Facing elimination tonight in Boston, LeBron James scored 45 points and had 15 rebounds as the Heat blasted the Celtics 98-79 to force a Game 7 in Miami. Naturally, this will give all the folks on ESPN a chance to talk about LeBron's "will" and "effort," because from their perspective, that's all that matters in basketball. Actually, any Kentucky fan would have recognized tonight's game as what happens when a really athletic team is hitting jump shots, while the opponent that needs to shoot well from the outside is ice cold. Those games usually turn into blowouts for UK, and that's what happened to Boston tonight. The Celtics were only 1-14 from three-point range, while Miami went 7-16 from behind the arc. LeBron was also unusually dialed in with his mid-range shot, as he went 19-26 from the floor. Boston had no chance under those circumstances, so it is not surprising that Miami cruised to an easy win. And if Miami is red-hot and Boston is ice-cold on Saturday, the Heat will roll again. But my guess is that both teams will regress to the mean, and that Game 7 will be much more competitive.
Miami participated in the last Eastern Conference Final to go seven games back in 2005. They lost Game 7 at home, 88-82 to the Pistons. The next year the Heat won the championship.
Boston hasn't played in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final since May 30, 1987, when their legendary series again against the Detroit Pistons ended in Boston. The Celtics won that game 117-114, winning the East for the fourth year in a row -- but for the last time until 2008.
The Heat are going for their third trip to the NBA finals; the Celtics are trying for their 22d.
I got to see only a few minutes of this game, as I was instead occupied with the KHSAA baseball (go, Hens!) and softball tournaments (go, Purple Flash!) and some backyard cornhole (so much fun) with the fam. However, I did tune in late to catch a lot of the analysis on ESPN, and I got the impression that they felt this result all had to do with LeBron's will and heart.
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