The Boston Celtics season has not been easy. Making it to the NBA Finals wouldn't be the same.
At the end of the seven-game Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, the Celtics returned to where they started.
In front of a sellout crowd at FTX Arena, Boston won its third game in this series, escaping with a 100-96 victory over the Heat, thanks to a pair of terrific games from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Boston was going to take revenge on Miami after the Heat defeated them two years ago. The Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in 12 years, where they will face the Golden State Warriors. The series will begin at 9 on ABC.
It was hard to get there, even after a seven-point lead with a minute to play. But after Boston made one mistake after another in that final minute, including Brown being called for a charge, Marcus Smart flung up a contested miss and Max Strus buried a 3-pointer to pull Miami to within two points with 44 seconds to go.
But it did not. With its season still alive, Boston was able to escape with a trip to San Francisco and a date with the Warriors on the agenda.
It would have been unthinkable for Boston to be in this position as late as January, because the Celtics have made things as difficult for themselves as possible. The Celtics had been playing.500 basketball for more than a year and a half and had an offense that was ranked among the bottom 10 in the NBA.
Celtics coach Ime Udoka said before Game 6 that they were not thinking that far down the road. We saw good things early on.
We played well against the big teams. We had some bad losses against the lesser teams. Most of the time we were competing against the best teams. That boded well for the future.
No one would have imagined what was about to happen. Boston was the best team from the Portland loss through the regular season. It had the NBA's best offensive rating and defensive rating by significant margins. Boston had a net rating of plus 15.5 points per 100 possessions, which was almost double that of Memphis.
Boston went from being a team that was simply trying to stay in the NBA's play-in tournament spots to one that finished the season as the second seed in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics swept the Brooklyn Nets and survived a seven-game battle with the Milwaukee Bucks to make it to the Eastern Conference finals.
I think we finally flipped the script, got healthy at the right time, and here we are, Udoka said.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers are the two teams that have reached the level of the Miami Heat. The two teams have played in the playoffs five times in the last 13 years.
Heading into Game 7, the Celtics and the Heat had split the first six games of the series, with Boston winning on the road twice and the Heat winning once.
Two years ago, when these teams met in the Eastern Conference finals, Miami emerged victorious in six games, but this time it was the Celtics who escaped with their season alive after being pushed to the absolute.
In Game 6, Miami got off to a strong start on the road, but Boston came back to win. The Celtics held the Heat without a field goal for more than three minutes to start the game, and jumped out to a 20-7 advantage halfway through the first quarter. After Miami had gotten back to within 9, Boston closed the quarter with another 8-2 run to give them a 32 17 lead after 1.
Boston continued to play suffocating defense at one end, and not turn the ball over at the other, in order to continually throttle the Heat. Things went well for the Celtics when Boston took care of the ball. Boston took care of the ball.
The Celtics only committed two turnovers in the first quarter. They were able to maintain their advantage even though Jimmy Butler had a great game for Miami.
Unfortunately, he was unable to find anyone to join him for the ride. In the first half, the players not named Adebayo and Butler were a combined 3-for-16 from the field.
The Heat closed the half on a 15-5 run, including drawing three on-the-floor fouls with Boston in the final minute, after the Celtics were up 50-34.
It was a good result for the Heat, given the struggles of everyone around them. It breathed life into a Miami team that, earlier in the half, felt like it was hanging on by the slimmest of threads.
The Celtics started the third well, like they did in the first half. The Celtics prospered as a result of Miami keeping Boston at a bogged down pace in the second quarter.
Despite Boston controlling play for most of the quarter, the Celtics took a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter thanks to Adebayo and the rest of the team.
When the Heat opened the fourth quarter with a pair of baskets, Celtics coach Ime Udoka called a quick timeout with 10 minutes, 56 seconds remaining and the entire crowd standing and chanting.
The Celtics used their defense to take the life out of the building after the timeout. Boston scored eight straight to push the lead back to double digits after the Heat went without a point for more than four minutes.
Over the course of a seven-game series, the Celtics have been able to slow down the Heat and other teams because of their physical play.
Only by the smallest of margins.
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