There was no spectacular comeback, no miracle, & no parade. The Miami Heat move on the finals. Jimmy Butler scored 28 points, and Caleb Martin had 26 points and ten rebounds. The eighth-seeded Heat upset Boston 103-84 in Game 7 on Monday night. It’s the Heat second time in four seasons being in the finals. Miami recovered from blowing a 3-0 series lead to meet the Western Conference champion Nuggets a year after dropping a seventh game to the Celtics.
Photo Cred: Miami Herald
The first game is Thursday night in Denver, where the top-seeded Nuggets have been waiting since sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers on May 22. Miami is the first No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals since the 1999 New York Knicks. Bam Adebayo led the way with 12 points and ten rebounds. To get there, the Heat had to bounce back from a loss in the first round against Atlanta by defeating Chicago in a second-chance play-in. They beat the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games and the fifth-seeded New York Knicks in six.
Photo Cred: Deadline
“They are first class. You look across the way, just in terms of their ownership group and Brad (Stevens) and Joe (Mazzulla) and his coaching staff, they are good people and they are a class organization. What happened last year obviously was on our mind and it drove us this year. That’s what you always hope for with competition, that it can drive you to a higher level. I think that’s what you saw in this series, this year, to be able to have to overcome a lot of stuff.”
Photo Cred: CNN
They put Boston down 3-0, a deficit from which no NBA club has ever recovered. After three losses, Miami was on the verge of making the worst kind of history. They made the history they wanted to! It might not be the most glamorous matchup, but the Denver Nuggets vs. the Miami Heat is the most deserved outcome for the 2023 NBA playoffs. The Nuggets have the best record (12-3).
