{"id":50520,"date":"2023-05-30T15:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T19:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=50520"},"modified":"2023-05-30T15:05:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T19:05:39","slug":"3-reasons-miami-heat-stole-game-7-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/05\/30\/3-reasons-miami-heat-stole-game-7-boston\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons the Miami Heat Stole Game 7 in Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Derrick White<\/a><\/strong>‘s game-winner in Game 6 against the Miami Heat brought the Celtics all the way back from a 3-0 deficit, it felt like this series was for Boston’s taking.<\/p>\n

The Celtics were headed back home, in front of a sold-out crowd, to accomplish what 150 teams had failed to do.<\/p>\n

Momentum was finally in their favor.<\/p>\n

It felt like fate.<\/p>\n

It felt like they had to do it.<\/p>\n

The Heat were in trouble.<\/p>\n

Yet, somehow they fell extremely short.<\/p>\n

And in the process, the Miami Heat managed to play their most complete game of the postseason, saving themselves from embarrassment.<\/p>\n

There are three main reasons they were able to do that. Below, I will outline each of them.<\/p>\n

3 Reasons the Heat Stole Game 7 in Boston<\/h2>\n

1. Defense Wins Championships<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Even though Jayson Tatum<\/a><\/strong> rolled his ankle on the first play of the game, Boston still had so many offensive threats, such as Jaylen Brown<\/a><\/strong> and Derrick White.<\/p>\n

However, the Miami Heat defense showed up prepared.<\/p>\n

Yes, that same Miami Heat zone defense that had been torched the prior few games.<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown was forced into a career-high 8 turnovers while shooting just 31 percent.<\/p>\n

Outside of defending Brown, the Heat forced Celtics into 15 turnovers and applied constant pressure.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Celtics were limited to just 84 points.<\/p>\n

Those 84 points were the least the Celtics have scored in a game all season.<\/p>\n

To put that remarkable stat into perspective, keep in mind that the Celtics averaged 117.9 PPG across the regular season.<\/p>\n

Haywood Highsmith<\/a><\/strong> was simply phenomenal when guarding an injured Jayson Tatum, making it hard for him to take quality shots all throughout the first half.<\/p>\n

This was a masterclass from the Heat defense.<\/p>\n

2. Celtics Shot Poorly From Deep Early and Never Recovered<\/h3>\n

Starting 0-12 from three should be a sign to switch things up and find buckets inside<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet, the Celtics did the opposite.<\/p>\n

In fact, they kept shooting threes at the same pace.<\/p>\n

At the end of the first half, they were just 4-21 from deep.<\/p>\n

While they met their season average with 43 three-point attempts per game, the Celtics hit just nine, good for 21.4 percent.<\/p>\n

For a team who finds much of their identity from deep, they struggled all night to hit shots.<\/p>\n

In fact, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were a combined 2-13 from three in Game 7.<\/p>\n

They struggled to establish a rhythm from beyond all night, and it came at a costly time, as the Heat shot 14-28 from three.<\/p>\n

3. For the Heat,\u00a0Caleb Martin and, of course, Jimmy Butler shined.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Caleb Martin<\/a><\/strong> was the unsung hero of this series, and in Game 7, once again.<\/p>\n

You could make an argument that he was the Eastern Conference Finals MVP.<\/p>\n

Across the series, Martin averaged 19.3 points on 22-45 shooting from deep.<\/p>\n

In Game 7, he shined with 26 points on 11 of 16 shooting.<\/p>\n

Then, there’s Jimmy Butler<\/a><\/strong>, or, as they say, Jimmy Buckets.<\/p>\n

The Jimmy Butler of the first two games of this series returned just in time.<\/p>\n

In this game, Butler posted a 28\/6\/7 line with three steals.<\/p>\n

After almost blowing a 3-0 lead, the Heat recovered just in time to pour in their most complete performance of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

As a result, their magical season stays alive<\/a>, as they face the Denver Nuggets Thursday in Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Derrick White‘s game-winner in Game 6 against the Miami Heat brought the Celtics all the way back from a 3-0 deficit, it felt like this series was for Boston’s taking. The Celtics were headed back home, in front of a sold-out crowd, to accomplish what 150 teams had failed to do. Momentum was finally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4604,"featured_media":50537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,5,62],"tags":[4759,1890,450,798,142,407],"class_list":["post-50520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heat","category-celtics","category-nba","tag-2023-nba-playoffs","tag-caleb-martin","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-nba-finals"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4604"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}