Miami Heat: Erik Spoelstra’s Ballet Starring Jimmy Butler

“I don’t call them role players but companions.” Just like that, Jimmy Butler exposed what it is to be the leader of a group that exceeds egos and proper names after the incredible series in which Miami Heat defeated Boston Celtics 4-3 and qualified for the NBA Finals in which they will face Denver Nuggets.

These playoffs highlighted a determining question: the Heat are much more than Butler. Even much more than the presence of Bam Adebayo in the inside game. The contribution of the quartet of players not chosen in the Draft formed by Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson and Max Strus was decisive.

The team led by Erik Spoelstra agreed to the definition after being the eighth classified in the East, place where he arrived from the play-in. The Heat are the second #8 in history to reach the Finals after the New York Knicks in 1999. How did Miami reach the peak of the season?

FROM SHAKEY REGULAR SERIES TO SOLID PLAYOFFS

The Heat’s journey in the regular season was winding. They did not find collective functioning and their individualities did not have the necessary brilliance to hide their defects. The seventh position with which he qualified for the play-in did not give him guarantees: he lost against the Atlanta Hawks and was close to also falling against the Chicago Bulls.

Miami lacked scoring lanes in all 82 games of the season. Such is so had the worst points per game average at 109.5. It is the third team in history to reach the Finals after having been the one that scored the least in the league (Pistons in 1955-56 and Warriors in 1963-64). Plus, he was the only one entering the postseason to convert less than he was scored on. Only the Hawks in 1957 and the Lakers in 1959 reached the Finals on that condition.

The extension of the regular season and the rotations that coaches use to keep their players healthy threaten the possibility of enjoying the maximum performance of the teams. Miami is a clear example of this situation. With the playoffs as territory where every game matters, the Heat grew remarkably: eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks and the Celtics, the two teams with the best records in the regular serieson their way to the Finals, something that only the Trail Blazers in 1977, the Rockets in 1995, the Lakers in 2002 and the Celtics in 2010 had achieved.

Additionally, Miami is the third team in the past 35 seasons to reach the Finals despite trailing on home court in their previous three qualifiers as the Houston Rockets in 1995 and New York Knicks in 1999 had.

The Heat come to the game in a completely different way than the Nuggets: While Denver swept the Lakers in the West, Miami had to play seven games against the Celtics. The last time there was a duel with that situation was in 2013 when the team led by Spoelstra also arrived after playing seven games and beat the San Antonio Spurs who had won the Western Finals 4-0.

JIMMY BUTLER, THE BIG STAR

Jimmy Butler is the best player on the Heat and the one who led them to this stage, taking responsibility at decisive moments. He averages 28.5 points and 2.1 steals in these playoffs, statistics that in the last 25 postseasons only LeBron James (2017), Dwyane Wade (2006) and Allen Iverson (2001) achieved to lead their teams to the Finals.

Butler’s milestones in these playoffs will be remembered regardless of the ultimate fate of Miami’s campaign.: Scored 98 points in the last two games of the first round against the Bucks, something unprecedented in history; he averaged 37.6 points per game in that series, passing Wade in the 2006 Finals for the franchise’s leading scorer in a playoff; he had 56 points in Game 4 against Milwaukee, tying the fourth-best mark in NBA postseason history; he is the third player in Heat history, along with LeBron and Wade, with at least 10 games of 25 or more points in the playoffs.

Butler will have Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray as his main rivals, two others who average at least 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in these playoffs. There have never been three players who reached a Finals with those stats.

Apart from the numbers, which reflect a lot but not everything, there is a fundamental question for the Miami Heat: when the ball burns, everyone knows that Butler takes charge of solving.

THE FOREVER STRANGERS

This Miami team exceeds Butler’s qualities. He has a group of players who are far from stardom but performed better than expected. No team in history that reached the Finals had used as many undrafted players in the playoffs as the Heat used seven this season. Of those, four emerged as essential: Martin, Vincent, Robinson and Strus.

Against the Celtics, 52% of the Heat’s points were contributed by the undrafted. It’s the first team in history where those types of players scored at least half the points in a series. Among the three playoff series that Miami played, the undrafted converted 40.8% of the points.

In the Eastern Finals, Martin stood out above the rest with 135 points, the highest mark in the history of a Finals, either in the Conference or in the NBA, for an undrafted player. And he had a fantastic seventh game: 26 points on 69% shooting from the field.

THE ERIK SPOELSTRA EXPERIENCE

Heat coach reached his sixth Finalsranking fourth in the historical table that has illustrious people such as Phil Jackson (13), Red Auerbach (11), Pat Riley (9), Gregg Popovich (6), John Kundla (6) and Steve Kerr (6).

The influence of the coach is undeniable. He has been in the role since 2008 when he replaced Pat Riley, who moved to the position of team president. Spoelstra had served in the Heat’s assistant role since 1997 and had never been a head coach. In the period from 2006, when Miami got its first ring, to 2023, no team reached more NBA Finals.

As we said, Spoelstra’s mentor is Riley, who will be in the Finals for the 19th time: ten as a coach or assistant, three as a player and six as an executive.

Miami Heat went further than anyone imagined. He did a lot to be back in the Finals. But Butler has a very clear goal, which is to beat the Nuggets, and that’s why he said: “We haven’t done anything yet.”