From the moment the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference was clinched the final week of the season, there was an unease from within the Miami Heat.
It is difficult to play the role of underdog from a mountaintop.
And then the doubts set in.
Trae Young would torment them in the first round, just as he pushed the Atlanta Hawks through the play-in games.
Joel Embiid and James Harden finally would get the Philadelphia 76ers past the conference semifinals against the Heat.
And the consensus was nearly unanimous there would be no Heat escaping the defensively dogged Boston Celtics in these Eastern Conference finals.
Underdog mode reactivated.
And, so, a winner-take-all Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals Sunday at 8:30 p.m. at FTX Arena.
“All you guys, everybody picked them, even though we’re No. 1,” power forward P.J. Tucker said in his media session ahead of Sunday’s showdown. “We have nothing to lose.”
And there it is, the essence of Erik Spoelstra’s team, a team that pushed past COVID absences (remember the Kyle Guy era?), questions of an aging roster (Tucker is 37, Kyle Lowry 36), injuries that have impacted even in this series (Lowry, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro).
And, now, even after Friday night’s pushback in a 111-103 victory at TD Garden that kept the Celtics from clinching . . . underdog again, with Boston a road favorite in Game 7.
So, basically, the Heat are back in their sweet spot.
“Really, we’re grateful,” Spoelstra said of his team. “We’re really grateful to be in a really challenging series like this against an opponent we respect. Then we get to experience a Game 7 together.
“You have to go through tough things on a playoff run when you’re trying to accomplish something special.”
Tough things such as the hamstring that had sidelined Lowry for eight of 10 games before the veteran point guard returned to play the past four.
Tough things such as the knee issue that had Butler sidelined for the second half of Game 3, out of sorts in the Games 4 and 5 loss, but then motivated to push beyond the pain for Friday’s 47 points.
Tough things such as still not knowing if Herro can make it back from the groin strain that has had the 2022 NBA Sixth Man of the Year out the past three games.
“We’ve had crazy situations all year,” Tucker said, “Kyle being out, a bunch of us having injuries. It doesn’t matter.
“We’ve had guys step up all year. Just that confidence in each other all year. So in a situation as this, it’s easy to just fall back and play.”
Because all that matters now is Sunday, one victory from the franchise’s seventh visit to the NBA Finals in its 34 years, a second in three seasons.
“You get to this level, 27 teams are watching,” Spoelstra said, with the winner of this series to face the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, which open Thursday. “You get to this elite level, you have to be able to manage everything because you can’t control everything. You’re facing great competition, and you’re going to lose some battles. Then you got to try to win more battles than you lose.”
No matter the injury report.
“You can’t get these days back,” Tucker said of pushing through his knee pain, just as so many others on the roster are ignoring the injury report. “It’s living in the moment, trying to just do what you can.”
One game for a ticket to San Francisco.
One game for the Heat to either win or stay home.
“I think we’re built for it,” Tucker said. “I think our guys are built to be locked in, get it done.”
With respect earned.
“That team over there is hungry,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said. “They are experienced.
“We understand the severity of the game that’s on the line.”
So do the underdogs.
“Everybody counted us out,” center Bam Adebayo said. “Everybody thought the series was already over. I mean, that’s all the motivation we needed.”
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