Heat-Celtics was an ‘inevitable matchup’

Associated Press

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In 2010, Boston ousted Dwyane Wade in the first round and LeBron James in the second round. A year later, Wade and James were teammates and turned the tables, sending the Celtics into the offseason.

Here comes the tiebreaker.

Celtics-Heat, one more time — with a berth in the NBA finals as the reward.

For the fifth time in seven years, it’ll be Boston or Miami winning the Eastern Conference championship. Game 1 of that title series is Monday night in Miami, with the Heat saying it almost seemed predestined that they would be seeing the Celtics again, and Boston’s perspective being that the team in green is exactly where it expected to be as well.

“Inevitable. It’s the matchup the game of basketball wants,” Wade said. “Obviously, with the Chicago Bulls being out, this is the biggest matchup the Eastern Conference can have. So we accept the challenge and we look forward to the series.”

Added Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: “Was there any doubt that it’d be us and Boston?”

Spoelstra watched Boston’s Game 7 East semifinal matchup against Philadelphia without a notepad, not wanting to start game planning until the winner was decided. And that didn’t come until late in the night, when Rajon Rondo — forced into the closer’s role after Paul Pierce fouled out with 4:16 left — delivered time and again down the stretch, carrying the Celtics to an 85-75 closeout victory.

“This is a good time right now,” Celtics forward Kevin Garnett said. “This is the cream of the cream. This is what it’s all about, you know, conference finals. We definitely didn’t like the way we left last year. So we’ll see what happens, man. We’ll see what happens. Let’s get it on.”

Miami beat Boston in five games in last year’s East semifinals, and the Celtics took three of four games from Miami this season.

Both sides agree, this won’t be easy for either club.

“It’s great theater for the fans and everybody out there,” Spoelstra said. “That’s what you want at this time of year.”