Heat head coach anoints Celtics as best team in NBA
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra.
The Boston Celtics eliminated the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
A 118-84 win secured a fourth win in five games for Joe Mazzulla’s team. It was also the fourth time in five games that the Heat failed to break the 100-point mark.
When speaking to the media as part of his postgame news conference, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra admitted that his team lost to the best roster in the NBA.
“First of all, we’re not gonna put this on the fact that we’ve had some injuries,” Spoelstra said. “Let’s not take anything away from Boston. They’ve been the best team in basketball all season long. In this series, in four of the games, they played as such. That had nothing to do with the injuries. That had nothing to do with guys that were available or not available…They played at a high level…They will probably do this to several teams from here on out.”
Miami navigated its series against the Celtics without Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson, who were all absent due to injury. Nevertheless, the Celtics didn’t take their foot off the gas. They executed on both sides of the floor, ending the series with a +17 Net Rating, which currently leads all postseason teams.
Boston is expected to contend for a championship, so progressing out of the first round was a minimal requirement. Anything less than a spot in the NBA Finals will be deemed a failure, especially with the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers on the brink of elimination in their respective series.
Spoelstra has endured his fair share of battles with the Celtics. Last season, Miami sent Boston home in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The year before, Boston won in a similar fashion before falling to the Golden State Warriors.
After a tough series, Spoelstra showed class in his comments about the Celtics. Now, Boston must prove it is the championship-caliber team everyone believes it is. Otherwise, a dominant regular season would have been for nothing.
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