The NBA season is slowly winding to a conclusion and almost all teams have been defeated, leaving us with just 4 teams who will play for the conference finals at their respective regions. Teams would now batle for who would be the champion of their region to have a shot at the NBA championship finals.

Thursday’s game is the Game 2 of Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics. Heat faced very little problem beating the Bucks but now they are facing a team that looks like an equal. The Celtics have shown great strength these past few weeks at the bubble, although they had a hard time beating the Toronto Raptors and ended things at 4-3 in Game 7.

Both Heat and Celtics have met once in the bubble in the regular season, last month, and the Celtics lost the match by 6 points (112-106). But the Celtics have won 4 out of their recent past 5 meetings. The last time they met at the playoffs was in 2012 and the Heat won the series, the Eastern Conference Finals, 4-3. Both teams have no problem with scoring over 100 points in a game and one can expect their Thursday’s match.

Both teams last met at this stage in 2012. Miami Heats and Boston Celtics both had to endure painful rebuilding cycles associated with older contenders. Now, they have both made it back to the same stage where they famously went up against each other for a spot in the NBA Finals eight years ago.

The Heats are favorites to win the game, even though Boston Celtics seem to have more players who can score, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo of Miami Heats have shown us that they can stop any team in the league. So you can expect the Miami Heats defense to do the job.

Also, The Celtics are coming off the back of an arduous match against the Raptors, and fatigue will play a small role in Game 1.

While Miami Heat have had plenty of time to rest and recover for the Finals.