The Heat beat the Boston Celtics, 103-84, in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night, advancing to the championship round to play the Denver Nuggets. Game 1 is at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Denver.

Miami is in the finals for the seventh time in franchise history, and as a massive footnote, stopped the Celtics from becoming the first NBA team ever – and just the sixth in major American pro sports – to win a series after trailing 3-0.

The Celtics are the 151st team to try and fail, and just the fourth to reach a Game 7 and lose. They are the first out of the four to lose at home.

As it is, the Heat are the second team to advance to the finals as a No. 8 seed and first since the Knicks in 1999. The Heat also exacted revenge on Boston, which beat them in Game 7 of the conference finals last season. That game was a heartstopper that came down to the end.

This was the opposite in every way.

“What happened last year, you know, obviously was on our mind and it drove us this year,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who now has 108 career playoff wins, three shy of tying Doc Rivers for fourth all-time among NBA coaches. “That’s what you always hope for with competition, that it can drive you to a higher level. I think that’s what you saw in this series, this year, to be able to overcome a lot of stuff.”

Jimmy Butler was voted the MVP of the conference finals by media covering the series – and awarded the Larry Bird trophy – after he led the Heat in scoring both in Game 7 (28 points) and in three of their four wins. He nearly put them into the finals in Game 6 with a 10-point outburst over the game’s final minutes, and it was his 3-pointer near the end of Game 7 last year against the Celtics that missed.

- Heat advance to NBA Finals with Game 7 win over Celtics: Why Boston fell short of history, NYTimes.com, May30, 2023.

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Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.