FIRST TAKE | "NOT Celtics and Heat, Nuggets are biggest threat to the NBA Finals" - Brian Windhorst

Boston playing in Miami later today as Game 3 of the East Finals sees the heat up in the series thanks to Jimmy Butler. Miami's superstar has been great in the clutch with 17 fourth quarter points while the Celtics duo of Tatum and Brown have 20 combined. Going deeper on the late struggles of Boston, Jason Tatum is yet to make a field goal in the fourth quarter of this series. Tatum has five turnovers and missed all three shots in the fourth so far in the series. And that has led to the Heat leading the series two games to none, heading back to Miami where they are undefeated in the playoffs. The Heat are the first eight seed ever to lead the conference finals two games to none. Nick Fridell and Tim Bontemps with more. The rest of the world may be surprised that the Heat are up 2-0, but nobody in the Miami locker room is. Jimmy Butler flatly said, we don't care what people think. We never have. And that's the belief they carry with them now into Game 3. They are riding this momentum because Butler has made them believe they can win no matter what happens. Eric Spolster trusts his team. He has instilled confidence in this group. And every time they hit the floor against the Celtics, they feel like they're going to find a way to win. The Sixers, they end up getting away with it, partially because of what the Sixers' issues were. But you're playing a 2-2 Game 5 on your home court. These are moments that define careers. And they get slapped. And now they've blown two fourth-quarter leads. Or I guess they wouldn't have had a lead in Game 1. But they've blown two double-digit leads twice in each of these first two games. I mean, Bomani, the Heat have played. The Heat have 55 wins this season, when you include their postseason and regular season. And I'm throwing in the one play-in game. They have 55 wins. 60. I'm sorry. 38 of those 55 wins have come out of clutch time. 38 of the 55 wins, the game was within five points in the last five minutes. And they lost a bunch, too. I think they're 38 and like 20. I don't know. I think it's like 24, right? Yeah. They played 62 clutch situation games. All they do is play games like this. This is who they are. And regardless of the talent level, 1 through 8, in a close fourth-quarter game, or in any fourth-quarter game that's not totally lopsided, the Heat have the advantage on the Celtics. And that is a problem for a team that is at this spot on their window as the Celtics are. They don't have a single guy who can just say, I'm about to go get a bucket. Jimmy Butler can say, give me the ball, and I'm going to get us a good shot. I might not make it, but I can promise you, I'm going to get as close as I possibly can, and I'm going to make them stop me or make them foul me, and I'm going to get a shot up. Like no matter how bad it gets, I can slow this down and just back you down because I'm as strong as an ox, and I'm going to get a shot. Jason Tatum's game is making hard shots look easy, but the shots are always hard. And at no point do they have any guy that can just say, fellas, I got it. And that matters here. Like that's the Jamal Murray thing we were talking about before. He has demonstrated himself to be a guy who can stop and say that. Jokic, the best part of watching him this postseason is watching him simplify it into points and just being like, how about you give me the ball, and I'm just going to knock you all the way under the basket, and then I'm going to take a layup. Like this isn't complex. That's what he was doing in the fourth quarter. He was like, I am going to get the ball in this spot, and you're not doing anything about it. Right. And the Celtics, as good as Tatum is, as good as people say Brown is, I'm not as high on him as others, but they don't do that. It feels like they should be able to, but they don't do that. So how crazy is it? Al Horford can shut down Joel Embiid, but they don't have a guy that can get an easy shot. You know, so the game plan for the Celtics, especially in game two, I've rarely seen a team force a guy left as hard as the Celtics were forcing Jimmy left. I mean, they were practically playing him at a 90 degree angle. Like they were doing all but shoving him to the left. They were standing so far to his right every time he got the ball. And the reason they were doing that is because they know that when Jimmy gets to that right side, especially when you get down the post, he's got a whole bag of tricks, including that sort of step back jumper, which he is able to hit with blanketed. And, you know, he can hit it from both sides, but really he's effective on the right. And so, like, it was very clear to me that their game plan was, gentlemen, do not let Jimmy Butler go right. I don't care if he goes left and dunks on your head if you stick to the game plan. And yet there they were in the fourth quarter. Guess where Jimmy Butler was over and over and over. Right there on that right side. And Spoh talked about it. Spoh talked about it even before the game because, you know, Jimmy Butler does this. And Spoh was like, you're going to ask me how he gets to his spots. I don't know. He just does. And he was. He did. He knows how to do it. He gets to his spots. And, yeah, that's the thing. Like Tatum. Tatum seems like he either wants to do nothing but shoot a three. Or he wants to do nothing but drive with the basket. He's like, OK, now I'm throwing my body in there. For a guy who's so talented and is, you know, first-team All-NBA player, he doesn't have that finesse. And in other words, he doesn't have the sort of the know-how and the go-to in a tight game. Now, look, this dude won them Game 6. And this is why it's so hard to be a Celtics fan at times. He wins them Game 6 with a couple of, you know, great clutch shots. And then he comes out and scores 51 in Game 7. It's an iconic performance. And then, you know, you look at last year when they were playing Milwaukee. And he goes into Milwaukee and has 46. I mean, he has a 46-point elimination game, a 51-point Game 7. And he won them Game 6 in this series, down 3-2 on the road with his late shot-making. Like, it feels like his resume is incredibly impressive. But then you actually watch how they lose these games. And you're like, but that's not necessarily who he is. Right. There's a gray area there. But it's not looking like a championship team right now. He said it. They're just not serious people. Or maybe it comes down to, wow, we're going to do this without a point guard thing. And I guess Brogdon was supposed to be some reasonable facsimile of one. But maybe that experiment is not it. I don't know. But they should be better. Like, as good as they've been, all you can say is that they should be better. Yeah. And, you know, Spoh got a little feisty about being asked about the undrafted players again. The Heat don't have undrafted players. They have NBA players. Yeah. And the Heat are not an eight seed. They're a championship contender. That's who they are. And I don't understand the analytics profile that we have. Our computers are still favoring the ESPN. Our computers are still favoring the Celtics. They just can't believe it. The computers can't believe it. And the odds makers, the Heat have routinely been pounding these teams straight up. And the odds makers can't help themselves. They just don't want to buy it. They had the Celtics as 10-point favorites. I think the Heat are something like 7-1 this playoffs when they've been at least 7-point dogs. Not against the spread. Straight up. And so they were 6-1. And so they made it a 10-point dog. And, like, I haven't looked to see what the number is for tomorrow. I'm not looking right now. But, like, the computers can't believe it. The handicappers can't believe it. Nobody wants to believe. 3-1, actually. Okay. Boston favored by 3-1. In Miami. So, I mean, I think Malone has been a little bit outside the zone in complaining about narrative. But look at these. Look at the. You know, look at what.