What You Didn't See In Game 7...

Did we really go from KD’s toes last year, to Max Strus’s hell deciding the game 7 winner?
We got an insane game 7 that ultimately finally puts this Celtics core to the NBA finals that’s been 4 years in the making.
So let me show you how they got there. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
I absolutely love the way that Boston came out to start this game. As you can see in these plays, they really pushed the pace in transition and it’s almost like they caught the Heat unprepared for it. So after losing the previous one at home that pretty much everyone had them winning, I was curious to see how they would respond and I loved it.
And special shoutout to Al Horford for this phenomenal closeout for the block as if he’s a young and athletic wing, and immediately takes off on the fast break, finds Brown and we got the bucket.
He did it again, watch him following the action and rotating at the rim for this spectacular rejection that once again opens a 2 on 1 fast break and another finish.
Also a thing to watch was the passing from their 2 main stars. Brown penetrates here and with the defense collapsing, check out the skip pass over multiple defenders all the way to the corner.
He did the exact same thing in the second half as well. Head down, blows by Bam, and with Strus coming in for the charge, Brown drifts sideways to avoid him and flings another one to the corner where Marcus Smart is all alone for this shot and he knocks it down.
Look at Tatum, quickly getting rid of the ball off of the double team in these situations, finding the open man and when he does this, the Celtics are hard to stop.
And when you see these defensive possessions you have to give credit to Boston for their fight and the aggressiveness, forcing a bunch of tough shots from the Heat, which admittedly part of it is the defense, but also we also gotta say that besides Butler and Adebayo, nobody else showed up offensively for Miami.
But even with all of that going their way, we also gotta mention the fact that the Celtics basically stopped playing with 3 minutes to go in the game, and were more worried with running off the clock rather than organizing the offense or setting up a play.
And that almost came back to bite them, as Miami went on a furious comeback run, getting us to this moment.
25 seconds to go, down by 2, they get the stop and go in transition, Jimmy has Horford backpedalling in front of him, and he stops at the three point line and pulls up for the dagger, buuut misses the shot for the lead and the potential game winner.
So now of course the entire basketball world is asking if a 23% shooter from downtown for the season should have taken this shot.
And even as a guy who’s made videos exposing and criticizing his bad shooting, I have to say- I love it. No regrets whatsoever.
First of all, when you look at the situation, Al Horford is one of the smartest defenders in the league with great movement and positioning. And with Butler having played the entire 48 minutes, you could see towards the end that his legs were gone, and there’s no guarantee that he would have made the layup. I even say definitely not.
And the only other guy to look for in that instance is Strus, who is guarded closely here. So it’s either an open look by your main guy, the hero that brought you here in the first place, or a scramble to try and find a shooter who btw cannot create his own shot and will have the defense focused on him. I can live with my superstar taking an open shot.
ANd btw, throughout these playoffs Butler has gone from a horrific to about an average 34% three point shooter. So there’s that as well.
But regardless, enormous credit goes out to Jimmy for willing this team to a game 7, a hobbled Miami roster playing without Herro for the majority of the series.
He’s proven time and time again that he gets a large portion of his buckets just by his sheer determination, the fight and the will to win, and every coach dreams of having a player like that.
As for the Celtics, they finally broke through the conference finals after so many disappointments. In January everyone including myself talked about how it finally might be time to break up the 2 stars or make a significant trade. And the way they turned it around is nothing short of miraculous. There’s still ways to go however and stay tuned for the finals preview coming very soon. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.