For Miami, it is the second NBA Finals in 4 years, marking only the second time an 8th seed has reached the NBA Finals. However, Miami took a serious beating on Saturday, when Derrick White decided Game 6 with a buzzer beater (103-104).
“That can crack the team spirit,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “But it only gave us more drive to finish the job.”
Eastern Conference Finals MVP Jimmy Butler had 28 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in the tiebreaker, aided by Caleb Martin’s 26 points and 10 rebounds. Bam Adebayo’s 12 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists did the rest.
At Boston, Jaylen Brown was the top scorer with only 19 points, White scored 18. Boston was only the fourth team ever to force a Game 7 after being 3-0 behind in a best-of-7 series. It was the first time that it was a home match.
But in the statistics it is now 151-0, for the 151st time the team that prevented 3-0 won.
The Celtics were unlucky that strongholder Jayson Tatum, the man who did it in the previous games, sprained his ankle on the first play of the evening. “That was hard, it had an impact on my game. It was frustrating that I was only a shadow of myself. It was difficult to move.” His tally clock stopped at 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Boston scored only 39 percent and was stuck at 9 on 42 three-pointers. “We failed, I failed, we failed the city,” lamented Brown, who scored only 8 in 23 two-pointers and 1 in 9 three-pointers.
It was 41-52 at halftime, White cut a 16-point gap in half in the third quarter, but the home players never came closer than 7 points, much to the dismay of the TD Garden.
Butler and Adebayo completely killed Boston in the last quarter with a maximum gap of 23 points.
The Heat, who lost last year’s Finals in the East after 7 games to Boston, will face Denver in the Grand Finals, which swept aside the LA Lakers in the Western Finals on May 22. The first game is Thursday, June 1 in Denver.
“No one is satisfied yet,” was the ambition of Butler, who had 24.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists in this series. “We haven’t accomplished anything yet. “We’re not just playing to win the Eastern Conference, we’re playing to win the whole lot.”
Miami has come a long way: it even had to play the play-in to make the play-offs. Only the New York Knicks could reach the NBA finals earlier – in 1999 – as the 8th seed. But not winning, the San Antonio Spurs did.
So the Heat can make history with a fourth title. In 2006, 2012 and 2013 they were champions, in 2011, 2014 and 2020 they lost the NBA finals.
