Miami Heat fans celebrate after beating Boston in Game 7 to be crowned Eastern Conference champions (Twitter)
Boston already felt it had it in its hands. While the odds were to their detriment, because no team in NBA history could erase a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series and win 3-4, this has happened before in Boston, in baseball, when the Red Sox stunned the Yankees and made history. In addition, Boston is the first to host Game 7 after erasing a 3-0 deficit, so the momentum was definitely theirs after Derek White's dramatic game-winning basket in Game 6. Unfortunately for the Celtics, it's over very much. Jayson Tatum was injured in the opener, and Miami came in determined and focused, en route to a 84-103 victory in Game 7 and advancing to the NBA Finals.
Where have you been, sir? Brown (Photo by Getty Images, Adam Glanzman)
Nothing worked. Tatum (Photo by Getty Images, Maddie Meyer)
Tatum suffered an ankle injury and appeared to limp throughout the game. "I saw the video of my injury, my ankle... It's hard because it affected me the whole game, slowed me down, frustrated me, I was a shadow of myself, I had trouble moving, it was very frustrating.
"But I don't want to be pitied, injuries are part of the game," said Tatum, who limped and limped at the press conference, "So far I've been lucky, I haven't missed games, I've played 95 percent of the games, I've been second in minutes in the league, so it was unlucky to get injured in the first play. Somehow I managed to fight to stay in the game."
While it's hard to say Boston's season was a failure, after finishing second in the East and reaching the regional finals for the fifth time in seven years, the Celtics know they missed a chance to make the Finals against Denver with home-field advantage, and succumbed to a team as strong as Miami, but not invincible, after finishing the regular season in seventh place.
Jaylen Brown scored 19 points but was only 1-of-9 from three, including 8 turnovers (he had only 7 threes in the entire series). The club's option to extend Brown's fat contract is now on the agenda. "I expected to win today," he said at the end with disappointment, "and qualify for the final. That's what I thought about. And we failed. I failed. And right now it's hard to think about anything else. We'll cross the bridge when we get there." As far as Tatum is concerned, the Celtics must keep Brown. "It's very important," Tatum said of his friend's contract extension, "He's one of the best players in the league."
Tatum limps
The Celtics were heavily criticized by commentator Charles Barkley during the game. "We never know how this team is going to play," Barkley said, "It's the most inconsistent talented team I've seen, they have two stars, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Player of the Year, and in the last month there have been times where you ask, 'What the hell happened, with games against Atlanta and Philadelphia, and then they lost three games in a row, and then won three games in a row... I'm not shocked that Miami won. I'm shocked she won by 20 points." After the first half, Barkley said that "these dumb Celtics gave me a headache... You can't come into a game and say, 'We'll throw threes and if we win we'll win, and if we miss, we'll lose'... They're 4 of 21 from three. It's horrible to watch them play. There's no moving the ball, there's no movement of players, they're just playing stupid."
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