2023 NBA Playoffs

A look at the Heat's previous 6 trips to the NBA Finals

Miami is returning to the NBA Finals stage for the 7th time and looking for its 4th NBA title overall.

Michael C. Wright

Michael C. Wright

The Heat knock off the Celtics in Game 7 to clinch the franchise's 7th NBA Finals berth.

The loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the first game of the AT&T Play-In Tournament turned some observers into skeptics when gauging the Miami Heat’s potential postseason prospects.

Thirteen victories later, the Heat became just the second No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals.

“We’ve been the eight seed all playoffs,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “So, you know you have to will wins in other buildings. The biggest thing for us [is] we always stay together when it matters most. Just being together, being in those moments where [our] back [is] against the wall and everybody is going against you, I feel that’s when it brings out the best in us.”

We’ll certainly see in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night at Ball Arena (8:30 ET, ABC) if that’s true for Miami as it faces the top-seeded Denver Nuggets and two-time former Kia MVP Nikola Jokic.

Miami is back in the NBA Finals for the seventh time in franchise history and for the first time since 2020 inside the Orlando restart bubble. As the Heat seek their fourth championship against a Denver squad making its first Finals appearance, let’s take a quick look back at Miami’s previous six trips to the big stage:

2006: No. 2 Heat vs. No. 4 Mavericks

Take a look back at the last game of the 2006 Finals as the Heat wrap up their first NBA title.

Just 24 years old in his third NBA season, Dwyane Wade penned the first few bullet points of his Hall of Fame resume just after Miami fell behind 2-0 in a series Dallas seemed destined to win. Wade struggled in a pair of double-digit losses to start the series, connecting on just 38.6% of his shots. The Mavericks appeared poised to snatch Game 3, too, after seizing a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. Wade would crush Dallas down the stretch, pouring in 15 of his game-high 42 points in the fourth quarter of a contest Miami closed out on a 22-7 run. The shooting guard played nearly 11 minutes of the fourth quarter saddled with five fouls, as the Heat turned the series on a 98-96 victory in Game 3. Wade would average 39.2 points on 50.5% shooting over the next four Miami victories, becoming the fourth player to score more than 35 points in four straight Finals games, as the Heat became just the third team in NBA history up to that point to recover from a 2-0 Finals deficit to win the title.

2011: No. 2 Heat vs. No. 3 Mavericks

Dallas and Miami meet up again, but now the Heat are a bona fide superteam featuring Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh playing in their first season together. Miami cruised to a 1-0 lead in the series behind Wade, James and Bosh’s combined 65 points in a 92-84 victory. But the inflection point might’ve arrived as soon as Game 2. After knocking down a corner 3-pointer that gave the Heat a 15-point lead with 7:14 left to play in that contest, Wade posed in front of the Dallas bench with one arm raised skyward. James walked over soon after to throw a flurry of pretend punches at Wade’s chest in celebration. The visiting Mavericks responded by embarking on a 22-5 run to close the game with Dirk Nowitzki spinning past Bosh for a layup with 3.6 seconds left to lift Dallas to a 95-93 victory. Wade led Miami a 2-1 series lead with a 29-point performance in Game 3, but the Mavericks wouldn’t lose another game on the way to capturing the franchise’s lone championship. Perhaps the lessons Miami learned from this series set up the club for back-to-back titles over the next two seasons.

2012: No. 2 Heat vs. No. 2 Thunder

Relive the epic Game 5 of the 2012 NBA Finals between the Heat and Thunder!

James’ third trip to the Finals proved fruitful after suffering a sweep as a Cleveland Cavalier in 2007 (by the San Antonio Spurs) and falling in six games in 2011 (to Dallas). Facing a loaded Oklahoma City Thunder squad that featured Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the 2011-12 regular-season MVP averaged 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists in winning the first of his four Finals MVP awards. Durant and Westbrook combined for 63 points in OKC’s 105-94 win in Game 1. But Miami dominated from there, winning the next four games on the way to the franchise’s second NBA title. “This right here is the happiest day of my life,” James said at the time. “This is a dream come true.” Interestingly, James, Wade, Durant, Westbrook and Harden would go on to win a combined seven regular-season MVPs and seven NBA Finals MVPs.

2013: No. 1 Heat vs. No. 2 Spurs

Take another look at an incredible 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat.

San Antonio led this series 3-2 and held a five-point edge with 28.2 seconds left to play in Game 6. Presentation of the Larry O’Brien Trophy seemed imminent. In fact, the NBA had already ordered the ushers at American Airlines Arena to begin roping off the first row of fans from the court. Ray Allen would change everything, though. “We see the championship board already out there, the yellow tape,” James said. “That’s why you play the game to the final buzzer.” Miami trailed by three when James missed what would have been the game-tying 3-pointer. Bosh emerged from a pack of Spurs that included Danny Green, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard with the rebound, and quickly laced a dime to Allen, who had backpedaled to the right corner. With Tony Parker closing fast, Allen fired the game-tying 3-pointer with just 5.2 seconds left on the clock to force overtime. The Heat staved off elimination by outscoring San Antonio 8-5 in the extra frame to force Game 7. James and Wade would combine for 60 points in Game 7 as the former would capture his second-consecutive Finals MVP. “Devasted” is the word you most often hear from Spurs players describing that potential title slipping through their fingers.

2014: No. 2 Heat vs. No. 1 Spurs

Miami’s 2013 title provided the lowest moment in Spurs franchise history, while leading to a summer of soul-searching in San Antonio. The Spurs dedicated the entire 2013-14 season to returning to the Finals. “It was a tough summer,” Ginobili said. “We all felt guilty.” Once San Antonio defeated OKC in the Western Conference Finals to force a rematch with Miami, Tim Duncan said, “We’re happy that it’s the Heat again.” The Spurs took Game 1 on the strength of Duncan, Ginobili and Parker combining for 56 points. The Heat tied the series 1-1 behind a 35-point night from James. For Game 3, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich likely changed the trajectory of the whole series by replacing Tiago Splitter with Boris Diaw, one of the NBA’s best frontcourt passers. That move helped to re-ignite San Antonio’s ball movement offense, dubbed by some observers as “the beautiful game.” Over the next three contests, the Spurs blasted the Heat by 19, 21 and 17 points to claim their fifth NBA title. Less than a month later, James — now a free agent — announced he would return to Cleveland.

2020: No. 5 Heat vs. No. 1 Lakers

Let's take an in-depth look at the full 6-game series between the Lakers and Heat!

Watching Jimmy Butler carry the Heat through adverse situations isn’t new. We saw Butler do it in the Orlando bubble back in 2020, as the forward became the first player to log multiple triple-doubles of 35 points or more in the NBA Finals. Butler was flat out exhausted by the time James and the favored Lakers won Game 6 to end this series. With Miami trailing the series 2-0, Butler dropped a 40-point triple-double to lead the Heat to a Game 3 victory, before piecing together another heroic effort in Game 5 with 35 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and five steals while playing in all but 48 seconds of that contest. “He is a winner, he is a leader, he is a motivator, a mentor and just a supreme competitor,” Spoelstra said then. The lasting image from that performance of Butler leaning over in sheer exhaustion serves as a reminder of this team’s resilience and fight. It’s something we can expect to see when Miami meets the favored and top-seeded Nuggets in Game 1 of the 2023 Finals.

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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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