Miami Heat season ends short of NBA Finals in Game 7 home loss. But credit deserving Celtics | Opinion
After it was over, the home arena emptying too quietly, the hallway corridor in the bowels of the place was filled with noise, with Boston Celtics players still in uniform and celebrating as they spilled from the lockerroom to the postgame interview area. The smell of champagne was in the air.
Down the hallway further, away from the happy noise, in a soundproof media room, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra sat at a table with the look of man who’d just suffered a death in the family.
He had in a way. He had just left a room full of beaten players, of muffled tears. A season had just slipped away.
“When it ends, it ends with a thud,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking when it ends like this. It feels heartbreaking.”
His voice trembled just a bit, still-raw emotion seeping through.
Celebration at one end of the hallway, utter dejection at the other.
That is the difference in a 100-96 Game 7.
The Heat was the No. 1 seed, had a better season record, and was home. Yet the Celtics were favored by three points with everything at stake Sunday night -- only the third time since 1990 the home team had been the underdog in an NBA Game 7.
It felt like disrespect for Miami. Maybe it was.
But it also was this:
It was foretelling.
Home teams have won 71.1 percent of all Game 7s in NBA history. Boston had not won one of those on the road since 1974. Miami was 4-0 in Game 7s under Spoelstra.
None of it mattered Sunday night.
Jimmy Butler’s 35 points and Bam Adebayo’s 25? That was not enough, either.
Butler was Herculean. Again. After 47 points in Game 6, he played all 48 minutes this time, keeping the Heat in the game while Adabeyo got cranked up.
Boston, though, is headed to the NBA Finals and Miami is headed to the offseason.
The Celtics’ four-point Game 7 win on Miami’s floor sends Boston to face Golden State for the championship beginning with Game 1 Thursday night.
And it leaves Miami to wonder what the difference was that left the Heat one win short of a seventh trip to the Finals and a chance for a fourth franchise title.
Miami never led. The Heat’s only chance for that lead came on Butler’s missed open 3 with 11.4 second to play.
“It would have been a terrific storyline for Jimmy to make that 3,” Spoelstra said. “I was sure when ti left his hand it was going in.”
It bounded off the front of the rim instead.
That was the difference Sunday between two teams.
This was part of the difference, too.
Miami is a really good defensive team.
But Boston is better. The best.
Defense is enmeshed in Heat DNA, a big part of its Culture.
But these Celtics do it just a bit better.
Another part of the difference?
Butler has been the best player in this series the past two games.
But Boston has the better team. More consistent weapons on offense.
Sunday the Celtics got 26 from Jayson Tatum, 24 from Jaylen Brown and 24 from Marcus Smart.
The Heat had Jimmy and Bam. Starter P.J. Tucker had zero points. Hobbled Tyler Herro gave it seven minutes but could not go after halftime and did not score.
Injuries were a factor for both teams. No doubt, though: “Tyler would have helped in this series [if healthy].”
“He’s our spark off the bench,” said Adebayo. “He would have made a big difference.”
The Heat’s biggest game of the season could not have begun much worse -- the first quarter bookended by a fast 9-1 Celtics lead and ended by an 8-0 Boston run. Miami shot only 33 percent (1-7 on 3s) and trailed 32-17 at the break.
It was an uphill climb from there until the very end.
How on Earth did Miami trail by only six points at the half after being down by as many as 17?
Short answer: Because Jimmy. Again. Butler had 24 at the half. No teammate was stepping up on the offensive end, so Butler raised his hand, said I’ll do it. Again.
He did not sit for a minute in the first half. Not for a second.
Jimmy against the world. Again.
Who’ll help Jimmy? That was the question. Again.
Adebayo did. It was not enough.
Miami has reached six NBA Finals before, winning in 2006, 2012 and 2013, and losing in 2011, 2014 and 2020.
Boston had lost four straight Eastern Conference finals (including in 2020 to Miami) since last reaching the NBA Finals in 2010 and last winning it all in ‘08.
Miami by contrast had won six consecutive ECFs before Sunday, since last losing one in 2005.
This was only the 15th Game 7 in the combined 92-season history of the Heat, Marlins and Panthers, and the first since the Heat in 2016.. It was the Game 7 deepest in a playoff run since the Heat played one in the 2013 NBA Finals against San Antonio.
“We have earned the right to have this [Game 7] experience,” said Spoelstra.
They did.
But they did not earn the right to go further.
And it hurt.
You could see it on Spoelstra’s face as he spoke in that quiet room, just down the hallway from the celebrating and the smell of champagne.
You could hear it in his voice as it cracked with what had just been lost.
This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 11:36 PM.
