((LIVE)) Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics Live Stream | NBA

It’s 2012 all over again. After enduring the painful rebuilding cycles associated with older contenders, the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics have made it back to the same stage where they famously battled it out for a spot in the NBA Finals eight years ago, but with very different names. LeBron James and Paul Pierce are gone, replaced by Jayson Tatum and Jimmy Butler. On both rosters, only Udonis Haslem remains, and that sets the tone for this series.

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As much history as these organizations share, this is a matchup neither knows particularly well nor could possibly be prepared for. After all, assuming that the No. 3 and No. 5 seeds would reach the Eastern Conference finals would be somewhat foolhardy under normal circumstances. But Boston and Miami defied the odds, and now we have not only one of the most surprising final four matchups in NBA history, but one of the most exciting. Here’s everything you need to know about the Eastern Conference finals.
(3) Celtics vs. (5) Heat

All times Eastern

Game 1: Tuesday, Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m. I ESPN
Game 2: Thursday, Sept. 17, TBD | ESPN
Game 3: Saturday, Sept. 19, 8:30 p.m. | ESPN
Game 4: Monday, Sept. 21, TBD | TBD
Game 5*: Wednesday, Sept. 23, TBD | TBD
Game 6*: Friday, Sept. 25, TBD | TBD
Game 7*: Sunday, Sept. 27 TBD | TBD*

*if necessary
1. The connections between these teams run deep

Forget about the recent rivalry between these teams during the LeBr The history between Pat Riley and Danny Ainge is testy, to say the least. Brian Windhorst explored it in depth here, but here’s how it can be summed up in a single moment. In 2018, reports claimed that Riley called Tom Thibodeau a “motherf—er” during trade negotiations. Riley denied the allegations, but in an official team statement, singles out Ainge specifically as someone he would admit to describing with expletives.
Trade rumors linked Jimmy Butler to Boston for years, but by all accounts, the Celtics only ever made low-ball offers for him before he landed with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Most players would forget that. Butler will not.
Tyler Herro reportedly “blew away” the Celtics during his pre-draft workout last summer, and Boston was seriously interested in picking him at No. 14. Miami took him one slot earlier at No. 13. This is far from the only time Miami has pulled something like this on Boston. In 2015, the Celtics offered an enormous haul of draft picks to the Charlotte Hornets at No. 9, trying to jump up for Justise Winslow. The Hornets declined, preferring to simply take Frank Kaminsky. When Ainge called Riley at No. 10 hoping to make a similar offer, Riley laughed and hung up according to Bill Simmons. The Heat took Winslow.
Duncan Robinson grew up in New England attending Celtics games.
Gordon Hayward visited the Heat during his 2017 free agency tour before settling on the Celtics. In order to create the cap space to sign him, Boston renounced their restricted free agent rights to Kelly Olynyk, who turned around and signed with the Heat.
Jae Crowder made his name playing for the Celtics. One of the reasons he was even attainable to Miami was the incredibly team-friendly five-year, $35 million contract Ainge signed him to in 2015.

The conference finals are always (pun intended) heated, but this series is going to be personal in ways these matchups often aren’t. These are not two juggernauts so predestined for a postseason matchup that they spend the season learning to be civil with one another like, say, the Lakers and Clippers. Nerves will be struck. Composure will matter.
2. Hayward’s decision

The Celtics always expected to lose Hayward for some length of time during the postseason. His wife is pregnant with their fourth child and is due in late September. Hayward made it clear that he planned to leave the bubble to be with his family. And then he sprained his ankle in Game 1 of Boston’s first-round victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, and things got a whole lot more complicated.

Hayward was given a four-week recovery timeline, and left the bubble to rehab with his family in Indiana. Those four weeks have now passed, and Hayward has returned to the bubble. He cleared quarantine Friday and sat on the sideline for Boston’s Game 7 victory over Toronto. His coach was optimistic but uncertain about his status. “I think he’ll be back at some point in that series, but I don’t know when,” Brad Stevens told reporters Friday.

This is where things become more complicated. Hayward has given no indication that his plans have changed. But if his return is still a ways off and he just plans to leave the bubble again towards the end of the month anyway, why return at all? Obviously playing even a single game is better than missing out entirely, but the idea of multiple exits and quarantines doesn’t seem like a great recovery environment for an injured player.

For now, the assumption should be that Hayward is moving towards a full recovery, but that he still plans to leave the Celtics when his wife is ready to give birth. But Hayward’s return to the bubble should at least raise some eyebrows. If he planned to leave again so soon, it’s worth wondering why he returned at all. He also made that declaration before the playoffs started. Now, his Celtics are not only in the Eastern Conference finals (a stage of the postseason he has never personally participated in) but are favored in that series with the top two seeds now out of the picture. The vague idea of leaving a playoff run is one thing. The reality of abandoning a possible championship opportunity when it’s staring you in the face may be another. on years. The two rosters share far more commonalities than you’d think upon first glance.