The Miami Heat brutally ended the Celtics’ season of living dangerously

A s it turns out, there’s a simple reason that no NBA team has ever won a series after falling behind 0-3: the better-prepared unit is typically the one in front. So it went in the Eastern Conference finals where, after losing their last three games, the Miami Heat regrouped for Game 7 and blew out the Boston Celtics 103-84 on the road on Monday night. After fighting so hard to stay alive, the Celtics were finally burned by the return of the same bad habits that put them on the brink of elimination in the first place.

“The hole we put ourselves in, it’s hard,” Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon said after the game. “No one’s climbed out of that hole. It was the same tonight. We couldn’t climb out of the hole we created.”

Before breaking down what went wrong for Boston, let’s pay tribute to the Heat’s Caleb Martin, who was unfairly robbed of his rightful Eastern Conference finals MVP award by a single vote. Make no mistake, Jimmy Butler is a worthy winner if he’s being rewarded for his entire body of work this postseason. Playoff Jimmy remains the main reason that a No 8 seed has reached the NBA finals for just the second-time ever (the 1999 New York Knicks also accomplished the feat, losing 4-1 to the San Antonio Spurs).

However, Butler’s mid-series struggles were a major reason why the Celtics were able to claw their way back and force a Game 7. In contrast, whenever Miami needed a big basket against Boston, Martin was there. In Game 7, Martin scored 26 points on 16 shots without the benefit of a free throw, all while collecting 10 rebounds. By the end of the series, Martin had increased his points total to 132, a record for an undrafted player in a Conference final.

Made 3s in the seriesJayson Tatum + Jaylen Brown 18Caleb