The 30 greatest NBA team rivalries in league history

20. Best NBA rivalries of all-time: Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat

After the Miami Heat easily fell victim to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2010 postseason, Dwyane Wade went to work. Having experienced the mountaintop once before, he was tired of early playoff exits and was hell-bent on making sure that never happened again, especially not to those Celtics.

In a move never seen before, he recruited Chris Bosh and LeBron James — who had fallen victim to the Celtics more than once — to come and join him in South Beach. They rocked the NBA with a level of talent never accumulated in that way before, with the purpose to not only compete for championships but to specifically keep Boston from adding to its total as well.

Whatever scrutiny the Heat felt throughout their inaugural season felt well worth it by the time a matchup with the Celtics came in the conference semifinals. There, Miami overwhelmed the reigning Eastern Conference champions in what was ultimately as tough a five-game series as one could have in the postseason.

The two sides would meet the following year, this time in the Eastern Conference Finals. There was little reason to suggest the same results wouldn’t materialize, but the Celtics tried to make sure that wasn’t the case, going up 3-2 in the series headed back to Beantown.

Boston was on top of the world, set to topple a team built with the sole intention of taking it down. It was due to an all-time 45-point performance from James that the Heat lived to see another day and eventually win in seven, stamping out the Celtics’ swagger rather quickly.

Throughout both their regular and postseason matchups, these two went at each other, with the Celtics fully taking on the challenge to remain on top and humble “The Heatles”. Miami was, of course, the young up-start doing its bet to usher in a new era of dominance, the likes of which required the passing of the torch Boston wasn’t ready to hand over.