The Celtics missed all 10 of their 3-point attempts in the first quarter. On Monday, before a hostile Boston crowd that was at a fever pitch during player introductions, the Heat seemed intent on drowning out the noise by relying on their defense. “Sometimes you have to suffer for the things that you want,” Spoelstra said, adding: “Sometimes you have to laugh at the things that make you cry.” Instead, they dipped into their bottomless well of perseverance. This time around, the Heat built a 3-0 series lead - and promptly lost three in a row, a demoralizing stretch that included a brutal, last-second loss in Game 6 when the Celtics’ Derrick White converted a put-back layup at the buzzer off an errant 3-pointer. His players were more forthcoming: They recalled being eliminated by the Celtics in the conference finals last season, an especially disappointing exit since the Heat were the East’s top seed and the series went seven games. 1 seed, the Milwaukee Bucks.Īfter Miami won the first three games of its series with Boston, Spoelstra said “a lot of pent-up stuff” had been fueling his team but declined to elaborate. They proceeded to lose two rotation players, Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo, to injuries in their first-round series with the East’s No. They had to defeat the Chicago Bulls in a play-in game to slip into the postseason. They traveled a long road just to reach the conference finals. “I’ve got two days to figure that out.”Īt this late stage, though, the Heat appear to savor absurd tests. at the time - before he began to think about the coming series. Butler said he was giving himself until midnight - it was 11:42 p.m. At Butler’s postgame news conference, he was asked how he and his teammates planned to slow Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets’ star center and a two-time league M.V.P. The Nuggets, who are rested and deep, are most likely the Heat’s toughest challenge to date. So we are going to hit the ground running when we get to Denver, and I like our chances.” “We have belief that we can do something incredibly special. “Everybody’s confidence is so high,” said Heat forward Jimmy Butler, who was named the most valuable player of the series after scoring 28 points in Game 7. The Heat are just the second eighth seed, after the 1998-99 Knicks, to reach the championship round under the current playoff format. finals by completing a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals a week ago. They will need that toughness against the top-seeded Nuggets, who secured their first trip to the N.B.A. “With this group, it’s steeled us and made us closer and made us tougher.” There was nothing especially sexy about it - meeting after frustrating losses, watching film, practicing hard. Spoelstra said they were capable of improving if they continued to focus on their daily work. Even when they were scuffling through the regular season, losing nearly as often as they won, Coach Erik Spoelstra stuck with his approach. “We never thought it would be easy,” Miami forward Bam Adebayo said. finals hats and T-shirts, positioned themselves next to the trophy for photographs and selfies, memorializing the team’s beautiful struggle before a late-night flight to Denver, where they will face the Nuggets for the N.B.A. Players and staff members, clad in N.B.A. Set atop a couple of packing trunks with metallic trim, the trophy - a sterling silver replica of a basketball - was an attraction for the Miami Heat, who had earned it the hard way with their stunning 103-84 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the conference finals. The N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference championship trophy had found its way to the visiting locker room at TD Garden on Monday night.
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