The Miami Heat is on the verge of blowing a 3-0 lead to the much talented but still somewhat disappointing Boston Celtics but it hasn’t deterred their confidence in winning tonight’s game 7. How confident are they of winning and booking a finals ticket? Apparently, even though tonight’s matchup hasn’t started yet, they already booked and scheduled a flight to Denver.
While fans and the media say that the Heat’s inability to close out the pesky Celtics is a testament to their lack of depth as a team, we tend to forget that the Heat wasn’t meant to be here due to their lackluster regular season performance.
They were beaten soundly by the Atlanta Hawks in the play-in tournament before securing their spot as the 8th seeded team in the East. They surprisingly dismantled Giannis Antetokoumpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in just five games and trashed the New York Knicks in the second round. All of this without their third leading scorer, Tyler Herro, who went down during the first game of their series against Milwaukee.
Although no team has ever come back to win a series after going 0-3, the Celtics will be the first team to play a game 7 in front of their home crowd. This will be a huge challenge for Miami as they are on the cusp of being the first team up 3-0 to blow it all.
But it won’t be a huge disappointment as some might suggest. This is the 8th team in the East who unexpectedly broke everyone’s prediction in this year’s playoffs by playing like a contender.
If Boston lose this game tonight, it might be viewed as a bigger disappointment for a team who’s pegged to be the eventual champions this year after an impressive run to the NBA Finals last year. Tatum might go hot and cold, so will Jaylen Brown. If it wasn’t for Derrick White’s miracle tip-in last game, they would be in Cancun right now.
But make no mistake as whoever wins the East, they will definitely have a hard time against the Denver Nuggets.
