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The Miami Heat seemingly had the Eastern Conference finals won as lately as Sunday. When they won Game three against the Boston Celtics, they pushed their series lead up to three-. No NBA group has ever blown a three- series lead, but the Celtics are creating a sturdy push towards history with massive wins in Games four and five. Now the Heat are on the defensive, and they play their final dwelling game of the series on Saturday when they host Boston for Game six.
It really is a game the Heat totally anticipate to win. At least Jimmy Butler thinks so, as he assured victory just after Miami’s Game five loss. “We’re generally going to keep optimistic realizing that we can and we will win this series,” Butler told reporters. “We’ll just have to close it out at dwelling.”
Property teams are generally huge favorites in any playoff game, specifically these that come later in a series. The Celtics could possibly present the uncommon exception. Boston has truly been improved on the road this postseason (five-three) than it has been at dwelling (five-five). More than the extended normal-season sample, Miami’s dwelling record (27-14) wasn’t considerably improved than Boston’s road record (25-16), and the Celtics had a improved road net rating (plus-three.three) than Miami’s at dwelling (plus-1.1). The Heat will have the dwelling-court edge in Game six, but the numbers recommend that will not be considerably of an benefit.
That was correct final season, when these two teams met in the playoffs and the dwelling group won only two of the seven games. That incorporated Boston’s Game 7 victory on the road to clinch their trip to the NBA Finals. Of course, Butler practically prevented that victory with two of the very best games of his profession to finish that series. He scored 47 points in Game six to efficiently build a one particular-game Eastern Conference championship a season ago, and then he practically stole Game 7 with a 35-point masterpiece. He came one particular three-pointer quick.
Butler has been even improved for considerably of this postseason, guiding a No. eight seed to the brink of the NBA Finals for the initially time given that the 1999 Knicks created it all the way there. But Game six will present his toughest challenge however. The Heat have lost two games in a row. They are missing two crucial function players in Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo, and Gabe Vincent may perhaps also be out just after sitting for Game five with an ankle sprain. The onus is going to be on Butler to win this game for Miami, and if his post-game comments on Thursday have been any indication, he plans to do just that.