Takeaways from Heat’s season-ending loss and putting Jimmy Butler’s postseason in perspective
Five takeaways from the top-seeded Miami Heat’s 100-96 season-ending loss to the second-seeded Boston Celtics at FTX Arena in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday night. The Celtics advance to face the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals:
Jimmy Butler was again incredibly good and Bam Adebayo also stepped up, but there just wasn’t enough help around them as the Heat finished one win short of advancing to the NBA Finals.
“It’s just one of those really tough moments. You can’t prepare for it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following the season-ending loss. “You’re not thinking about it. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world to address your locker room after a game like this. When it ends, it ends in a thud. I have just so much incredible respect and love for everybody in the locker room and what everybody gave to this team.”
Butler followed up his 47-point performance in Game 6 with another masterpiece that included 35 points on 13-of-24 shooting from the field and 8-of-11 shooting from the foul line and nine rebounds on Sunday. The Heat could not afford to take him out, as he played every second of Game 7.
And Adebayo delivered one of his best performances of the postseason in Game 7 with 25 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field, 11 rebounds and four assists. He only sat for 1:50 of Sunday’s loss.
“We had to play Jimmy and Bam,” Spoelstra said. “We couldn’t afford to take them off the court tonight.”
The issue was that Heat players not named Bam Adebayo or Jimmy Butler combined for just 36 points on 12-of-43 (27.9 percent) shooting from the field in the Game 7 loss.
The Heat’s third-leading scorer was Kyle Lowry, who finished with 15 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field. No other Heat player scored double-digit points.
But the loss doesn’t take away from how impressive Adebayo and Butler were in the Heat’s biggest game of the season.
In the first half, Butler totaled 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 7-of-10 shooting. He generated most of his own offense, as only one of his eight baskets in the first two quarters were assisted.
The Heat trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half, but Butler’s 18-point second quarter and a 15-5 run to end the period helped cut the deficit to six entering halftime.
Adebayo was also solid, recording 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting and eight rebounds in the first half.
The rest of the Heat’s roster combined for just 14 points on 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) shooting in the first two quarters.
After Butler scored seven points in the third quarter, fatigue seemed to finally him as he scored only four points in the fourth quarter.
Adebayo contributed 14 points in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough as the others again struggled to make shots for the Heat.
Players other than Adebayo and Butler totaled just 22 points on 9-of-26 (34.6 percent) shooting from the field in the final two quarters.
Despite the Heat losing the series in seven games, Butler looked like the best player on the court for most of the East finals.
Butler averaged 25.6 points while shooting 47.7 percent from the field, seven rebounds, 3.4 assists and two steals per game in the conference finals. It was just part of Butler’s elite postseason run, as he averaged 27.4 points on 50.6 percent shooting from the field, 7.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.1 steals in this year’s playoffs.
The only players in NBA history to average at least 27 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals while shooting better than 50 percent from the field during a playoff run are Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and Kawhi Leonard. Butler now joins that list.
Despite Butler’s brilliance, Celtics star Jayson Tatum won the inaugural Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP as the best player on the team that won the series. Tatum scored a team-high 26 points to go with 10 rebounds and six assists to lift the Celtics to the Game 7 win.
Despite never holding a lead Sunday, the Heat somehow still had a chance to steal Game 7 in the final seconds.
It looked like the Celtics had put the dagger in the Heat’s season when they went ahead by 13 with 3:35 left in the fourth quarter.
But the Heat put together one final run, as Lowry hit an 18-foot jumper, Max Strus completed a dunk, Victor Oladipo scored on a layup, Lowry converted on a layup and Strus hit a three-pointer. The Celtics missed all four of their shots and committed two turnovers during that stretch.
The result was an 11-0 Heat run to cut the deficit to just two points with 50.7 seconds to play.
Celtics guard Marcus Smart then missed a layup with 21.8 seconds left and Butler grabbed the rebound with an opportunity to tie or give the Heat the lead.
Instead of going for the tie, Butler opted for a pull-up three in semi-transition with Celtics center Al Horford giving him space to defend against the drive. The ball bounced off the front of the rim with 16.6 seconds to play and the opportunity to complete an incredible Game 7 comeback quickly disappeared.
“I thought it would have been an incredible storyline for Jimmy to pull up and hit that three,” Spoelstra said of Butler’s shot in the final seconds. “I love that about Jimmy. That was the right look, and I just thought as it was leaving his hand, I thought for sure that was going down. It was a good, clean look, definitely better than anything we could have designed. It was a shame it didn’t end that way.”
Butler said of the shot: “My thought process was go for the win, which I did. Missed a shot. But I’m taking that shot. My teammates liked the shot that I took. So I’m living with it.”
The Heat was forced to take an intentional foul on Smart, who made both free throws to extend the Celtics’ lead to four with 11.4 seconds remaining.
Neither team scored again.
The Heat was also left lamenting a Strus three-pointer that was taken off the board early in the third quarter.
Strus hit a three to cut Miami’s deficit to 56-54 just 56 seconds into the second half. But the Celtics answered with a 9-1 run and then the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey ruled while the game was going on that Strus had stepped out of bounds on his three-pointer from minutes before and what was a 56-54 game with 11:04 left in the third quarter became a 65-52 game with 8:45 left in the period.
Three-point shooting is a big part of the Heat’s winning formula. Not enough went in for Miami in Game 7.
The Heat’s inconsistent three-point shooting this postseason continued on Sunday. After making 15 of 35 (42.9 percent) threes to win Game 6, Miami shot just 6 of 30 (20 percent) from three-point range in Game 7.
Three-point shooting is usually a pretty good barometer of how things are going for the Heat and it was again accurate on Sunday.
The Heat fell to 32-34 this season when shooting worse than 40 percent from three-point range. When Miami shot 40 percent or better from deep, it finished the season with an impressive 32-2 record.
The Heat’s three-point shooting was shaky throughout the postseason after making an NBA-best 37.9 percent of its threes in the regular season. Miami shot 31.3 percent in this year’s playoffs.
Tyler Herro returned for the Heat, but was very clearly not 100 percent. Herro was one of a few players on the roster dealing with injuries in the East finals.
After missing the previous three games because of a strained left groin, Herro returned to play in Game 7. But the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year was not in his usual sixth man role, as Herro was used as the third player off the Heat’s bench on Sunday behind Gabe Vincent and Oladipo.
Herro usually enters games midway through the first quarter, but he was not subbed into Game 7 until there was 11:37 left in the second quarter.
Herro’s first and only stint in nearly a week since Game 3 of the series lasted 6:43. He did not score a point and missed both of his attempts during that stretch.
Herro did not play again after that, as he finished the Game 7 loss scoreless and with one assist in 6:43. That’s obviously far from his regular-season scoring average of 20.7 points per game.
“Tyler just absolutely made himself available when he really didn’t have any practices,” Spoelstra said. “If it was the regular season, there was no chance he would have played.”
Spoelstra used only a three-man bench rotation of Vincent, Oladipo and Herro on Sunday. The Heat typically used a four or even five-man rotation of reserves in the playoffs, but tightened it up for the series-deciding contest.
Caleb Martin, Duncan Robinson and Dewayne Dedmon, who have all been part of the Heat’s rotation at times in this series, received DNP-CDs in Game 7.
Without Herro’s usual scoring punch, the Heat’s reserves combined for just 13 points on 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from the field. Miami’s bench averaged a league-leading 40.5 points per game in the regular season.
“He’s our spark off the bench, so I feel like he would have made a big difference,” Adebayo said of missing Herro for most of the series. “He’s our spark off the bench. He can get it going in a hurry. We missed that aspect.”
In addition, Heat starting forward P.J. Tucker exited Sunday’s loss with 8:28 left in the third quarter and watched the rest of the game from the bench because of an undisclosed injury. Tucker has been dealing with left knee irritation throughout the series.
“I don’t want to speak on behalf of our players. But Tucker, he is a Miami Heat guy,” Spoelstra said when asked why Tucker sat out most of the second half. “I would say for the majority of this playoff run, he’s just been willing himself to get out there and do what he does best.”
Even after advancing to the East finals, the Heat has some tough roster decisions to make this offseason.
The only players on the Heat’s roster with guaranteed salaries for next season are Butler ($37.7 million), Adebayo ($30.4 million), Lowry ($28.3 million), Robinson ($16.9 million) and Herro ($5.7 million).
But that list would also include Strus ($1.8 million), Vincent ($1.8 million) and Omer Yurtseven ($1.8 million) if the Heat guarantees their 2022-23 salaries this offseason, as expected. The Heat also has a decision to make on Haywood Highsmith’s non-guaranteed $1.8 million salary for next season.
Then there’s the uncertainty regarding Tucker’s future with the Heat, as he has a $7.4 million player option in his contract for next season that he’ll need to decide on this summer. The 37-year-old Tucker enjoyed his first season with the Heat, but he could choose to opt out and ask for more money and more years from Miami.
Dedmon, Udonis Haslem, Markieff Morris and Oladipo will be unrestricted free agents this offseason. Martin will be a restricted free agent.
The projected salary cap for the 2022-23 season is $122 million and the projected luxury tax is $149 million. The Heat is expected to operate as an over-the-cap team and leverage the Bird Rights of its own free agents to bring some of them back, unless an offseason trade changes the math.
The Heat also holds the No. 27 pick, which it is eligible to trade, in the June 23 draft.
This story was originally published May 30, 2022 at 12:53 AM.
