The Miami Heat have advanced to the 2023 NBA Finals, toppling the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Scrapping their way into the field through the play-in tournament, the Heat plowed straight through the east bracket to become just the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to reach the championship round.
For the Heat, this will mark their seventh trip to the NBA Finals in franchise history. That puts them into a tie with the Pistons for the sixth-most Finals appearances in league history. Miami’s most recent trip came in the 2020 bubble, where it lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. Central figures on this year’s squad like Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Duncan Robinson were also on that 2020 team that came close to bringing down LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Prior to that, the Heat made the Finals in 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. The 2006 Finals saw Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and the Heat topple the Dallas Mavericks in six games to win the franchise’s first Larry O’Brien Trophy. The 2011-2014 teams were led by the big three of Wade, James, and Chris Bosh, where they went 2-2 in their trips to the championship round.