The Ultimate Hate Watch: Celtics-Heat Game 7 Open Thread

Boston Celtics (3-3) vs. Miami Heat (3-3) - 8:30pm ET - TNT

Three seconds left, a missed shot, and a putback with one or two tenths of a second left on the clock to win the game and prolong the season. It will be nearly impossible to top the end of Game 6 for drama, but if it could be done, it would be in a Game 7 with a trip to the Finals on the line. The Miami Heat have been one game from ending this series for the better part of a week, but after the Celtics reasserted themselves as the better team for a pair of games and then survived by the skin of their teeth in South Beach, they’re one more win away from history.

Boston is favored by 7.5 points at home for tonight’s Game 7, per DraftKings. Most of this series has swung on shooting variance, but the Celtics secured the last-second Game 6 victory despite having their worst three-point shooting game of the season.

A big reason for that was Miami being extremely ineffective inside the paint, shooting just 16-of-52 (30.8 percent). Much of those struggles can be laid on the shoulders of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, who combined to shoot 9-of-37 from the field (although Butler at least went 12-of-14 from the free throw line, including the go-ahead shots in the closing seconds). It’s rough for the Heat to have gotten such a great performance from its supporting cast and still come up short. Miami’s two biggest stars will need to turn it around if the Heat are to pull off the upset and win their third road contest in this series. Butler, at least, took accountability for his subpar performance before declaring they’re gonna go into Boston and win Game 7.

We’ll see if Jimmy has any more Buckets in him, or if the city of Boston can make sports history once again and we will be forced to become the biggest Denver Nuggets fans outside of Colorado.

Follow along here with all the twists and turns of tonight’s historic Game 7.