To recap, Miami stole the first two games in Boston, coming up huge in crunch time and Jimmy Butler going off on Grant Williams. Then blew the doors out of Boston in Game 3, so much so that literally every pundit was thinking Game 4 was a fait accompli, and starting a round of existential questions about the Celtics future. But then they let the Celtics win Game 4, dominate Game 5 and go up 10 late in Game 6. Which of course the Heat proceeded then to come all the way back, before the Celtics won with one of the most insane endings in memory, with the tap-in with 0.1 seconds left. And all that just to then blow out the Celtics in embarrassing fashion in Game 7.
What's better than sweeping a team? You can say maybe letting a team get all the way back from 0-3 to 3-3 and then win Game 7 anyway. Granted, that isn't unprecedented in the NBA, as the three times prior that a team got all the way back from an 0-3 hole, they couldn't win the fourth game. But this is the first time that scenario played out with the team hosting Game 7 being the one that was down 0-3.
This was so rough that honestly you feel like had that Derrick White putback been a half second late, or simply had the Heat just won Game 6 routinely (like they did Game 7), the Celtics would be better off. Like fewer questions about if Jaylen Brown is worth a max contract. He probably is, but an 8 turnover game in the finale doesn't help make that case. It makes them question if Joe Mazzula is the right coach - because after all he "motivated them" to wins in Games 4-6, but apparently forgot to do so for Game 7. In all ways, the Celtics would have been in a better position in terms of the existential fate of their future, had they just not bothered.
But you know who is happy they did bother, they did fight and claw and luck their way back into a Game 7? Me and all the other Boston haters. After the miracle win that was Game 6 for the Celtics, there was only one way a lot of people wanted this game to go: with the Celtics throwing up on themselves. Boston fans have had enough success, from the bevy of titles of course, but to the ridiculous comebacks. They'd already done a 0-3 comeback in the msot insane of circumstances. They'd already gotten to enjoy the 28-3 comeback. But this was a step too far. Instead they got the worst outcome.
The sound of the Garden being quiet as hell for a half was every bit as fun as I was expecting. This team letting their fans down at home again (now an insane 12-13 at home last two playoffs) is just beautiful. That face of Bill Simmons was worth teh price of admission, only topped by a simialrly frazzled, forlorn mug of Dave Portnoy. Seeing those Boston fans suffer was just a truly communal moment.
That's what this near disastrous but still hilarious hater-filled ending brings up. A communal moment to get together and hate on a team too high on its own britches, and a fanbase who had long left the realm of the sympathetic beings a good decade ago. The Celtics have always acted like we still live in teh 80's - despite just one title in 36 seasons. They always act like a dynasty was cut short with the KG injury in 2009, despite no real evidence that they would have beaten that Lakers team in the finals had KG stayed healthy (certainly they didn't do so the very next year). In this series too we all sat aroudn and waited for talent to win out.
It didn't - the Heat's poise and culture, along with a combination of so many bricks, truly just awfully missed shots from Boston made this a massacre worth celebrating in. Sure, had this game played out in Game 4 (which it had the chance to when the Heat took a brief 9 point lead early in the 3rd) it would have been as fun to see Boston be swept. But otherwise, the near reverse sweep, along with the disastrous home finale, made it about as good.
