Entry 3: "The Heat vs. Nuggets Finals is a Go!"
Miami Defeats Boston in Game 7 to Advance to The Finals and Face Off Against Denver
By: Liz
May 29, 2023
After a grueling seven-game series, the Miami Heat managed to overcome the Boston Celtics 103-84 to win the Eastern Conference. Did Miami give it everything they had? Yes, of course. Any team facing elimination in a best-of-seven series is going to pull out every stop to get to the goal, but could this prove to be fatal for them in the end? Miami has certainly been the ‘Cinderella’ of these playoffs, but do they really have what it takes to top another number-one seed? I’m not so sure.
Denver has had six days of rest (as of writing this) and still has three days to go before game one on Thursday. They’ve had time to mentally and physically prepare for this. Miami is only going to get two days to work up a plan to try and stop the Nuggets, which many people really think will be a challenge for this Heat team. Another factor to consider (that I learned today, actually) is that Miami hasn’t won a game in Denver, as Charles Barkley put it, “since the Obama Administration.” The last game Miami won in Denver was actually August 1, 2020 during the bubble; view this as you will, but before that, it was November 30, 2016, literally during the last few months of the Obama Administration.**
[**Edit: The dates are kind of screwy, so I’m not entirely sure which date is true. This Tweet has an entirely different date than Stat Muse has on their site, so in other words, take this part with a grain of salt.]
During this last series, Miami was projected to sweep Boston and make the Conference Finals the first in history to both be swept, but they couldn’t get it done in four games and allowed it to get pushed to seven. It was obvious to everyone that in games 4-6 they weren’t in it, shooting sloppy shots, giving up basket after basket, turning the ball over constantly. It wasn’t pretty. And though they prevailed in this game, that doesn’t mean that they will continue playing like this is the Finals. There’s a possibility of it happening, but it doesn’t seem very likely.
Don’t get me wrong, I like and respect Jimmy Butler as a person and a player, but if he struggled like this through three games against players like Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum, then what is he going to look like going up against defenders like Aaron Gordon, KCP, or Bruce Brown?
“Playoff Jimmy” barely showed up tonight, he still wound up with 28 points, but he wasn’t the star of the show as he had been in previous series’ this postseason. If anything, it was Caleb Martin who kept this Heat team alive during this game. 26 points, 10 rebounds, 11/16 shooting (including 4/6 from 3), he had a ‘masterclass’ performance, as Twitter users would refer to it. He was the “hero” of Game 7, not Jimmy Butler.
[My Personal Opinion: I think Martin should’ve been given the ECF MVP tonight over Jimmy, but both were deserving of the award regardless]
After this series, Denver may just have Miami right where they want them going into Finals Game 1 Thursday. It’s clear that Boston and Miami put all their effort onto the court during this series and ‘beat each other up’ in the process. Not saying Miami won’t be prepared for what’s ahead, but suggesting that there is a very real possibility that they will be tired for at least the first game, maybe even the second. This is exactly what Denver (mostly fans, if I’m being honest) was hoping for.
Now, I won’t sit here and babble on and on about how I’m confident in the Nuggets’ ability to beat Miami in four or five games, that’s what my Twitter is for. I just want to end this by saying: the Nuggets are favored heavily to win it all after this Game [-360 overall while Heat are +270], so we should all just think happy thoughts and support this team throughout the last string of this journey. Go Nuggets!
Sources:
last time the heat won in denver
Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin lead Heat past Celtics in Game 7
NBA Finals 2023 Odds: Nikola Jokić, Nuggets Heavy Favorites Over Jimmy Butler, Heat