The Miami Heat dominated Monday night’s Game 7 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden in Boston, with Series MVP Jimmy Butler scoring 28 points in a 103-84 win over the Celtics, sending Miami into the NBA Finals, joining the 1999 New York Knicks as the only 8th-seeds to reach the championship round.
Caleb Martin had 26 points and 10 rebounds for Miami, as the Heat avoided losing a Game 7 in Boston for the second year in a row. The Heat won the first three games of this year’s series, before a furious Celtics comeback got the series to 3-3 with a finale in Boston, with the matchup ending with Boston one win shy of the first-ever comeback from an 0-3 hole to win a postseason series.
The Heat will take on the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals, beginning with Game 1 on Thursday night at Ball Arena in Denver, where the Nuggets are unbeaten this postseason. Denver has been off since finishing a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers on May 22nd.
Miami earned its finals trip with a Play-In victory against the Chicago Bulls, a five-game upset of the #1 seed Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, a six-game win over the New York Knicks in the second round, followed by the 7-game win over the Celtics.
Game 6 hero Derrick White had 18 points in the final game of the season for the Celtics. Jaylen Brown had 19, with Jayson Tatum, slowed by a sprained ankle suffered on the opening possession of the game, held to 14 points with 11 rebounds.