Miami Heat

After Boston ended the series with a buzzer-beater in Game 6, anyone could make it to the Eastern Conference finals. However, while Miami looked like the team to beat in the first three games of the series, there was no doubt that the momentum had turned to the Celtics.

Jaylen Brown (26 points, ten rebounds, three assists, two steals), Jayson Tatum (31 points, 12 rebounds, five assists), and Marcus Smart (21 points, four rebounds, one assist) lead the Celtics offense.

While the offense is solid, they need to improve at preventing turnovers in Game 7: They had 12 turnovers in Game 6, Brown and Smart each had four turnovers, Tatum had three turnovers, and Horford had a cough once.

At Miami’s end, the cohesion was there; six players scored ten or more points, but they couldn’t get past Boston without a big game between their starters. While Jimmy Butler (24 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, one steal) was solid, they could have gotten the better individual scoring performances they needed to differentiate themselves from the Celtics.

In addition to Butler’s solid performance, Caleb Martin was another standout for Miami with 21 points, 15 rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block. If Miami wants to advance to the NBA Finals, they need a better performance from Bam Adebayo, who scored just 11 points in a 4-16 stretch.

Based on what we’ve seen over the past few games, Miami will not be able to recover from the 3-0 lead they had earlier in the series. Boston looked like a completely different team, and Miami failed to regain momentum.