Magical Miami Heat Reach NBA Finals as Underdog

The Miami Heat defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday to secure a spot in the 2023 NBA Finals. The Heat are installed as an underdog at +310 odds against the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets, who are the betting favorite to win the NBA championship at -400.

Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin shoots over guard Derrick White from the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals at TD Garden. (Image: Getty)

The Heat jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the conference finals, but the Celtics won three-straight elimination games to force a seventh and final game. The Celtics were unable to punch their ticket to a second-straight NBA Finals when they were , 103-84.

The Heat avenged a heartbreaking loss against the Celtics in Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference finals last postseason.

The NBA introduced the Play-In Tournament in 2020, and the Heat became the first play-in team to reach the NBA Finals.

The Heat became only the second #8 seed to reach the NBA Finals. The New York Knicks secured a spot in the 1999 NBA Finals as the #8 seed, but that was during a shortened, 50-game season because of a lockout.

The Heat clinched their second Eastern Conference championship since 2020. They also reached the NBA Finals for the second time in the last four seasons. They lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 NBA Finals inside the pandemic-induced NBA Bubble in Orlando.

Celtics Fall Short on Historic Comeback

The Boston Celtics failed in their attempt to become the first team in NBA history to recover from an 0-3 deficit and win a seven-game series. They lost Game 7, and teams are now 0-151 in a playoff series after falling behind 0-3.

The Celtics were riding a three-game winning streak entering Game 7 at home at TD Garden. They were a -7.5 betting favorite, yet lost to the Heat by 19 points.

All-star forward Jayson Tatum sustained an ankle injury in the first offensive possession of the game, which slowed him down the rest of the game.

It was just frustrating that I was a shell of myself, Tatum said after the loss. It was tough to move. Just frustrating.

Tatum played through the pain and logged 42 minutes of court time. He tallied 14 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists. He shot 5-for-13 from the field, including 1-for-4 from 3-point range.

Backup combo guard Malcolm Brogdon struggled with a forearm injury. Brogdon won the 2023 NBA Sixth Man of the Year, but only played seven minutes and didn t score a point in Game 7.

We got punked, said backup forward Grant Williams. We didn t play our game from start to finish. Defensively, we just lost it all, and then offensively we were scrambled and just didn t go our way.

The Celtics live and die from 3-point range, and they went cold in Game 7. They missed 33 trey attempts and shot just 21.4% overall. Overall, Boston s starters shot a combined 7-for-33 from 3-point land for a 21% success rate. The bench provided zero help with 16 total points on 2-for-9 from downtown (22.2%).