Jimmy Butler scored 28 points and Caleb Martin had 26 points and 10 rebounds in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night to help the Miami Heat beat the Celtics 103-84 and reverse Boston’s attempt to an unprecedented comeback.
The Heat rebounded after blowing a 3-0 series lead and advanced to the NBA Finals for the second time in four seasons.
They will face the Western Conference champion Nuggets with Game 1 in Denver on Thursday night. Bam Adebayo had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Miami, which is the first No. 8 seed to play for a championship since the 1999 New York Knicks.
Top-seeded Denver has been waiting since it swept the Los Angeles Lakers on May 22.
Game 6 hero Derrick White scored 18 for Boston, which was hoping to become the first NBA team to advance after falling behind 0-3 in a best-of-seven series. Jaylen Brown had 19 with eight rebounds, but was 1-for-9 from 3-point range.
Jayson Tatum, who scored a record 51 points in Game 7 against Philadelphia in the conference semifinals, had 14 points with 11 rebounds after spraining his ankle on the first play of the game and limping for 42 minutes.
The Celtics led by five points before conceding a 14-4 run to end the first quarter and then giving up 16 of the first 22 points in the second. Boston cut the deficit to seven points late in the third, but Miami took a 76-66 lead at halftime and scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to pull away.
The Heat took the first three games, two of them in Boston, and needed just one more win to reach the NBA Finals. None of the 150 teams that have opened a 3-0 lead in an NBA playoff series have stopped advancing.
But the Celtics got excited watching a documentary about the Boston Red Sox’s comeback from a 3-0 deficit against the New York Yankees on their way to the 2004 World Series.
When the Celtics took the floor for Game 4 in Miami, former Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter were sitting courtside.
Boston won Games 4 and 5 by double digits and held a comfortable lead in Game 6 before Miami rallied to take a one-point lead with 3 seconds remaining. The Heat appeared to clinch the win when Marcus Smart’s desperation 3-pointer flew off, but White scored on a pullback in the last tenth of a second to force a decisive Game 7.
Horford’s labor.
Dominican Al Horford had eight points, eight rebounds and two assists as the starting center for the Boston Celtics.