Miami Heat's Max Strus still bothered by negated 3-pointer in Game 7 loss to Boston Celtics

Max Strus still can't believe his 3-pointer early in the third quarter of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals was overturned by the NBA's replay center. Speaking for the first time since Sunday's 100-96 loss to the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat guard admitted that the call is still bothering him.

«Thank you for pissing me off again,» Strus said during a season-ending news conference in Miami. «But yeah, I don't know how that was called that after I've seen the video. They say they have that rule to take the human error out of the game, and the human error makes an error on the video. So I don't know — hopefully I don't get fined.»

The call in question came with 11:04 remaining in the third quarter, when Strus knocked down a 3-pointer deep in the corner that cut the Celtics' lead, which had been as many as 17 earlier in the first half, to 56-54.

After several minutes of game action — during which the Celtics put together another run of their own — the call was overturned by the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game that he was «in shock» after the points were taken off the board.

«I'm obviously not happy about it,» Strus said. «But it is what it is at this point, I guess we can't really do anything. But it definitely changed the game and the momentum. I think it went from a six-point game to an 11-point game with no time coming off the clock, so yeah — it is what it is, I guess is the best I can put it. I'm not happy about it, but I guess you just got to move on.»

Speaking after Sunday's game, Spoelstra said the play, which appeared to show Strus' feet just touching the out-of-bounds line — and will forever be ruled as a turnover — would be a «case study» in future