Heat vs. Celtics Game 7 live updates (2024)

The dramatic Celtics-Heat Eastern Conference finals series reached a bit of an anticlimactic blowout win for Miami. The Heat defeated Boston 103-84 to advance to the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets. The Heat will not be the first NBA team to blow a 3-0 series lead. Instead, they'll become just the second No. 8 seed to reach the Finals.

Miami will face the Nuggets in the NBA Finals, which is set to begin Thursday. The Heat last played for the title in 2020.

Required reading:

• Celtics leave history untouched with Game 7 disaster: ‘We failed. We let the whole city down.’
• Why Jimmy Butler – and Caleb Martin – give the Heat hope in NBA Finals against the Nuggets
• Most fans won’t remember ’22-23 Celtics. After Game 7 flop, all they have is a highlight

Find the best ticket deals on StubHub to see your favorite team.

(Photo: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)

The Celtics fell short of completing the first-ever comeback from an 0-3 deficit in NBA history. But, in battling back to tie the series, there definitely seems to have been a lot of momentum built by first-year head coach Joe Mazzulla.

The impression I’m getting is that the Celtics and Mazzulla will be looking to elevate his bench with more assistant coaching help in the offseason. As a result of the whirlwind fashion in which he got the main job just prior to the season following the Ime Udoka situation, Mazzulla never really got a chance to align his own coaching staff and should get a chance to do so this summer.

According to league sources, Mazzulla has $14 million guaranteed on his deal, which spans over the next three years.

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Finally.

After the Miami Heat’s commanding win over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, the NBA Finals matchup is set. The Heat and the Denver Nuggets will tip off Thursday night, with the first two games at Ball Arena. More importantly, now that we know the matchup, we get to break it down for you.

As the Nuggets prepare to chase their first title in franchise history, here are some thoughts as to how they get there, fleshed out, explained and analyzed, ranging from the talents of Nikola Jokić to the coaching exploits of Erik Spoelstra and Michael Malone.

Read the full story here.

BOSTON — After everything they did to get to this point, the Celtics suddenly had the rug pulled from under them. On the first play of Game 7, Jayson Tatum sprained his ankle landing on Gabe Vincent’s foot, and was simply never the same.

Vincent was sliding across the floor and was just a fraction of a second away from missing Tatum. The margin between history and defeat was the width of a toe.

The Celtics are used to this. Just before media day kicked off the season back in the fall, Ime Udoka was suspended and Joe Mazzulla was placed in charge of a team ready to win it all. They surfed the waves of inconsistency throughout the year, then navigated a torrential storm in the playoffs to have a chance to be the first team in NBA history to come back from being down 0-3.

But with Tatum a shell of himself, as he put it, it all slowly unraveled as they missed their first 12 three-pointers of the night and never could quite close the gap on the Heat living their identity to the fullest. The Celtics season is over, leaving history at the altar with a 103-84 Game 7 collapse at home as they could not hold it together for a full 48 minutes under the toughest circ*mstances.

"It's a pattern that happens with us. We're going to have to do some soul searching there because some things have to change in that regard," Al Horford said. "We had a great opportunity and we failed."

Read the full story here.

(Photo: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)

BOSTON – The date of the last two Game 7s in the Eastern Conference finals was May 29 – kind of odd because prior to last year’s Heat-Celtics finale, there had never been a Game 7 played on that date.

Precisely one year ago from last night, Caleb Martin sat on the Miami bench and watched the Heat’s 100-96 heartbreaking loss to Boston. He didn’t play a single minute, not so much as an inbounds pass.

On that night, 365 days before the best night of his NBA career, only Martin could have possibly imagined what he’d be doing exactly one year later, on May 29, 2023, in a Game 7 against Boston.

Being the best player on the floor in the win that sent the Heat to the finals.

"Caleb definitely made a name for himself," his teammate, Bam Adebayo, marveled after the job was finished Monday evening.

"After that loss, I feel like he made it a necessary effort to really come back and be like, I'm going to be a reason why we win a series or be a reason why we win big games."

(Photo: David Butler II / USA Today)

BOSTON — This could have been one of the best nights of this century for the Celtics organization. It ended with Grant Williams lugging some belongings out of the locker room in a trash bag, Jayson Tatum limping to the podium on a sprained ankle and Jaylen Brown blaming himself for a Game 7 loss.

The Celtics left history untouched. All of that talk about Topgolf, pick-me-up speeches and the documentary of the 2004 Red Sox and they were still whacked at home by the Heat with a trip to the Finals on the line, 103-84.

"Tough one," Jaylen Brown said. "Tough one for me. Tough one for our team. Tough one for our organization. Extremely bad timing."

Read the full story here.

BOSTON — The cheering was as advertised when the Celtics stepped onto the parquet Monday night for pregame warmups, none of it directed at any one player. Not yet. But then Derrick White appeared on the flat screens that are suspended high above center court at TD Garden, and suddenly the cheering got even louder, so loud that White looked around to see what the fuss was all about.

Looking up, he smiled in a way that suggested he might have been saying … Oh, you’re cheering me. Cool.

And that’s the way it’s going to be for the rest of White’s life. Anywhere he goes in Boston, he’s going to be the face on the giant flat screens. You’ll see that face, you’ll cheer. Quite loudly. White is always going to be remembered as the guy whose last-second putback of Marcus Smart’s around-the-rim-and-out shot propelled the Celtics to victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. It was one of those instant-classic Boston sports moments like Pudge Fisk denting the left-field foul pole to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series; like Larry Bird stealing an inbound pass from the Detroit Pistons Isiah Thomas and feeding the ball to Dennis Johnson for a game-clinching layup in the 1987 Eastern Conference semifinals.

I offer up these two blasts from the past — Pudge’s homer, and Larry’s steal — to make a larger point. Which is this: The 1975 Red Sox wound up losing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, and the 1986-87 Celtics, after getting past the Pistons, lost to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

And so it is with the 2022-23 Celtics, whose bid to become the first team in NBA history to win a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first three games came to a crashing and embarrassing end Monday night. The final was Miami 103, Boston 84, the verdict so decisive that after the game Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla minced no words: "The Heat played better than we did and that's it. Credit to them. We didn’t play well tonight."

Read the full piece here.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

In the 2022 conference finals, Caleb Martin was playing behind P.J. Tucker — the Heat’s starting forward and best on-ball defender. Tucker was playing with a leg injury but still averaged 27 minutes per game. Martin, in 16 minutes per game, managed 7.3 points and shot the 3-ball well (7 of 15), but he couldn’t take advantage of the space to get into the lane and score. He shot 18 of 37 overall in the series and attempted just two free throws.

The Heat lost Tucker to Philadelphia in free agency, and Martin spent the season bouncing in and out of the starting lineup as Tucker’s replacement. He started the series coming off the bench for Kevin Love before starting Game 6 and on, though he’s averaging 14.1 points per game during the playoffs (Miami’s third-leading scorer, by a smidge).

The Celtics are not the only team to play Martin like this – with a big who is not going to meet him out on the perimeter – though they may have debuted the coverage last postseason.

"I think automatically, when we got through the second round, we matched up with Boston again, I just knew from the jump, I automatically triggered my brain to last year and the playoffs and knew exactly how they were going to guard me," Martin said after Game 2. "So I’ve been preparing myself the minute we beat the Knicks and we were preparing for Boston. I just automatically started trying to re-circuit my brain to the looks I would get and how guys are going to help off of me and me preparing to be ready and confident and assertive."

On a team where Butler is averaging 31.1 points in the playoffs and controls the flow of most games, and where Adebayo literally runs the offense from his center position, and where the rest of the players are all capable 3-point shooters, Martin said opponents "kind of have to pick your poison. I’m on the short end of the stick when it comes to that.

"But you know, I welcome that," he said.

Read more here.

The Miami Heat advanced to the NBA Finals with a Game 7 victory in Boston, but the Denver Nuggets will start the NBA Finals as favorites. The Nuggets are -400 to win it all, according to BetMGM.

Meanwhile, Miami is +300 to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

The Nuggets are also 8.5-point favorites for Game 1 in Denver on Thursday.

Nikola Jokić is the favorite to win the NBA Finals MVP. Jokić is -300. Jimmy Butler is +380, barely longer odds than the Heat winning. Jamal Murray is next at +2200.

The Nuggets, which have never won an NBA title, have lost just three games this postseason and another short series is possible if the odds are any indication. The most likely exact series outcome is the Nuggets in five at +225.

I voted for Caleb Martin for series MVP because he was, unarguably, Miami's most consistent player for seven games, and the four 3s he made in Game 7, especially the one at the end of the third quarter, were some of the biggest shots of the night.

Butler, though, was dominant in the first two games, which set the tone. The Heat were huge underdogs, and to come into Boston and win the first two, among other things, put the Celtics in a position where they could be finished off by that one big "Jimmy game."

I'd argue that game never came -- he scored nine in the fourth quarter of a game that quickly got out of hand -- but his presence, his defense and the confidence he afforded teammates were all invaluable.

Finally, the Celtics made the second-most 3s and had the fourth-best offense in the NBA all season. What the Heat did defensively on Monday cannot be overlooked.

Read more here.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

Jayson Tatum after limping to the podium: "It’s tough cause it kind of impacted me the rest of the night. Swelled up. It was frustrating that I was a shell of myself, couldn't move."

Tatum injured his right ankle on the first play of Game 7. He scored 14 points in 42 minutes in Boston's 103-84 defeat.

Here's video of the play.

Jaylen Brown said it was on him to carry the team when Jayson Tatum got hurt on the first play of Game 7: "Just a terrible game when my team needed it most. (Jayson Tatum) ... you could see it swelling up on him and he couldn’t move out there ... I came up short, I failed and it’s tough."

Earlier, Brown discussed his future with the franchise (Brown is eligible to sign a supermax contract extension this summer. If he and the Celtics cannot come to a deal, he could become a free agent after next season): "I expected to win today and move on. That’s what my focus was on. That’s what my focus has been on. We failed. I failed. And it’s hard to think about anything else right now to be honest. I’m going to cross that bridge when we get there."

After another question near the end of his press conference: "This is not the end. We've got a lot better to give. A lot better basketball to play."

-Jay King and Jared Weiss

Jayson Tatum rolled his ankle during the opening minute of the game and never looked right after that. Jaylen Brown needed to play a bigger role because of the injury, but didn’t produce efficient offense. The Celtics flopped on offense during the first quarter, on defense during the second and couldn’t sustain a brief comeback attempt in the second half. The fourth quarter turned ugly after Tatum missed a layup during the opening moments of it and the Heat responded with a score at the other end.

The loss leaves Boston headed toward a critical offseason after failing deep in the playoffs for a second straight year.

(Photo: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)

The other: the 1999 New York Knicks, who finished 27-23 in an injury riddled, lockout-shortened season. New York was expected to be a contender for the title that season, but slogged through a challenging regular season that included an out-of-shape Patrick Ewing, some struggles incorporating flashy new addition Latrell Sprewell and endless speculation about the jobs of coach Jeff Van Gundy and general manager Ernie Grunfeld.

But once the playoffs rolled around, the Knicks finally got it together. They edged the top-seeded Heat in the first round on Allan Houston's buzzer beater, swept the Hawks in the second round, and took out the Pacers in six games –one of which was that famous Larry Johnson four-point play. Those Knicks eventually lost in five games to the San Antonio Spurs.

In many ways, this Heat run is more worthy of the Cinderella moniker. Miami went 44-38 over a full season, posting a negative point differential while participating in an NBA-high 54 clutch games (defined as being within five points with five or fewer minutes remaining). They failed to catch the free-falling Nets for sixth place, lost their first Play-In game at home to Atlanta and barely edged the Bulls in an elimination game with one final surge in the last three minutes. Had they played according to their seed, they would've faced Boston in the first round, not the East finals.

Instead, they are here in the NBA Finals, having survived a blown 3-0 lead and a Game 7 on the Celtics' home floor. Why bet against them now?

(Photo: Roberto Schmidt / AFP)

Malcolm Brogdon explains his arm tendon tear: "What was reported was correct. It's a partial tear of the tendons."

He said he'll consider surgery.

Here was that original report.

Joe Mazzulla was asked the difference between tonight and the prior three games for the Celtics.

"We shot 21 percent from 3. The defense was still good."

Q: Is this team too reliant on the 3?

"No."

The Celtics struggled to find their identity all season, but had such overwhelming talent that they still managed to claw all the way to Game 7 of the conference finals. Then Jayson Tatum hurt his leg on the first play of the game, was never right and the Celtics offense crumbled.

It was so apparent how much Tatum had been keeping their half-court offense afloat all season when he could no longer carve his way into the paint and bend the defense to his will. The Celtics missing their first 12 threes of the night was obviously embarrassing, but it was the shocking uncertainty and disjointedness they operated with that made this game truly devastating for a franchise trying to make history.

They didn’t have the connectivity and extra effort on defense that brought them back to a Game 7, plus Miami torched them again with some great contested shooting. The Celtics knew they had to push Miami out of its comfort zone and get ultra aggressive, but they couldn’t make it happen. This team so often should know what to do, but doesn’t quite get there.

Now the season has ended in a humiliation.

(Photo: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)