Heat embracing heavy underdog role in playoff series vs. Celtics: ‘I love this position’

After making NBA playoff history as a No. 8 seed last season, the Miami Heat again finds itself in a position to shock the basketball world this season.

But if last season’s Heat run to the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed was improbable, another run to the championship series as a No. 8 seed appears unfathomable at the moment when looking at the daunting challenge ahead and the personnel missing.

With Friday night’s impressive 112-91 win over the Chicago Bulls at Kaseya Center, the Heat clinched the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 playoff seed for the second straight season and a first-round series against the top-seeded Boston Celtics.

“It’s the old underdog story, David vs. Goliath,” Heat backup center Kevin Love said, with Game 1 of the best-of-7 series set for Sunday at TD Garden (1 p.m., ABC).

Rozier in recovery mode. And Heat chatter on Herro, Martin, Adebayo, Love, Highsmith/Tatum

The Celtics closed the regular season with the NBA’s top record at 64-18 — seven games better than the NBA’s second-best record. Led by a dynamic starting lineup of Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics posted the NBA’s top offensive rating and second-best defensive rating this regular season.

The Heat is coming off another frustrating regular season marred by injury issues, finishing with the NBA’s 21st-ranked offensive rating and fifth-ranked defensive rating. But Miami’s biggest problem is it’s expected to be without its best player Jimmy Butler for the entire first round and possibly beyond after he suffered a sprained MCL in his right knee during Wednesday’s play-in tournament loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Heat will also open the playoffs without starting guard Terry Rozier, who has already missed six straight games with a neck injury, and reserve guard Josh Richardson, who is out for the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in early March. The Heat also listed three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson as questionable for Game 1 because of his lingering back injury.

In addition, the Heat has played two emotional play-in tournament games since Wednesday just to earn a playoff spot while the Celtics haven’t played their regulars since April 11 after clinching the NBA’s top record in early April.

“Naturally with some of our fire power out and some guys banged up, it’s going to be an uphill battle,” Love said. “But different guys are just going to have to step up. You saw it last year with guys going down. But we just have to continue to weather the storm and understand we’re going to be in for a big fight.”

Here’s proof of the steep uphill battle the Heat faces in the first round: The Heat enters Game 1 as a huge 14-point betting underdog and a 4-0 Celtics sweep is the odds-on favorite for the outcome of the series.

“I love this position, honestly,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said of entering the first round as heavy underdogs. “A lot of people didn’t think we were going to win [Friday against the Bulls] and that’s part of it. I feel like we’re better when our backs are against the wall anyways. So we’re going to go to Boston [Saturday] and come up with a game plan with the coaching staff to stop one of the better teams, pretty much ever really, on paper.”

Just last season, the Heat made NBA history by becoming only the sixth No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs since the current 16-team NBA playoff format was instituted for the 1983-84 season. The Heat eliminated the then-top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, winning that best-of-7 series 4-1 after entering Game 1 as 9.5-point underdogs.

While Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo missed Games 2 and 3 of that series because of a lower back contusion, Butler dominated that series 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 games.

This time, the Heat won’t have Butler because of his knee injury. This time, the Heat is expected to open the playoffs with a starting lineup that includes 20-year-old second-year forward Nikola Jovic and rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr.

“We always say it, we’re not a regular eight seed and people know that for some reason,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said with a smile.

The Celtics are well aware the Heat isn’t a typical No. 8 seed, whether Butler is available or not.

The Heat won Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in Boston last season to eliminate the Celtics and become the first No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals during a non-lockout-shortened season before falling to the Denver Nuggets in the championship series.

This year’s first-round matchup actually marks the fourth time in the last five seasons that the Heat and Celtics have faced off in the playoffs, with the previous three times (2020, 2022 and 2023) coming in the East finals. The Heat won two (2020 and 2023) of those three conference finals over the Celtics.

“I think just two competitive teams and organizations that love to win,” Herro said when asked if there’s any bad blood between the two organizations. “That’s about it.”

Without Butler and Rozier, the Heat will need to rely on Adebayo and Herro to make this year’s series against the Celtics competitive. Miami’s depth pieces like Jaquez, Jovic, Love, Robinson Caleb Martin and Haywood Highsmith will also need to shine.

The Celtics swept their three-game regular-season series against the Heat this season, winning those three meetings by a combined total of 45 points. But one of the games accounts for most of that large margin, as the Celtics crushed the Heat 143-110 in Miami on Jan. 25.

“Obviously, to beat a team like Boston is an incredibly uphill battle,” Love said. “They’ve played like the best team in the league all year. I know some teams would have something to say about that. But they’ve certainly made some moves with Jrue and Porzingis that have made them so much better and just having the continuity throughout their entire lineup with different guys stepping up, as well. We know what they’re capable of. But coach will have us ready to certainly compete on Sunday and go out there and try to get a win.”

The Heat’s best chance at defying the odds for a second straight season as a No. 8 seed will be to make the games ugly against the league’s top offense. Whether it’s a full-court press, zone or man, suffocating defense will be at the center of the Heat’s game plan because it will be tough for Miami’s injury-depleted offense to keep up with Boston in a high-scoring game.

“It’s going to be a dog fight,” Adebayo said. “It’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be in the mud, it’s not going to be pretty basketball. That’s usually how it’s been when we see that team. That’s usually how it is. It’s always competitive. Everybody always plays their best basketball in that series.”

While some looked ahead at another series against the Celtics, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra remained in the present moment following Friday’s playoff-clinching win over the Bulls that kept Miami’s season alive. The Heat has now made the playoffs in five straight seasons and in 23 of the 29 seasons since Pat Riley joined the organization in 1995.

“I have an incredible appreciation for having an opportunity just to make the playoffs,” said Spoelstra, who has led the Heat to the playoffs in 13 of the 16 seasons he has served as the team’s head coach. “I have an appreciation for the things you can’t buy, the things that you have to earn. We had to earn this. You can’t influence it, you can’t pay money for it, you actually have to collectively come together to earn it and we had to do it the hard way just to get this first ticket punched for the invitation to this dance. Then we’ll figure out this next thing as we get into this next series.”