedict Allen: Not only did the Heat eliminate Boston in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, but just over a month later, Ray Allen jumped from the Celtics to the Heat during free agency, with his miraculous Game 6 3-pointer in the 2013 NBA Finals helping lift the Heat to that title.
To this day, scars remain from the defection, with Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kendrick Perkins, Kevin Garnett over the years having called out Allen, still a Miami resident, for disloyalty.
5. Hey Danny, STFU: A rival dating to his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, Heat President Pat Riley has made little attempt to hide his exasperation with the Celtics’ Danny Ainge.
That included when Ainge, in his role as Celtics general manager, daring to question the officiating of James in 2013.
“Danny Ainge needs to shut the f--- up and manage his own team,” Riley said in a statement released through a Heat spokesman in the wake of Ainge’s criticism. “He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him.”
6. Jason Terry, RIP: No, James did not take well to the bravado expressed by Jason Terry when Terry’s Mavericks defeated the Big 3 in the 2011 NBA Finals.
So on March 18, 2013, with Terry then on the Celtics and the only player between James and the rim, an alley-oop pass from Mario Chalmers and . . . annihilation by dunking devastation.
“Glad it happened to him,” James said
Almost immediately, if only temporary, Terry, still very much alive, saw that listed as the date of his death on his Wikipedia page.
7. Tone set: Even before the Heat’s first Big Three playoff series against the Celtics, there was a tone-setting rebuke from Heat captain Udonis Haslem to then-and-now nemesis Pierce.
In short, upon the Celtics defeating the Heat early in the 2010-11 season, Pierce, mocking James’ announcement months earlier, posted on Twitter, “It’s been a pleasure to bring my talents to South Beach.”
Responded Haslem, “Man, ain’t nobody paying them dudes no attention, man. You know what studio gangster is? Look up that, look up the definition of studio gangster.”
8. The run: The Heat laid the groundwork of what would follow the next postseason by not only eliminating the Celtics in five games in the 2011 second round, but closing out the series by scoring the final 16 points of the series finale in a 97-87 victory.
“It was a series that all of us wanted, really since training camp,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
9. Tone set: Having ousted the Heat in the 2010 playoffs and then watched the Heat grab the offseason thunder with the signing of the Big Three, the Celtics pushed past the Heat 88-80 on opening night in 2010-11.
The game ended with the TD Garden crowed serenading the Heat with chants of, “Over-rated!”
10. Even now: And if you think the antipathy has ceased, consider the words of Haslem just this past week, when asked about the impending induction of Garnett, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
“Two of those guys I would probably say I consider tough guys, and that’s more so mentally tough. And one of those guys just does a lot of this,” Haslem alluded to Garnett while making a talking motion with his fingers. “That’s not tough at all.
“The definition of tough guy doesn’t go by guys that do this [talking motion]. You know that. You probably want to take KG off that tough-guy list.”
IN THE LANE
BALKAN BOAST: No, Goran Dragic and Gordan Giricek are not the same person, even if Shaquille O’Neal believes otherwise. Dragic, the Heat guard, is from Slovenia. Giricek, the former NBA guard, is from Croatia. No matter, at least not to Shaq, who on a recent appearance on the “All the Smoke” podcast with former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes spoke of the time he choked out Dragic in the Phoenix Suns locker room. “One day, we’re in the locker room, what’s his name, Goran Dragic? Goran Dragic, he’s talking. I’m like, ‘Oh, man, shut up.’ He just keeps talking. So I get beyond him, put him in one of the UFC things. He falls to the ground.” One problem, it wasn’t Dragic. “The funny thing is when I was a rookie in Phoenix,” Dragic said this past week, “he was telling me that story, how he choked Gordan Giricek. Now, I don’t know if he confused me with him, maybe look alike or something. But I was not even on that team.” That led to Dragic posting on Twitter, “Not all Balkan boys look alike.” Of that post, Dragic said, “So that’s why I had to come out and clear the situation on Twitter. . . . No big deal. Shaq is a funny guy. I love him.”
THE WINSLOW CONUNDRUM: During his best of times with the Heat, Justise Winslow thrived when cast at point guard. So when he finally got closer to full health, the Memphis Grizzlies in mid-April cast him as their backup point guard to Ja Morant. The attempt was an abject failure, with the Grizzlies going back to Tyus Jones in that role. Entering the weekend, the Grizzlies removed Winslow from their rotation in three consecutive games, merely listed as: DNP-Coach’s Decision. Taken further, the Heat’s 2015 No. 10 overall pick went into the weekend having not made more than three baskets in a game since March 24, at 15 of 54 (.278) from the field over that stretch. Up next for the Grizzlies is their decision on Winslow’s $13 million team option for next season. With the Heat facing a similar $15 million decision on a team option with Andre Iguodala for next season, it is possible that by the offseason none of the players from the six-player Heat-Grizzlies trade on Feb. 6, 2020 will remain on either team (Iguodala, Jae Crowder, Solomon Hill to the Heat; Winslow, Dion Waiters, James Johnson to the Grizzlies).
OUTISIDE VIEW: While those potentially involved have expressed difficulty wrapping their heads around the NBA play-in tournament, as an outsider, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said ahead of Friday’s game against the Heat that he can appreciate the NBA’s thinking. “I think it’s entirely appropriate for this season, because this season has just had so much chaos in it. In general, it does kind of give more teams something to grasp at here that may have been affected by COVID or other situations beyond their control,” he said. “Going forward, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I think if they want to expand the playoffs and give meaning to more teams in the playoffs, then I’d be all in favor of going back to the miniseries, the three-game miniseries we used to have way back I guess it was in the ’80s. They did away with that. But the reason they did away with that was to primarily protect the larger seed. [The play-in] does give us more to play for, but I don’t know. It’ll be interesting if it sticks.”
STUDENT OF GAME: As a mentor, Heat forward Udonis Haslem said there is nothing more important than a willing student. He said this past week he has that in center Bam Adebayo. “The sky is the limit for Bam,” Haslem said. “I think the thing that Bam does the best is that he listens. He actually listens and he tries to apply the things that we give him. For me at this stage of the game, I hate wasting my time. So when I sit down and I spend time with Bam, whether it’s on film or on the court or in the weight room, I know it’s not falling on deaf ears and I know it’s going to get applied.”
NUMBER
2. Players entering the weekend with at least 300 assists and 60 blocks this season: the Heat’s Bam Adebayo and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
