Ira Winderman: Heat-Celtics a rivalry with meaning, mouthiness, melodrama

That the Miami Heat’s 2021 playoff-race fate well could be decided in Boston should come as no surprise.

Heat-Celtics has a way of elevating the stakes.

Last season, it was the Heat eliminating the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.

A decade earlier, it was the Heat ending Boston’s Big Three era after establishing a Big Three of their own.

So as the Heat approach their Sunday and Tuesday games at TD Garden that will impact both the play-in and playoff races, a reminder of how we have arrived at this juncture of a rivalry with meaning, mouthiness and melodrama.

What is Heat-Celtics? It is this:

1. Game 6, 2012 Eastern Conference finals: Down 3-2 in the series, the Heat, a year after a humbling 4-2 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals in the first year of the Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, arrive to TD Garden facing another humbling demise.

Instead, arguably the most impactful game of James’ Heat career, with 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in the Heat’s 98-79 victory. The Heat would go on to eliminate the Celtics in Game 7 at AmericanAirlines Arena and then capture the first of their two Big Three championships.

2. The Bam block: With 3.7 seconds left in overtime of Game 1 of the 2020 Eastern Conference finals, Heat center Bam Adebayo blocked a potential game-tying dunk attempt by Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, sealing the Heat’s victory and sparking the 4-2 series win.

“The best defensive play I’ve seen ever in the playoffs!” said no less than Magic Johnson.

3. Wade’s vow: Sometimes a loss to a rival can prove pivotal. Such was the case with the Heat’s Game 5 elimination from the first round of the 2010 playoffs at TD Garden.

After that loss to the Celtics, Wade vowed, “This will be my last first-round exit for a while. I can tell you that.”

Just over two months later, the Heat added James and Bosh . . . and everything changed, with the Heat advancing to the NBA Finals each of the next four seasons.

4. Benedict Allen: Not only did the Heat eliminate Boston in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, but just over a month later, Ray Allen jumped from the Celtics to the Heat during free agency, with his miraculous Game 6 3-pointer in the 2013 NBA Finals helping lift the Heat to that title.

To this day, scars remain from the defection, with Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kendrick Perkins, Kevin Garnett over the years having called out Allen, still a Miami resident, for disloyalty.

5. Hey Danny ... : A rival dating to his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, Heat President Pat Riley has made little attempt to hide his exasperation with the Celtics’ Danny Ainge.

That included when Ainge, in his role as Celtics general manager, daring to question the officiating of James in 2013.

“Danny Ainge needs to shut the f--- up and manage his own team,” Riley said in a statement released through a Heat spokesman in the wake of Ainge’s criticism. “He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him.”

6. Jason Terry, RIP: No, James did not take well to the bravado expressed by Jason Terry when Terry’s Mavericks defeated the Big 3 in the 2011 NBA Finals.

So on March 18, 2013, with Terry then on the Celtics and the only player between James and the rim, an alley-oop pass from Mario Chalmers and . . . annihilation by dunking devastation.

“Glad it happened to him,” James said

Almost immediately, if only temporary, Terry, still very much alive, saw that listed as the date of his death on his Wikipedia page.

7. Tone set: Even before the Heat’s first Big Three playoff series against the Celtics, there was a tone-setting rebuke from Heat captain Udonis Haslem to then-and-now nemesis Pierce.

In short, upon the Celtics defeating the Heat early in the 2010-11 season, Pierce, mocking James’ announcement months earlier, posted on Twitter, “It’s been a pleasure to bring my talents to South Beach.”

Responded Haslem, “Man, ain’t nobody paying them dudes no attention, man. You know what studio gangster is? Look up that, look up the definition of studio gangster.”

8. The run: The Heat laid the groundwork of what would follow the next postseason by not only eliminating the Celtics in five games in the 2011 second round, but closing out the series by scoring the final 16 points of the series finale in a 97-87 victory.

“It was a series that all of us wanted, really since training camp,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

9. Tone set: Having ousted the Heat in the 2010 playoffs and then watched the Heat grab the offseason thunder with the signing of the Big Three, the Celtics pushed past the Heat, 88-80, on opening night in 2010-11.

The game ended with the TD Garden crowed serenading the Heat with chants of, “Over-rated!”

10. Even now: And if you think the antipathy has ceased, consider the words of Haslem just this past week, when asked about the impending induction of Garnett, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Two of those guys I would probably say I consider tough guys, and that’s more so mentally tough. And one of those guys just does a lot of this,” Haslem alluded to Garnett while making a talking motion with his fingers. “That’s not tough at all.

“The definition of tough guy doesn’t go by guys that do this [talking motion]. You know that. You probably want to take KG off that tough-guy list.”