A season mired in early drama and philosophy shifts ended in Game 7, but Boston’s fate was sealed long before suffering a knockout blow to Miami.
BOSTON — JIMMY BUTLER had the ball and surveyed the scene.
It was early in the fourth quarter of Monday’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, and the Miami Heat had absorbed everything the Boston Celtics — and the raucous crowd inside TD Garden — had thrown at them. Miami’s playoff hero was going in for the knockout blow.
Butler got the matchup he had spent all series hunting — a switch with Celtics big man Robert Williams III getting matched onto him — and he rose up for a step-back midrange jumper. Swish.
At the other end, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown started a drive to the hoop, only for Butler, snaking in behind him, to tip the ball away.
Fatefully, it landed in the hands of Caleb Martin — who during the series turned into a cross between Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant — who threw it ahead to Butler for a casual two-handed dunk and a swing on the rim for good measure. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was already on the court to signal for a timeout.
Nearly 11 minutes remained in Boston’s season, but the outcome had already been assured. Fans who serenaded the Celtics with boos as they trudged to the bench knew it, too.
Boston’s hopes of a return trip to the NBA Finals — and to become the first team in NBA history to overcome a 3-0 series deficit — were gone.
« We got punked, » Celtics forward Grant Williams told ESPN. « We didn’t play our game from start to finish. Defensively, we just lost it all and then offensively we were scrambled and trying to do everything ourselves and just didn’t go our way.
« You hate to have that be the end of your season, especially with the fight that we’ve shown. »
A short while after Butler’s dagger, the Heat celebrated a 103-84 victory, sending the franchise back to the Finals for a second time in four seasons — both at the expense of the Celtics. That Miami did make history — the Heat became the first team to advance out of the play-in tournament and reach the Finals — was of little consequence to anyone inside the arena.
Instead, the overwhelming feeling was of an opportunity lost. The Celtics’ slogan for this season’s playoff run — Unfinished Business — played off their trip to the 2022 NBA Finals, falling two wins short of a title and the organization’s focus to get one step further.
But rather than finishing their business, the Celtics are now headed into a summer of soul searching, unpacking what went wrong and what it will take to fix it.
« I just didn’t have them ready to play. »
Those were the first eight words of Mazzulla’s news conference after the Celtics were trounced in Game 3 of the East finals.
Mazzulla shielding his players wasn’t a surprise. Throughout the season, Mazzulla had gone out of his way to never take aim at his team — a trend that had only ratcheted up throughout the playoffs. It was also the latest example of how Mazzulla presented a stark contrast in coaching styles over the past season.
Mazzulla — who, at 34, is the NBA’s youngest coach — was an assistant on Ime Udoka’s staff last season before being thrust into leading the team just three days before the start of the regular season after Udoka was suspended for multiple violations of team rules.
On media day, Mazzulla said he hoped to continue with the formula that had worked under Udoka, which resulted in Boston reaching the Finals for the first time since 2010.
« It’s not about carrying on from one person, » Mazzulla said. « It’s about carrying on the identity of our players. So we had our struggles early last season, but at our best we knew what our identity was. … It was our buy-in from a defensive standpoint, and then it was sharing the ball and moving quickly on the offensive end.
« So as much as we can stick to the things we were great at last year, and then find areas to improve along the way, I think is the right way to go. »
The differences between Mazzulla and Udoka’s approaches quickly became clear.
Udoka, throughout his one season in Boston, would offer blunt assessments of his players to the media. Udoka blasted his team for a lack of mental toughness in January 2022 after Boston blew its fourth lead of at least 19 points that season.
The same could be said for Boston’s on-court approach. Udoka typically leaned on bigger, stronger, more defensive-oriented lineups. The pairing of Al Horford and Robert Williams became a lineup staple and the bruising Grant Williams was the team’s lead reserve.
Thursday
Game 1: Heat at Nuggets, 8:30 p.m.
Sunday
Game 2: Heat at Nuggets, 8 p.m.
Wednesday, June 7
Game 3: Nuggets at Heat, 8:30 p.m.
Friday, June 9
Game 4: Nuggets at Heat, 8:30 p.m.
*All times Eastern
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Mazzulla spent this season hewing to smaller and faster lineups with more shooting.
