The Miami Heat, as they always seem to do, shocked the basketball world by defeating the Boston Celtics 103-84 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to advance to the NBA Finals.
But by no means is the job done, as they will have to overcome a very talented and potent Denver Nuggets team to win it all. But guard Gabe Vincent warned everyone to beware of the Heat.
The Heat won the first three games of this series, including the first two in Boston, and it looked like they would cruise to an easy series win. But Boston responded by easily taking Game 4 and Game 5, then claiming Game 6 on an improbable Derrick White putback just before the horn.
Those three wins gave the Celtics all the momentum and emotional inertia heading into Game 7 at home on Monday. In addition, Miami had to contend with the fact that Boston has usually been a graveyard for teams playing in a Game 7, especially in the later rounds of the playoffs.
But Vincent’s squad came out strong in the opening moments, and once its offense got loosened up, it looked more and more that it would win. The Celtics never really made a serious run, as the Heat kept increasing their lead as the night wore on.
In the NBA Finals, they will have to go up against a dominant center in Nikola Jokic, who won the last two regular season MVPs prior to this season. One of their big weaknesses is frontcourt size, and they will have to find a way to contain Jokic without giving any of his teammates an opening.
He has some very skilled and dangerous teammates, starting with guard Jamal Murray, who is averaging an efficient 27.7 points a game in the postseason. In addition, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon can do damage at both ends of the floor, while Bruce Brown is an excellent utility man off the bench.
If the basketball world has learned one thing about the Heat over the last few years, it’s to never count them out, no matter the circumstances.