Why the Miami Heat Are a Darkhorse Contender in the Eastern Conference

The Miami Heat were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs during the 2023–24 NBA season. But a lot of this was related to Jimmy Butler’s passing, since the player was seriously hurt during Miami’s play-in game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Despite appearing to be overlooked as a competitive team, the completely healthy Heat squad has gone on to make incredible runs in the playoffs. However, it wouldn’t be shocking in the slightest if they had another strong run in the 2024–2025 NBA season.

A Healthy Miami Heat Team Almost Always Succeeds

Fully healthy Heat teams have made multiple recent Finals appearances

Miami is among the greatest teams in the league when they are fully healthy, which is one of the main reasons they should be a team to watch this season. Though Butler is anticipated to miss several weeks, an exact comeback date is not yet known, according to ESPN. Even so, the Heat ought to be able to get by until their star is back. Butler, an All-Star at the time, was dealt to Miami in what was regarded as a blockbuster transaction during the 2019 offseason. It was everything of that and more in the end.

That season, the Heat made their first NBA Finals appearance in six seasons when they faced the L.A. Lakers .

They could not win the NBA Championship, however, falling to Los Angeles in six games.

But no one expected the Heat to make the finals that season, and they certainly made a good first impression with Butler.

In the 2020-21 season, the opposite happened for Miami as it had a terrible first-round playoff performance against the Milwaukee Bucks . This series saw nearly every player on the team underperform, resulting in them getting swept.

It lowered their perception among fans, but that didn’t last long, as they had another excellent season the following year.

In 2021-22, the Heat showed signs of returning to their mid-2010s glory days, as they led the Eastern Conference and finished as the No.1 seed going into the playoffs.

They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, though they lost to the Boston Celtics in seven games. It was a good performance, though, considering they suffered multiple injuries in that series.

In 2022-23, the Heat repeated the same success as they made it back to the Eastern Conference Finals to face the Celtics, though this time it was Miami that came out on top, as the group defeated Boston in seven games.

They suffered the same fate as they did in 2019-20, however, as they came short of an NBA Championship, this time losing to the Denver Nuggets .

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