As the Miami Heat digest a heartbreaking 100-96 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, they believe that the overturned call in the third quarter will provide a case.
The call came with 11:04 remaining in the third quarter, when Max Strus knocked down a 3-pointer deep in the corner that cut the Celtics lead to 56-54.
The NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey overturned the call after the Celtics put together another run of their own.
After the points were taken off the board, he admitted he was in shock.
The replay of the call in question appeared to show Strus touching the out-of-bounds line, but he didn't see it immediately.
The coach said he was in shock and asked the assistant coach about it. The fact that it happened in a few minutes changes the context of how you are playing. We were gaining some steam. You feel like it is a seven-, eight-point game, and you look up, and it is a 13-point game, and there is no other explanation for it other than it has gone back to the league offices. If it happens like that, it should happen immediately and you can adjust accordingly.
The reason the Heat lost the game was not due to the timing of the overturn, according to the coach.
That is not the reason we lost, he said. We were unable to get control of the game. A lot of that was Boston. We gave ourselves a chance at the end. We were unable to make enough plays during the game. It felt like most of the game we were in a deficit.
The play in question will be discussed in the future.
If it happens the way it used to, I'm okay with it. It was probably 10 minutes of real time, but they would look at it at the next break and notice it.
I am not crying or whining. We got beat. Two teams were going at it. We had a chance at the end. We had a chance at the game. Our guys don't think we have a chance at it.
As much as he tried to push his frustration to the side, he knows that the call and the momentum shift altered the way his group was feeling in the minutes after Strus shot.
It was so unusual for us to be grinding and then start to get some traction, and then it was like, "Oh, hey, by the way, take away that 3, with no explanation." That is not the complaint side of it. Who knows if that would have changed anything.
The Heat still had a chance to win the game in the waning seconds, even after being down by 7 points with just over a minute left. After several clutch shots and some questionable decision-making by the Celtics, the Heat star Jimmy Butler came racing down the floor with the Heat trailing 98-96, and launched a 3-pointer with about 17 seconds remaining that would have given the Heat the lead.
The Celtics grabbed the rebound and iced the game, as the shot by Butler hit off the rim.
After the event was over, he said he had no issue with the decision.
It would have been an incredible storyline for Jimmy to pull up and hit that 3. I thought as he was leaving his hand that it was going down.
It was definitely better than anything we could have designed. It was a shame it didn't end that way, but I can't say enough good things about Boston.
In Game 7, he played all 48 minutes and finished with 35 points.
"My thought process was to go for the win," he said. A shot was missed. I am taking that shot. My teammates liked the shot that I took. I'm living with it.
After single-handedly carrying the Heat's offense throughout the series, Butler was hard on himself after finishing arguably the most impressive series of his career.
"Not good enough, I didn't do my job." I say over and over again that statistics don't mean anything. The Boston Celtics did what they were supposed to do. I learned that I have to be better.
We will come back better than ever if we get back to the lab and work with these guys over the summer.
The Heat have enough to get back to the Finals next season, as long as they cross the threshold, according to the man.
I think we have enough, so we need to figure out a way to be consistent. You don't know who is going to be on the roster any given year. I am thankful for the chance to play with the guys that I did. It has been that way every year in the league.
We had enough. Next year, we will have enough and we will be back in the same situation, and we are going to get it done.
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