As Game 7 looms, the Miami Heat are facing down history. Just not the good kind.
With a loss on Monday, Miami will be eliminated from the NBA Playoffs - and become the NBA's first team to blow a 3-0 lead in the process.
Watching the last few minutes of Game 6 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Final against the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics on Saturday night, I couldn’t help but think of the climatic duel at the end of Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker has turned to the Dark Side, corrupted, blinded by hate and locked into a showdown with his former mentor, Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, who’s trying his hardest to talk down his one-time Padawan.
Obi-Wan: “It’s over, Anakin! I have the high ground!”
Anakin: “You underestimate my power!”
He goes for the killing blow… and promptly gets his legs lightsabered off. So it goes, y’know?
I dunno, I got the impression the Heat must’ve felt similar.
Down by ten points with under four minutes to go, they battled back, led by Jimmy Butler, who pushed past a horrifically poor shooting night (5-21 from the field) to score 13 points in the final quarter, including connecting on a free throw with three seconds to go. It wasn’t surprising, not really. Butler, the most unlikely of NBA superstars, has developed a reputation, rightfully so, (“Playoff Jimmy”) a knack for coming up clutch in big moments.
His 2020 playoff run in the “Bubble” (the quarantine zone the NBA established in the midst of the pandemic) became the stuff of legend as he went toe-to-toe with LeBron James’s Los Angeles Lakers, even if the Heat ultimately came up short - two wins shy of a championship in the most unusual of seasons.
Hell, he even pulled out the quintessential big-gamer card, guaranteeing a win before Game 6.
But it wasn’t enough.
Boston’s Derrick White converted on a very literal last second put-back (there were 0.1 seconds left on the clock) to secure the win, 104-103 and most crucially, tie the series at three. Game 7 tips off Monday night in Boston.
Will the Celtics see it through? It has been said ad nauseam the past few days, as they dug themselves out of a seemingly insurmountable hole but no team in NBA history, in 150 attempts, has ever won a series after being down 3-0. Miami, on the other hand, could be the first team to lose a series after relinquishing such a lead.
Maybe Boston, after three straight do-or-die games, runs out of gas, Miami finally closes them out and at the very least, avoids an all-time collapse.
Or maybe the Heat come up short, the moment too large, their bodies, too tired and Boston completes their historic comeback, something that would’ve seemed all but impossible a week ago, as they head to their second straight NBA Finals.
But whichever team emerges from this back-and-forth slugfest to represent the East come Thursday, they’ll be in tough.
Denver awaits. The Nuggets, the number one seed in the West this season, will be no easy opponent. After sweeping the Lakers in the West Final (sending both the team at large and LeBron specifically, into an off-season full of uncertainty) they’ve been resting, waiting, no doubt breaking down film and looking to exploit any weakness they can from a battered, beleaguered opponent. Nikola Jokic, in particular, seems unstoppable.
Averaging a triple-double through three rounds, (29.9/13.3/10.3) the two-time League MVP has left a trail of destruction in his wake. Named the West Finals MVP, Jokic recently surpassed Wilt Chamberlain (yes, that Wilt Chamberlain) for most triple-doubles (eight) in a single postseason - a record that stood for over half a century.
As the Nuggets look to win the franchise’s first championship in their fifty-six years of existence, going back to their days in the ABA (American Basketball Association) Jokic and running-mate Jamal Murray will be at forefront, the ultimate roadblock to any team’s championship aspirations. While Jokic is often spotlighted, Murray is a star in his own right: against the Lakers, he shoot 52.7 percent from the field, 40.5 from three and converted on 95 percent of his free throws - only the eleventh time a player has put up a 50/40/90 line in the playoffs while averaging thirty points or more (32.5).
But to focus on Denver now, would be looking past the moment. What started as a best-of-seven, has become, well, a best-of-one. As both Miami and Boston look to book their ticket to the Finals, the train won’t slow down as it reaches the station. Somebody’s going to be left behind as they head into the summer, oh-so-close but still so far.
Thing is, however it goes on Monday, we’ll see some serious history. And as a basketball fan, as a sports fan, what’s better than that?