And with Game 106 – through the preseason, regular season, postseason – it’s over.
The Miami Heat’s wild ride through COVID absences, injuries and playoff challenges ultimately came to an end with Sunday night’s 100-96 loss at FTX Arena to the Boston Celtics in the winner-take-all Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
For the Celtics, it’s on to Thursday’s start of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
For the Heat, it is the short-term lament of falling in a series they led 2-1, after powering past the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers in the first two rounds.
But there also was a closing act that produced the top regular-season record in the East and playoff heights that took them to the league final four, well beyond most preseason expectations.
“It’s just one of those really tough moments,” coach Erik Spoelstra said shortly after the season’s final buzzer. “You can’t prepare for it. You’re not thinking about it. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world to address your locker room after a game like this. When it ends, it ends in a thud. I have just so much incredible respect and love for everybody in the locker room and what everybody gave to this team.
“We had such a memorable season and postseason. It felt like five seasons in one, all the different chapters and adversity that this group was able to overcome. It was a really fun group to be around. It was a hard-edged group. It’s all the quality that we love, the good, the bad and everything in between. It’s heartbreaking when it ends like this.”
For Heat forward Jimmy Butler, it was a fight to the finish, following up his 47 points in Game 6 with 35 on Sunday night. He was supported by 25 points and 11 rebounds from Bam Adebayo.
But, otherwise, there was not enough, with Tyler Herro limited in his return from a groin strain and Kyle Lowry still not himself after missing extension postseason action with a hamstring strain, closing with 15 points.
“We’re going to be right back in this same situation and we’re going to get it done,” Butler said. “We will come back better than ever.”
Ultimately, there was too much from the Celtics, including 26 points from Jayson Tatum, 24 from Jaylen Brown and 24 from Marcus Smart.
Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday’s game:
1. The shot: Trailing the entire game, including down 17 early and later 13 with 3:35 left in the fourth quarter, the Heat rallied within 98-96 with 50.7 seconds to play on a Max Strus 3-pointer.
Then, after Boston’s Marcus Smart missed a driving layup with 21.8 seconds to play, Butler grabbed the rebound with the Heat down two with 18.7 seconds left and pulled up in transition for a potential go-ahead 3-pointer.
The shot was off, and so essentially were the Heat’s chances.
“My thought process,” Butler said, “was I was going for the win, which I did. Missed the shot, but I’m taking my best shot. My teammates like the shot I took, so I’m living with it.”
The Celtics very much were holding their breath at that moment.
“When he shot that I was like, ‘Man, what the hell,’ ” Brown said. “But he missed.”
Spoelstra said he had no issue.
“I thought it would have been an incredible storyline for Jimmy to pull up and hit that three,” he said. “I love that about Jimmy. That was the right look, and I just thought as it was leaving his hand, I thought for sure that was going down. It was a good, clean look, definitely better than anything we could have designed.”
2. The missing 3: With 11:04 left in the third quarter, Strus converted a 3-pointer that appeared to draw the Heat within two. But several minutes later, the NBA replay center in New Jersey overturned the basket, relaying to the arena that video showed Strus’ heel was out of bounds.
The replay hardly appeared conclusive, with several minutes of game action following before the score was adjusted.
“I was in shock,” Spoelstra said. “I was asking [assistant coach Chris Quinn] about that. The fact that it happened, three to four, five minutes in game time, that does change the context of how you’re playing. We were starting to gain some momentum.
“You feel like it’s a seven-, eight-point game and you look up and it’s a 13-point game, and there’s no other explanation for it other than it’s gone back to the league offices. You feel like if it happens like that, it should happen immediately and you can adjust accordingly.”
3. Butler battles: Butler consistently tried to keep the Heat afloat, including scoring 19 of the Heat’s first 34 points, ultimately playing all 48 minutes.
It was Butler’s eighth 30-point game of these playoffs, the most by a Heat player in the postseason since LeBron James had eight in the run to the 2013 title.
Butler stood at 24 points at halftime, with 18 in the second quarter.
Butler’s first point moved him past Horace Grant for 72nd on the NBA all-time playoff list. His third moved him past Dwight Howard for 71st. His fourth moved him past Oscar Robertson and Maurice Cheeks for 69th. His eighth moved him past Carmelo Anthony for 68th. His 10th moved him past Chet Walker for 67th. He later also passed Alonzo Mourning for fourth on the Heat all-time playoff scoring list.
He closed 13 of 24 from the field and 8 of 11 from the line.
“Jimmy has this competitive will that is so unique that is a talent unto itself,” Spoelstra said. “There’s a lot of basketball players in this league. Jimmy is a great basketball player. He’s a world-class competitor and he knows how to win basketball games. That’s a talent.”
4. Power play: Adebayo returned to the aggression of his 31-point Game 3 effort, this time confident with his mid-range game and aggressive at the rim.
In playing all but 1:50, he finished 12 of 21 from the field.
He played for extended stretches in smaller-ball lineups, often with Butler cast at power forward, on a night P.J. Tucker was limited by ailments with his contribution and Dewayne Dedmon again was out of the rotation.
Asked for emotions at the finish, Adebayo said, “Blank. It’s just one of those things, man, you fight so hard . . . and you still find a way to come this close, it’s rough.”
5. Herro back, briefly: Herro made his first appearance since Game 3, entering Sunday 23 seconds into the second period, with the Heat down 15.
The return proved brief, with Herro limited to a single first-half stint of 6:43, going scoreless, missing both of his shots.
“These last two series, it was a daily meeting with the training staff to get an inventory of where guys were,” Spoelstra said of the postseason injury wave that also included Lowry, Butler, Tucker and others. “But these guys were so committed to the challenge that they are willing to do whatever it took to get themselves out there and compete and really compete at a high level physically.”
Adebayo said closing with Herro limited was limiting.
“He’s our spark off the bench,” Adebayo said. “He could have made a big difference.”
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