The Miami Heat had a tough road ahead of them when it came to repeating as Eastern Conference champions. For starters, they had to try to do it without star forward Jimmy Butler, sidelined by a knee injury.
Secondly, they had to try to do it against the Boston Celtics. And all the Celtics did was finish with the NBA’s best record (64-18). If they get to the Finals, they will have home-court advantage.
But when it comes to the injuries to Butler, guard Terry Rozier and others during both the season and playoffs … well, coach Erik Spoelstra refused to use them as an excuse.
For the record, the Celtics closed out the Heat in five games in the first round, scoring a 118-84 home victory in the elimination game Wednesday.
“We’re not going to put this on the fact that we’ve had some injuries,” Spoelstra told reporters, via Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. “Let’s not take anything away from Boston. They’ve been the best team in basketball all season long and in this series, in four of the games, they played as such.”
As for what’s next, Spoelstra added there will be time enough for that between now and when Miami tips off again.
“We’ll have plenty of time to go through the autopsy on the regular season,” he said. “It was super-competitive in both conferences and two or three wins could have made monumental differences.”
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