Can Heat Become Lowest-Seeded Team To Win NBA Finals Since '95 Rockets?
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HOUSTON — The Miami Heat will make history Thursday night during Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets.
The Heat became the first team to advance to the Finals after beginning the post-season as a play-in tournament team. And due to their playoff success, the Heat will become the first eight-seeded ball club since the New York Knicks in 1999 to compete in the championship series.
The Heat's route to the Finals consisted of defeating the heavily favored Milwaukee Bucks in five games and sending the Knicks home during the second round. And despite a seven-game series during the Eastern Conference Finals, Miami dethroned the Boston Celtics.
Miami will rely upon its culture in hopes of pulling off another playoff upset. A win against the Nuggets would make the Heat the first championship team to win a title as an eighth-seed and the lowest since the Houston Rockets in 1995.
"We know what we are capable of," Jimmy Butler said. "The outside individuals do not get the opportunity to see it...We are going to stay confident because we are on the grind. We are never going to be surprised."
The Rockets won their second consecutive title by defeating the Orlando Magic, who entered the 1995 playoffs with the Eastern Conference's best record after winning 57 games behind the young duo of Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal.
Houston was a sixth-seeded team whose route was similar to the Heat, as each franchise had to go through the gauntlet of tough competition in their respective conference.
The Rockets began their post-season run by defeating a 60-win Utah Jazz team in round one. They later came back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Phoenix Suns. And during the Western Conference Finals, the Rockets sent the San Antonio Spurs home, who ended the regular season with a league best 62 wins.
Behind coach Rudy Tomjanovich and legend Hakeem Olajuwon, the Rockets relied upon their belief and experience as a championship team to win their second title. Houston's sentiment was similar to what has guided the Heat to their seventh Finals appearance 28 years later.
"The more experience you have, the more gratitude you have for these opportunities," coach Eric Spoelstra said. "To go through the gauntlet of three seven games series just to get to this point, this is just a special group.
"This group has been able to overcome a lot of different things and handle a lot of adversities and setbacks. We have developed fortitude and grit."
The Heat are entering the Finals as hefty underdogs against the Nuggets. The consensus believes Denver will end the Heat's Cinderella post-season run in five games at best.
But in the words of Tomjanovich, during the Rockets' championship celebration inside The Summit, "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion."
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