This Heat team has a nerve of vibranium. The Miami Heat overcame a terrible GM 6 loss, the raucous Boston crowd, and the threat of history as they crushed the Celtics 103-84 in Game 7, cementing their 2nd Finals appearance in the last three years.
This Heat team is what every team in the league should aspire to be like.
The Miami Heat showed how incredible the culture of this organization truly is as they fought off the monumental pressure of being the first team to blow a 3-0 series lead by walking into Boston and absolutely annihilating the Celtics 103-84 to finally wrap of the Eastern Conference Finals. And, even though I’m extremely annoyed with this result as a Celtics fan, it was totally deserved.
I’ll get to the patheticness of the Celtics in a minute, but I have to praise how resilient and determined this Heat team is. If any other team aside from the Denver Nuggets was in the Heat’s position last night, they would have been utterly toasted by the Celtics as literally every momentum swinger, confidence booster, and historical precedent was on the Celtics side.
The Celtics were playing in front of their ravenous home fans, they had just won three straight games to even the series, they were the first team in NBA history to force a Game 7 at home after going down 0-3, they had just won an emotional, hard-fought Game 6 on a buzzer-beater, they have an MVP candidate (Jayson Tatum), they have two All-NBA players (Tatum and Jaylen Brown), they have a former Defensive Player of the Year (Marcus Smart), they have the 6th Man of the Year (Malcolm Brogdon), they are the higher seed (2nd in the East and the entire NBA), and they had previously won their last 5 elimination games.
The Celtics should have won this game and reached the NBA Finals for a second straight season…but the Heat’s amazing culture prevented that from happening.
In classic Heat fashion, Miami held their ground defensively and kept the Celtics to their lowest points tally (84) this season, they shot very well from the field (42-86, 48.8%), they were sensational and efficient from beyond the arc (14-28, 50%), they rotated the ball around the floor in devastating fashion (26 team assists), and they only turned the ball over 12 times.
With Jimmy Butler (28 PTS, 7 REB, 6 AST, 3 STLs) having a classic Jimmy Buckets performance (and winning the Lary Bird East Finals MVP award in the process), Caleb Martin (26 PTS, 10 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL) EXPLODING all over the Celtics for 26 points, and the bench contributing 19 points, this performance was simply a ruthless, efficient Heat game of basketball. Still, the Celtics gave them this Finals berth.
I don’t want to take away from the Heat’s performance and mental strength, but how else can you describe a 32-82 (39.0%) FG shooting, 9-42 (21.4%) 3-point shooting, 15 turnovers, and not a single 20-point scorer performance?
I’m going to give Jayson Tatum (14 PTS, 11 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 5-13 FG shooting) a small pass given the fact that he most likely sprained his ankle on the very first play of the game, but him getting injured really is quite typical for how his playoff career has gone. Whether through injury or awful performances, Jayson Tatum has simply come up short in the biggest moments one way or another at this stage of his career.
Derrick White (18 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL), who has been the sole consistent player this series, was actually very good last night as he was the one driving the offense, making important 3’s and FGs, and taking the ball to the rim. He’s obviously a limited player and not someone who can lead a team to victory by himself, but his effort was admirable.
As for everyone else, I’ve only got two words to say: THEY SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the 39% from the field and 21.4% from the 3-point line shooting didn’t hint, the Celtics had their single worst offensive outing of the entire season to date, let alone this series or the playoffs as a whole.
Al Horford (8 PTS, 8 REB, 2 AST) and Robert Williams (8 PTS, 6 REB, 1 AST) were dead quiet offensively and got outrebounded 42-40 as the leading Celtics rebounders by a significantly smaller Heat team, Marcus Smart (9 PTS, 2 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL), Malcolm Brogdon (0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST), and Grant Williams (3 PTS, 1 REB, 1 AST) were less than useless shooting the ball, the Celtics deep bench (aka: Mike Muscala, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, Payton Prichard, Blake Griffin) are literally worse than stepping in dogshit, and Jaylen Brown has played his way out of Boston in my opinion.
I’ve honestly had enough of Jaylen Brown (19 PTS, 8 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL, 2 BLKS, 8 TO, 8-23 FG shooting, 1-9 3-point shooting).
Stupidly, I apologized to Brown for saying that he “showed his pride, effort, and passion” after he helped the C’s string together 3-straight wins, and he rewarded that apology with an utterly atrocious performance.
Yes, Brown lead all Celtics with 19 PTS, but he also had the most turnovers in the game by a country mile (8 TO), he shot under 35% from both the field and the 3-point line, and he somehow shot 11% from the 3-point line on nine attempts.
Remember, this guy made the 2nd Team All-NBA this past season, he averaged a career-high 26.6 PPG, career-high 6.9 RPG, a career-high 3.5 APG, and 1.1 SPG, while he’s also now eligible for a 5-year, $294M supermax contract extension. And you go out in a do-or-die, history-making Game 7 at home and do that?
No, that’s the end of the line for this guy…essentially after he was given the sole responsibility of guiding the C’s to victory after Tatum went down.
And, this is a small nitpick, why is this guy wearing an Atlanta Braves hat in his postgame press conference? Does he honestly have no shame, or is he trying to provoke people into thinking he gives zero thought to the team he actually plays for?
I know he was taking accountability for “failing” (his words, not mine…but I agree) and he’s from Atlanta, but you don’t see Jimmy Butler, or Tatum, or Nikola Jokic, or LeBron James wearing the sports apparel of OTHER TEAMS after GETTING BLOWN OUT IN GAME 7!!! What a fool, and I’d trade him in a heartbeat for a Damian Lillard package this offseason.
As for Mazzulla, I don’t think he’s going to get fired, but he really should.
I’m not the biggest fan of his coaching style and his overall demeanor (you’d think he’s being asked to strip naked by the media reporters with how he answers questions), but there’s just FAR BETTER options out on the market right now for a team with a complete vacuum of leadership. Mike Budenholzer, Monty Williams, Frank Vogel, Dwane Casey, and Mark Jackson come to mind.
And Brad Stevens needs someone with more gravitas above him to set the tone and culture of this team, or he needs to be let go from his GM position. Plain and simple as the disparity between Brad Stevens’s Celtics and Pat Riley’s Heat is evident in this game.
Anyway, congratulations, Miami Heat, for winning the Eastern Conference and reaching the NBA Finals once again as you more than earned this honor.
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