The Heat offers the right to believe it. Back to the wall but the bit to the teeth, like Jimmy Butler, exceptional with 47 points, Miami won at the Celtics (111-103), Friday, to push the two teams to a decisive seventh game in the final Eastern Conference, NBA playoffs. We shouldn’t bury Miami too quickly. What the defeat conceded two days earlier on his floor, by displaying major deficiencies in attack, however foreshadowed. To the point that Golden State winger Draymond Green assured Thursday evening after the guaranteed qualification in the final, at the expense of Dallas (4-1) that his Warriors would face Boston there on June 2.
Nothing yet indicates that he is wrong, since the epilogue of this series will take place on Sunday and he will then know his opponent. But the scenario has been so unpredictable since the start of this confrontation at the top, that even the advantage of the floor in favor of the Floridians is not a guarantee of success.
Yet pushed by their fans, the C’s made the bitter experience of it in their TD Garden, on this sixth game played and led almost from start to finish, with the energy of despair, by the Heat. “We know what we are capable of. We knew we were going to get a win here. And we know we’re going to win the next one too,” Butler said afterwards.
Shadow of himself 48 hours earlier, visibly diminished by his chronic inflammation of a knee, the winger reacted like a champion. Author of 47 points (his best total in a play-off match, 16/29 on shots, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 interceptions) in 46 minutes, almost the entirety of the meeting, he guided his people on the path to success. And he carried them at arm’s length when the victory seemed to have escaped them due to Boston’s battering at the end of the match, in the wake of Jayson Tatum (30 pts, at 9/12, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 interceptions, 1 against) who really wanted to end it, but did not succeed.
Because following the example of its leader, the entire Heat team fought for the win. Author of a zero point in scoring during the previous match, Kyle Lowry also responded in the best way (18 pts, 10 assists). Just like Mike Strus, who remained on a 0/14 behind the arc in this conference final, and who unlocked his counter (3/8) for 13 very useful points. A fortiori in the persistent absence of Tyler Herro (groin) and while Bam Adebayo was once again little used (6 pts at 3/6, 9 rebounds).
PJ Tucker (11 pts, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) was decisive in the final minutes, restoring oxygen to the Heat (105-99) with three free throws obtained by intercepting a ball in the hands of Tatum, while he risked exclusion with five fouls, then on a crucial defensive rebound.
Boston, which was 13 points behind in the third quarter, came even closer (105-101) in the last minute. Moment at which Butler, again, planted the shot at the buzzer of 24 seconds which ended up disgusting his opponents. “Jimmy has shown what a competitor he is. He showed a will that prevented us from losing,” paid tribute to his coach Erik Spoelstra.
What did the Celtics miss? Probably a more consistent second period from Jaylen Brown, author of only 2 points after having been effective in the first act (18). Al Horford also sinned offensively (3 pts, 9 rebounds, 5 assists) despite his excess of energy.
Derrick White (22 pts, 5 assists, s 3 steals) has long believed he was the player who can make a difference off the bench, but with Tatum and Robert Williams (12 pts, 5/7), he was the only one to shoot correctly on the Boston side. Because the Heat also did a lot of undermining work in defense, combining there its usual virtues with a renewed success in attack which it will have to keep on Sunday, to reconnect with the final two years after its defeat in the Orlando bubble against the Lakers.
