Three years ago today, the Miami Heat did not just eliminate the Milwaukee Bucks. They changed what the Play-In Tournament could mean. On April 26, 2023, Miami beat Milwaukee 128-126 in overtime in Game 5, closing out the NBA’s top overall seed and becoming the first team to reach the playoffs through the Play-In and then win a first-round series. It was also the sixth time in NBA history that a No. 8 seed eliminated a No. 1 seed, and the first since Philadelphia upset Chicago in 2012.
The game itself had the feeling of a door refusing to close. Milwaukee led by 16 in the fourth quarter, at home, with the chance to extend the series. Miami answered with pressure, shot-making and Jimmy Butler’s refusal to let the night end on anyone else’s terms. Butler scored 42 points, two nights after his 56-point masterpiece in Game 4, and forced overtime with a last-second alley-oop layup that turned a desperate possession into one of the defining images of that postseason.
That was the essence of that Heat run. They were not supposed to have enough talent. They were not supposed to survive the Play-In. They were certainly not supposed to break the Bucks, who had finished with the league’s best record. Yet Miami kept dragging games into the mud, trusting Butler, Erik Spoelstra and a roster hardened by discomfort. By the time Game 5 ended, the upset felt less like an accident than an exposure.
In hindsight, that night became one of the great modern Heat artifacts: ugly, stubborn, dramatic and impossible to kill.
