For a minute it looked like they did not want it. They tried their hardest to give it away. But as time expired and Al Horford chucked the ball to the ceiling of the FTX Arena, the Boston Celtics were the champions of the Eastern Conference. They had led all game, their biggest lead of 17 coming in the first half. But, as is the case with every team this late into the season, the Heat kept climbing back getting it to single digits a multitude of times. The Celtics responded each time finally holding on to a wire to wire Game 7 victory to send everyone on the roster to their first NBA Finals.
The Celtics did not look all to impressive in Game 7, but did what they had to do to win. Jayson Tatum, who ended up winning the inaugural ECF MVP, went for 26/10/6 with Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart scoring 24 of their own as well. With three and a half minutes left, the Celtics commanded a thirteen point lead. They looked to be in control, with Miami having just gone through a stretch of missing nine consecutive shots before seeing a few go in. But then the Celtics of old started to creep onto the court in South Beach. Stagnant possessions which end in a three pointer being hoisted as the shot clock is in its waining seconds. The same thing happened in the regular season where the opposing team would comeback as the Celtics collapsed. The same thing also occurred in Game 5 against the Bucks. They sit there and expect the clock to run down faster if they just stand there. This is what almost allowed the Heat to stage a comeback that would have been successful had Jimmy Butler's three with fifteen seconds gone in. If they want to beat the Golden State Warriors, Ime Udoka and the coaching staff will need to address this issue in the coming days.
I think the Celtics will have a good chance against the Warriors. Historically they have had success against them, especially in recent years, and with the defense playing like it has it is hard to count them out against anybody. I will be diving deeper into that series later this week, but right now I am going to marvel in the feeling I am having right now.
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