Boston, Mass. (WEEI/WGR 550) - Members of the 2004 Boston Red Sox were in the house. The TD Garden jumbotron interspersed highlights of that historic team with ones of this Boston Celtics squad, who were trying to join them as the only teams in their respective sports to win a series after trailing 3-0. The crowd was deafening. Derrick White got a hero’s welcome after his Game 6 season-saving buzzer-beater.
The stage was set. The Celtics walked onto it and fell flat on their face.
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A Jayson Tatum rolled ankle on the first possession of the game set the tone, and it was pretty much all downhill from there. The Miami Heat rolled to a 103-84 Game 7 win to advance to the NBA Finals, avoiding a reverse sweep in the playoffs for the first time in NBA history.
The Celtics’ best stretch was actually the first four minutes, as they jumped out to a 9-4 lead. Then they went ice cold for the remainder of the first quarter, as their offense fell apart. They missed all 10 three-pointers they took in the first, and they also committed four turnovers.
The Heat finished the first on a 14-4 run, with all of that coming while Tatum was on the bench for the final 4:11 of the quarter. That was longer than Tatum usually rests in the first, and was especially notable given the early ankle injury. He was waiting at the scorer’s table for about two minutes, though, but there was no whistle to get him back in.
Tatum gutted it out the rest of the game, but was visibly favoring the ankle throughout the night, and admitted afterward that it affected him all night, saying he felt like "a shell of myself."
After scoring just 15 points in the first quarter, the Celtics found a little more offense and scored 26 in the second. Unfortunately for them, the defense fell apart and surrendered 30 to Miami, allowing the Heat to take a 52-41 lead into the half.
Caleb Martin (14 points in the first half, 26 for the game) and Jimmy Butler (11 points at the half, and 17 more in the second half) were the main contributors in the first half, and helped the Heat to 8-of-16 shooting from three.
The Celtics, meanwhile, finished the first half shooting 4-of-21 from deep, with no one making more than one three.
In the third quarter, Game 6 hero Derrick White did his best to keep the Celtics in the game, scoring 13 points in the third alone. The Celtics still couldn’t manage to get any closer than seven points, though, and ultimately went to the fourth trailing by 10, 76-66. Tatum was clearly still battling the ankle injury, and Jaylen Brown continued to have a brutal offensive night.
At the end of three, Brown was 6-of-18 from the field and 1-of-6 from three while also having five turnovers, the same amount the entire Heat team had.
With 12 minutes left to save their season, the Celtics instead started the fourth quarter about as poorly as possible, with two more Brown turnovers in the first 1:10 contributing to a 7-0 Heat run that pushed their lead to 17 with 10:50 remaining.
The Celtics had their backs up against the wall before in this series, but a 17-point deficit with under 11 minutes to go proved to be a bridge too far.
Now the Celtics enter an offseason filled with questions about their future, including what happens with Brown, who is eligible for a supermax extension but struggled mightily for much of the Eastern Conference Finals, including in Game 7.
As for the Heat, they will advance to their seventh NBA Finals in franchise history, and first since 2020 when they lost to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the COVID-19 bubble in Orlando. They will face the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals, who are looking to win their first NBA title in their first appearance in franchise history.
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Miami will be looking to win its first NBA championship since 2013 when they defeated the San Antonio Spurs in seven games.
The Heat are just the second 8-seed in NBA history to make the NBA Finals, joining the 1999 New York Knicks, who ended up losing to the Spurs in five games.