Former NBA center and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins believes that the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics have the biggest rivalry in the NBA right now.
“I gotta go with the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics,” Perkins said. “When you think about two teams in the Eastern Conference, they don’t like each other. When you think about the history and matching up in the conference finals, right? Every single time, they have to go through each other at some point.
“And Jimmy Butler became – Playoff Jimmy – became a real thing during this matchup while he’s in a Heat jersey. I think this is the biggest rivalry in the NBA. I love it every time they match up, and we know it’s gon’ be some smoke, especially when Jimmy is available.”
The Heat and Celtics have played each other in the playoffs in several seasons since Butler came to Miami ahead of the 2019-20 campaign. In the 2019-20 season, they met in the NBA’s Orlando, Fla. bubble in the Eastern Conference Finals, with Miami winning the series to advance to the NBA Finals.
There have been two more meetings in the Eastern Conference Finals since then, with Boston taking the matchup in seven games in the 2021-22 season. Miami returned the favor the following season, upsetting the Celtics as the No. 8 seed in the East to advance to the 2023 NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets. That series also took the maximum seven games for a team to advance.
Last season, Miami did not have a great regular season and ended up in the play-in tournament for the second straight campaign. It still ended up matching up with Boston – this time in the first round of the playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Heat, Butler was injured in their play-in tournament loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, and he was unable to play against Boston. The Celtics took down the Heat in five games, only losing Game 2, and went on to eventually win the NBA Finals.
Miami is still looking for a title in the Butler era despite making it to the Finals two times.
Health will be a key for the Heat, as Butler and guard Terry Rozier were both out of the lineup in the playoffs last season.
Perkins clearly has a lot of respect for Miami and how it has competed with Boston, but Heat fans want to see the franchise have the same success as well. If Miami can win a title in the 2024-25 season, it would only make the rivalry with Boston even more interesting.