Heat to open Saturday in Milwaukee, in gold uniforms; Jrue Holiday says Bucks more talented

It will be a Saturday start, one that will come with gold uniforms but not overwhelming opposing respect, for the Miami Heat in the NBA playoffs.

The Heat on Tuesday were given a Saturday start date for their best-of-seven opening-round Eastern Conference playoff against the Milwaukee Bucks, with that the only schedule element initially released Tuesday by the NBA.

As the league works this week through the play-in round to determine seeds Nos. 7-8 in each conference, teams only have been given the date of their playoff openers, either Saturday or Sunday.

Based on the other series that start on Saturday, it is likely that the Heat’s playoff series at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum will be an afternoon tipoff.

The NBA has four television slots for Saturday’s games: at 1 p.m. on ESPN, at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN, at 6 p.m. on ESPN and at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. The Heat game, unless it is selected for the ABC window, will also be broadcast in South Florida on Bally Sports Sun.

Also scheduled for Saturday are the No. 7 seed that emerges from the play-in round visiting the Brooklyn Nets, the Dallas Mavericks at the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Portland Trail Blazers at the Denver Nuggets.

The Bucks will host the first two games against the Heat before the series shifts for the next two to AmericanAirlines Arena, which will be the Heat’s first home playoff games since 2018. The Heat did not qualify for the 2019 playoffs, with last season’s run to the NBA Finals played in the pandemic quarantine bubble at Disney World.

After the Heat closed their schedule with a back-to-back weekend set in Milwaukee and Detroit, coach Erik Spoelstra opted to wait until Wednesday to resume practice. The Bucks were back on the practice court Tuesday and then discussed the matchup afterward.

Forward Khris Middleton said the Bucks are not necessarily looking at it as a rerun of last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals that the Heat won 4-1. Since then, the Bucks added Jrue Holiday, Bobby Portis, Bryn Forbes, P.J. Tucker and Jeff Teague, among others, while the Heat rebooted with Trevor Ariza and Dewayne Dedmon.

“We’re completely new teams,” Middleton said. “That’s why to compare it to last year, you can’t really take into account the past matchups.

“We’re totally new team. We’ve got a couple of main guys left from last year, but it’s a whole new team. They have no idea what happened last year, except for what they saw on TV.”

Middleton said there still were worthwhile takeaways from the Bucks taking the season series 2-1, including last Saturday’s home victory, even with the Heat’s Jimmy Butler missing all three matchups due to injuries.

“Jimmy is a big part of what they do over there, also,” he said. “But for the most part they had most of their guys. The last game we played, the only guy that was missing was Jimmy. He’s a handful. He’s a great player. He does a lot for his team. But we’re still confident with the guys that we have.”

Holiday said he is ready for the challenges.

“They’re a tough team, they play hard, very disciplined,” he said. “I feel like talent-wise, we have a bit more of that, but there’s things that we have to be able to do to match their energy, things that we can utilize and things that we have in our advantage.”

All the while, he said, with respect for Butler.

“I love the way he plays,” Holiday said. “He’s definitely my type of guy. I’m a big fan of Jimmy Buckets. So I’m excited to play against him.”

Although the Heat have cast the postseason as “United in Black,” with a focus of playing as many games as possible in their Icon black uniforms, they will play the opener in Milwaukee in their Trophy Gold uniforms, with the home-team Bucks allowed first choice of color schemes.

With social-distancing restrictions reduced in South Florida, the Heat announced Road Rally viewing parties for their first two road playoff games, with the gathering Saturday for Game 1 at the Wharf Miami and then one for Game 2 at Duffy’s North Miami Beach.

Individual tickets for the series’ Heat home games against the Bucks go on sale to the general public at 2 p.m. Wednesday, with a four-ticket limit per household per game.

As for the series, Bucks forward Pat Connaughton downplayed the rematch element.

“Will it be somewhat of a fun task to play a team that knocked us out in the second round last year? Maybe in retrospect,” he said. “But I think for us now, this is a new year, this is a new time. We’ve got new players; they’ve got new players. We’re not in a bubble. There are so many different things that are going on.”

Said Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, “There’s a high level of familiarity, a high level of respect.”