It had been 365 days since the Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 100-96 to advance to the NBA Finals.
That was a calendar year ago.
Jimmy Butler said after last year's defeat that the Heat will be back in this same situation, and will get the job this time around.
He is a man of his word.
He finished Game 7 of this year's Eastern Conference Final with 28 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, three steals, and shot 12 of 28 from the field.
It was a tight race between him and Caleb Martin for Eastern Conference Finals MVP, but it was Butler winning it in the end.
Martin played perhaps the best game of his career, with 26 points and 10 rebounds, his second straight 20-point double-double of the postseason and series, along with three assists and a steal, on 11 of 16 shooting.
Both he and Butler propelled the Heat to a dominant 103-84 victory in Game 7 and becoming the second 8th seeded team to reach the NBA Finals, after the 1999 New York Knicks.
It was Martin who was the unsung hero of not only the game but also the series.
He averaged 19.3 points this series, shooting an outstanding 60% from the field, including an eye-popping 22 of 45 (49%) from beyond the arc.
Exactly one year after getting DNP'd in Game 7 of last year's East Finals, and nearly two calendar years after coming over from the Charlotte Hornets late in the 2021 offseason on a two-way contract after Charlotte waived him, he played the best basketball of his career and was one vote shy of besting Butler in winning the Larry Bird Trophy as Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
The path to the Finals was by no means easy.
They had to recover after losing the opening play-in game to the Atlanta Hawks before beating the Chicago Bulls in the second-chance game.
They shocked the basketball world in eliminating the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the first round. They carried that momentum over to the second round when they knocked off the 5th-seeded Knicks.
They put the Celtics in a 3-0 hole, a deficit that no team in the NBA has ever come back from. Though they lost three straight games and were on the brink of being on the wrong side of history, the Heat made sure that would not happen.
Though they were devastated by Derrick White's buzzer beating layup in Game 6, that only seemed to fuel the Heat.
Ten years ago, with the Heat facing elimination in Game 6 in that year's NBA Finals, they prevented another San Antonio Spurs championship in the final seconds. Kawhi Leonard missed a free throw, then Chris Bosh rebounded a missed three by LeBron James, kicked the ball out to Ray Allen, who hit "The Three."
The Heat won that game in overtime and went on to win the championship that year in Game 7 behind James' 37-point masterclass.
Fast forward to last night, where Miami had that same devastation the Spurs felt from Game 6 of the 2013 Finals going their way when White's tip-in was in the air, sending this series to Game 7.
While the Heat started slow in the deciding game, with just four points in the first 10 possessions of the first quarter, by the time they went on a 14-4 run to end the first frame and then scored 16 of the second quarter's first 22 points, they never looked back.
When it seemed that the biggest storyline of this series was the Celtics possibly becoming the first team to reverse sweep an opponent, it was instead the Heat carrying that momentum from the end of Game 6 to recover from a brutal loss to win Game 7 on the road.
Erik Spoelstra was confident in his team, and meant business.
He and his guys saw they did a lot of things right at the end of Game 6 that gave them the chance to win. Heading into Game 7, they were focused on the game at hand, with Game 6 being like a distant memory to them.
The zone defense they employed in smothering the Celtics at the end of Game 6 was very tight.
Yes, Jayson Tatum sprained his ankle 20 seconds into the game. But it was this strategy the Heat used that had Boston missing open looks and had them missing their first 12 three-point attempts after finishing 7 of 35 from beyond the arc in the previous game.
By then, the Heat pulled away from them while the Celtics scored just 19 points on 34 zone possessions.
Boston had just one good zone possession—the one that led to a Jaylen Brown three-pointer nearly four minutes into the second quarter. But those kinds of possessions were minimal for Boston.
Per Synergy, the Celtics' offense stumbled more against zone (0.76 points per possession) than in man (1.05). Plus, the Heat have played almost as many zone possessions this postseason as the average of any team playing zone from five years ago (211 to 223). Miami played 1,453 possessions of zone, easily the most by any team this season. Their 211 postseason zone possessions are 144 more than any other team.
While injuries are part of the game, they could happen at the worst possible moments. Such as Tatum's left ankle sprain.
Coming off a 51-point performance 15 days prior to last night in another Game 7, he was visibly hobbled.
One of the most durable superstars in the league who averaged a series-high 27.2 points through the first six games was limited to 14 points on 5 of 13 shooting, even if he fought through the injury and played 42 minutes.
With Boston down 76-66 entering the 4th quarter, Tatum missed a layup to open the frame, and his other All-NBA teammate Brown followed up with back-to-back turnovers. When Martin and Butler struck for a three-pointer and a pair of buckets, respectively, the Celtics never got to within 15 points after that.
Though Brown led all Celtics players with 19 points, he shot 8 of 23 from deep and made one of nine three-pointers, along with 8 turnovers. He is eligible for a five-year, $295 million extension this summer.
Game 6 hero Derrick White had 18 points for Boston.
The Celtics were hyping themselves up by watching a documentary on the Boston Red Sox's comeback from a 3-0 deficit against the New York Yankees to get to the 2004 World Series.
They greeted their fans with a pregame video with intercut highlights from that comeback with their own.
But they couldn't repeat history.
And now, the 52-year-old Spoelstra, who coached his Heat to five previous NBA Finals and was an assistant for their 2006 title, having been with the coaching staff since 1997 and organization since 1995, is now coaching his team to a 6th Finals.
This year's Heat are just the second team to reach the Finals after getting outscored in the regular season (-28 point differential), after the 1959 Los Angeles Lakers. That year's Lakers did it in an eight-team league, winning only six playoff games to reach the Finals.
Miami is the first team with a negative point differential in the regular season to win three best-of-seven playoff series.
They will now face the toughest challenge of their season, taking on the Denver Nuggets, the best team in the Western Conference, who are 12-3 these playoffs and 8-0 at Ball Arena.
Though the Heat will be tested, they have the best shot of becoming the first 8 seeded team to win an NBA title, and, along with the Florida Panthers, a chance for both South Florida teams to become just the second and third 8 seeded teams to win championships, after the 2012 Los Angeles Kings, along with being the first teams from the same metro area to win the Stanley Cup Final and NBA Finals in the same season.
And if it happens, it would be memories for South Florida to last forever, especially for Udonis Haslem, who, at 42 years old, is making his 7th NBA Finals of his career in his final season.
I will have the coverage of the NBA Finals on Twitter Spaces. The series starts in Denver on June 1st at 8:30 PM ET/6:30 PM MT. Follow me @DatYinzerAlec for the play-by-play throughout the Finals.
Scoring by Quarter
1st Quarter: Heat 22, Celtics 15—Heat lead 22-15
2nd Quarter: Heat 30, Celtics 26—Heat lead 52-41
3rd Quarter: Heat 24, Celtics 25—Heat lead 76-66
4th Quarter: Heat 27, Celtics 18—Heat win 103-84
Box Score
Miami Heat
Jimmy Butler: 28 points (12/28 FG; 3/7 3PT; 1/2 FT), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 43:16
Caleb Martin: 26 points (11/16 FG; 4/6 3PT; 0/0 FT), 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 0 fouls, 44:48
Bam Adebayo: 12 points (4/10 FG; 0/0 3PT/ 4/4 FT), 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 3 fouls, 42:43
Duncan Robinson: 10 points (4/6 FG; 2/3 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 1 foul, 20:09
Gabe Vincent: 10 points (4/10 FG; 2/3 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 4 assists, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 26:24
Max Strus: 8 points (3/8 FG; 2/6 3PT; 0/0 FT), 5 rebounds, 3 fouls, 28:00
Kyle Lowry: 7 points (3/6 FG; 1/2 3PT; 0/0 FT), 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 24:18
Haywood Highsmith: 2 points (1/2 FG; 0/1 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 foul, 9:22
Nikola Jović: 0 points (0/0 FG; 0/0 FT), 0 fouls, 0:30
Ömer Yurtseven: 0 points (0/0 FG; 0/0 FT), 0 fouls, 0:30
Boston Celtics
Jaylen Brown: 19 points (8/23 FG; 1/9 3PT; 2/2 FT), 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 8 turnovers, 5 fouls, 43:05
Derrick White: 18 points (5/12 FG; 2/9 3PT; 6/7 FT), 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 0 fouls, 36:16
Jayson Tatum: 14 points (5/13 FG; 1/4 3PT; 3/4 FT), 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 41:36
Marcus Smart: 9 points (4/10 FG; 1/6 3PT; 0/0 FT), 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 35:24
Robert Williams III: 8 points (4/5 FG; 0/0 3PT; 0/0 FT), 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 foul, 13:59
Al Horford: 8 points (3/8 FG; 2/5 3PT; 0/0 FT), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 fouls, 34:16
Mike Muscala: 3 points (1/1 FG; 1/1 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 0 fouls, 2:13
Grant Williams: 3 points (1/3 FG; 1/3 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 16:12
Sam Hauser: 2 points (1/3 FG; 0/2 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 0 fouls, 3:56
Luke Kornet: 0 points (0/0 FG; 0/0 FT), 0 fouls, 2:13
Payton Pritchard: 0 points (0/1 FG; 0/1 3PT; 0/0 FT), 0 fouls, 3:45
Malcolm Brogdon: 0 points (0/3 FG; 0/2 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 block, 1 foul, 7:05
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