Every New Stat We Get About This Miami Heat Playoff Run Seems Crazier Than The Last

AAron Ontiveroz. Getty Images.

The idea of being a "team of destiny" gets thrown around a lot in professional sports. Sometimes you watch a postseason run by a team and while you accept that they are probably pretty damn good to be pulling off such a feat, there are times when it feels like that team is simply blessed by the powers above. 

While we wait for Game 3 of the NBA Finals, we're starting to get more and more nuggets (no pun intended but intended) about what the Miami Heat are currently doing in this insane playoff run, and honestly, each one we get seems more insane than the last. 

You have no choice but to tip your cap and respect what they've been able to do up until this point. None of this is a fluke, none of this is an accident, but man I don't know how anyone could have possibly seen this coming, even Heat fans. 

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The fact that the Heat have shot 48% or better in 30% of their playoff games so far this postseason is a good place to start. You hear a lot about how the Heat were 27th in the league in shooting and that's why this feels crazy, but you forget this was the best shooting team in the NBA in 2021-22. Even with that, those numbers are insane. It gets a little more ridiculous when you break down the actual shooting

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League average on open shooting this season was around 37%. The Heat have smashed that mark and their ability to consistently knock down their open looks is probably the biggest factor as to why they are currently tied 1-1 in the NBA Finals. Game after game and series after series more and more fanbases all said the same thing

"The Heat won't continue to shoot like this, what a fluke game"

Sorry, not a fluke. Credit where the credit is due. It's actually more of a fluke when the Heat don't convert over half of their clean looks, not the other way around. With that said, we're still seeing an all time run which few saw coming.

Let's move on because things get even crazier

If you needed even more reasons as to why this team is referred to as the Zombie Heat, well here ya go. In 82 regular season games they came back from 12+ points 9 times. Pretty good! They've now done it in 7 of their 20 playoff games. That shouldn't happen, yet for the Heat it's pretty much their normal. They have proven that you absolutely cannot relax at any point during a game against them. Up double digits? You may as well be tied. Why this is significant? Well…

You'll notice, outside of the 2011 Heat, each of those other teams won the NBA title. There are definitely some team of destiny vibes there.

Speaking of that idea…

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1-41!! This is what I mean when I say you can never relax against this team. Talk about being mentally tough my goodness. Every other team this postseason gets in that spot, they lose (outside of 1). The Heat? They thrive? At this point I'm not sure what logical explanation you could use to justify this. Everything that happens around them suggests something like this couldn't be possible, yet here they are pulling it off not once, not twice, not three times, but four. That's wild.

189.5 points per 100 possessions! Last night's 36 point fourth quarter was so common that nobody else in the NBA was able to pull something off like that all year. In the history of the NBA, it was the 10th most efficient quarter! For a team that had one of the lowest-ranked offenses all year. You make sense of that! When you watched it though, it didn't feel flukey. It didn't feel like a prayer. It just felt like the Heat were doing the same shit they've done for the last 2 months. This is their normal. 

Listen, there's obviously a ton of basketball to be played in these Finals. Things aren't even close to being settled yet. For all we know the Nuggets go into Miami, win Game 3, and regain control of the series. But you could also tell me they head back to Denver down 3-1 or tied 2-2. Everything has to be on the table if the Heat are going to keep doing shit that we haven't seen in decades/maybe ever. When you add in the fact that they are doing all this while facing a 1 seed, 5 seed, 2 seed, and now the other 1 seed, maybe there is something to the idea that the Heat is truly the team of destiny this season.