Miami Heat wins! But did they, really? No Butler a big problem in brutal matchup vs. Boston | Opinion

How hard would you fight to win if winning meant a hugely harder battle ahead -- one everyone seemed sure you would lose decisively? Perhaps even embarrassingly. And that you’d have to undertake this biggest of challenges without your biggest star and top scorer?

That is how much fight the Miami Heat brought Friday night in the must-win play-in that could have been their last game of this NBA season but instead was their entree into the playoffs ... and a trip to Boston.

I wasn’t sure if the first postgame media question of coach Erik Spoelstra should have been prefaced with “Congratulations,” or “I’m sorry for your win...”

Heat fans were chanting, “We want Boston!” in the fourth quarter.

Be careful what you wish for?

In the mighty Celtics the Heat now will face the tallest mountain in the very first round, and must make that steepest climb without the reassuring lead of their sage and sherpa, Jimmy Butler, erased indefinitely (reportedly “several weeks”) by his right knee sprain.

No Playoff Jimmy, no playoff hope. Right?

That is what the basketball world is thinking today. What the expert talking heads and the bettors are thinking. Maybe what even most Heat fans privately believe when not mustering outward confidence.

Everybody except the men in the mirrors on Miami’s roster, evidently?

Spoelstra’s only allusion to the Boston challenge in Friday’s postgame: “Now, we’ll figure out this next thing.”

Said Bam Adebayo of what he expects of Heat-Celtics: “Dog fight. A battle. In the mud. Not gonna be pretty basketball.”

Friday’s literal must-win game that Miami easily took, 112-91, sent the Chicago Bulls home to start their offseason and the sends the Heat as the No. 8 seed on to face No. 1 (and rested) Boston, the league’s best team by miles in the regular season. Miami was without not only Butler on Friday but also minus Terry Rozier.

“They had their heart and soul in being here for the team at this time,” Spoelstra said prior to the game. “Unfortunate timing.”

Put those last two words in bold-face, italicized and underlined.

The Heat obviously leaned heavily on Adebayo and Tyler Herro in Butler’s absence but Spoelstra had said, “We need some ‘X’ factors tonight.”

He got some.

Herro scored a game-high 24 points and was Three-ro with four 3’s. Rookie Jamie Jacquez Jr. had 21 points and veteran Kevin Love had 16 off the bench. Adebayo had modest stats (13 points) but was great defensively on DeMar DeRozan.

“Another day at the office,” said Bam..

Spoelstra: “What we needed, we felt like, was inspiration, and Bam was our most inspiring player, especially with Jimmy being out. The two of them are our most inspiring players. And they’ve always been. When they’re locked in at their highest level competitively, we feel like we can beat anybody.”

Miami rode an early 19-0 run to a 25-11 lead and never looked back.

Heat-Celtics Game 1 is Sunday up there at 1 p..m. and South Florida is off and running (and skating ) with another simultaneous, double-barreled postseason. The Florida Panthers’ Game 1 is at home vs. Tampa Bay Sunday at 12 :30 p.m.

Both teams enthralled fans by unexpectedly forging long postseason runs and reaching the NBA and NHL finals before losing last spring-into-summer. The Heat’s run began with a play-in win over these same Bulls.

Both South Florida teams are now facing probably their biggest rival.

And there the similarity stops.

The division-winning Panthers are clear favorites over the Lightning and among favorites to win the Stanley Cup, while the Heat are huge underdogs. The idea Miami may be swept is more prevalent than the notion a stunning upset might happen.

I credit the Heat for the effort to advance Friday despite what was ahead more than because of it.

Do you know how easy it would have been for Heat players to not bring the maximum will needed Friday? Just a scintilla of resignation that no-Butler makes a Celtics series look grim. Just a half-ounce of creeping doubt. Pro athletes are subject to human nature, too. (It’s just rarely talked about.)

But somehow Spoelstra has the Heat believing in itself even sans Butler and against common logic.

The reason is ... here it comes ...

Heat Culture!

How else to explain? I take plenty of jabs at the notion of this made-up, invisible thing that somehow empowers the Heat. I think at times it is used as a crutch.

Yet it has become a part of the Heat brand, what this franchise is, and if the players are buying into it and see it as some sort of mystical fuel, well, more power to them. Maybe it is some of why the team buys into a defense-first ethic. Maybe it is some of why Miami got this far despite injuries that caused 35 different starting lineups this season.

Spoelstra, speaking Culture: “Forget about how we got here. We have a game for competitive spirit and consequences. We have a bunch a Type A competitors. Embrace it, enjoy it, be grateful. These games are fun. Our competitors enjoyed that. I have an appreciation for just making the playoffs. You have to come together collectively to earn it, and we had to do it the hard way.”

As intangible as Heat Culture but just as mystically valid now is the idea Miami may enjoy a psychological edge over the Celtics (or might have, at least, with a healthy Butler threatening ‘Playoff Jimmy’ stuff.)

Boston swept Miami 3-0 in games this regular season. The Heat was a respectable 13-9 this season games Butler missed, but in scoring average per 100 possessions Miami was 7.3 points better with Butler.

Still, Heat-Celtics playoff history has leaned strongly to Miami. In six prior meetings the Heat has won and advanced four times. That includes four of the last five -- and three of the past four in the Eastern Conference finals.

Does that mean Jayson Tatum might be more nervous on Sunday than he should be?

Or will the sight of Jimmy Butler seated courtside in a suit take care of all that?

Either way, let Friday night serve as a reminder: Miami believes.

“If you don’ believe, don’t show up,” says Adebayo.

No matter the lineup or who’s out, the Miami Heat show up ready for a fight.