Heat, Panthers are not so different: How South Florida’s teams scrapped their way into conference finals

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Sports fans have long associated South Florida teams with the glitz and glamour of South Beach. Think LeBron James promising “not one, not two, not three” championship rings during his Heat welcome party, or the hilariously over-the-top Marlins home run sculpture that was mercifully relocated six years after its construction. 

Now, however, South Florida is the unlikely home of sports’ biggest underdog stories.

The eighth-seeded Heat and Panthers have both reached their respective conference finals in the same year for the first time ever (oh, and a few weeks prior, Florida Atlantic and Miami made their first NCAA Tournament Final Four appearances — the Owls doing so as a No. 9 seed).

Here’s a look at how their journeys compare. 

Both teams lost as No. 1 seeds in the 2022 playoffs

For the Heat and Panthers, the unlikely postseason runs come only a year after they couldn’t get it done as No. 1 seeds.

Miami lost to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, in heartbreaking fashion as Jimmy Butler missed a would-be go-ahead 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining in Game 7.Florida, meanwhile, gave credence to truthers of the Presidents’ Trophy curse as they were shockingly swept in the second round after earning the league’s best regular-season record.

But both teams have flipped the script this year, surviving through the first two rounds of their respective playoffs as No. 8 seeds. 

Both teams nearly missed the 2023 playoffs 

As No. 8 seeds, few expected the Heat or Panthers to come as far as they have. It’s hard to blame the skeptics, though, as a few late-season results could’ve held them out of the playoffs entirely had they gone differently. 

The Heat limped to the NBA Play-In Tournament with the league’s worst regular-season offense, and they lost the No. 7 seed to the Hawks, who defeated them, 116-105, in Miami. But in the following play-in game, Butler and Max Strus helped Miami get back on track by scoring 31 apiece to down the Bulls, 102-91, securing a first-round matchup with the top-seeded Bucks. 

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/heat-panthers-are-not-so-different-how-south-floridas-teams-scrapped-their-way-into-conference-finals/

Author : Wajih AlBaroudi

Publish date : 2023-05-19 16:00:02

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