The prospect of it may have been unthinkable just one month ago, but here the Miami Heat are, needing just one win to advance to the 2023 NBA Finals after decimating the Boston Celtics, 128-102, at Kaseya Center. The Heat, which looked dead in the water when they lost to the Atlanta Hawks in the first game of the play-in tournament, have been galvanized beyond belief, thanks to Jimmy Butler and, to a lesser extent, Bam Adebayo's heroics.
However, it's extremely disingenuous to chalk up the Heat's stellar 2023 playoff run to the efforts of their two franchise cornerstones. Through their 14 postseason games thus far, their unheralded players, such as Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Caleb Martin, and Duncan Robinson — who all went undrafted, by the way — have all had their turns soaking in the spotlight.
While credit must go to those four for rising to the occasion, head coach Erik Spoelstra believes that the presences of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo have had a part to play in bringing out the best out of those four. By virtue of being at their best, Spoelstra believes that the Heat's two stars are causing a trickle-down effect in terms of confidence.
“Jimmy and Bam are both fueling that,” Spoelstra said in his postgame presser, per ESPN. “They are just infusing those guys with confidence. But then they also know that they have to impact everybody else on the roster. You want to breathe life into other guys and ultimately enjoy someone else's success, but that takes great emotional stability. You know, there's a lot of pressure and voices and noise coming at you from a lot of different ways.”
The Heat head coach then added that the mental makeup of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo — their ability to remain even-keeled under pressure — has made such a huge difference.
“Those guys, those guys get it. And you're seeing some of the role players really grow and be able to expand their games. That only happens if your star players really want that,” Spoelstra added.
They need just five more wins to win the championship against all odds. And at this point, it's not the best idea to bet against the Heat, especially when they're playing with an extremely high level of confidence this deep into the playoffs.
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