MIAMI – As Kyle Anderson was slow-playing the Celtics into submission, as Davion Mitchell was harassing Boston to the degree that it pulled its starters with five minutes to play, it was obvious Wednesday night stood as a moment for the Miami Heat to give thanks.
To the New Orleans Pelicans.
To the Toronto Raptors.
To Brandon Ingram.
Because sometimes Plan B can trigger an A-list run of success.
To appreciate what the Heat’s roster has accomplished these past two weeks, including Wednesday night’s 124-103 victory over the Celtics at TD Garden that extended the winning streak to six, is to first step back to the Feb. 6 NBA trading deadline and appreciate it wasn’t supposed to be this way with Erik Spoelstra’s rotation, that Anderson and Mitchell were not part of the initial Heat package for Jimmy Butler, as negotiations were being completed to send the disgruntled forward to the Golden State Warriors.
Instead, the incoming Heat package involving Andrew Wiggins and a protected 2025 Warriors first-round pick would be flushed out with the expiring contract of P.J. Tucker to balance the deal under the salary cap.
That’s where Plan A stood on Feb. 5.
But at the same time, the Raptors, acting as facilitators in the deal, had the Pelicans on Line B, with Ingram suddenly becoming available to Toronto. That would mean dollars in other deals would have to be shifted, as would players, the Raptors no longer able to take in the contract of Anderson, a player the Warriors had to send out to take in Butler.
Once Toronto worked out the math with New Orleans for Ingram, the Butler calculus had to be altered. Instead, it would be Tucker to Toronto, Anderson to the Heat and Mitchell tossed in by Toronto to Miami to fulfill the cap gymnastics.
Not as planned.
But, it turns out – with the Heat still prioritizing this season – as needed.
Wednesday night in Boston, it was Anderson with a season-high 19 points, his deliberate style helping keep the Celtics in check.
And Wednesday night it was the pluckiness of Mitchell providing needed defensive deterrence in the face of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, in what arguably stands as the Heat’s signature win of the season.
Sometimes the best deals are the deals that don’t happen.
For the Heat, karma providing a preferred Plan B is nothing new – nothing new even when it comes to Butler trades.
In the 2019 offseason, as the Heat worked on acquiring Butler from the Philadelphia 76ers, an initial gambit had the Heat reportedly closing the deal by sending Goran Dragic in a package to the Dallas Mavericks. Wires then got crossed, with Dallas pulling out.
Dragic stayed . . . and by the end of the ensuing season was in the NBA Finals with the Heat and Butler.
No, no one is expecting Anderson, Mitchell and the Heat to rise from play-in depths to this season’s Finals.
But also undeniable is the Heat receiving tangible depth from the Plan B trade with Butler, depth that arguably had previously been lacking amid the uneven seasons of Terry Rozier and Jaime Jaquez Jr., as well as depth compromised by the broken hand of Nikola Jovic.
So there sat Spoelstra late Wednesday night at TD Garden reflecting on a pair of players who made a difference in a victory over the Celtics, players who initially weren’t supposed to be there.
