South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
11th heaven?
Heat with a mixed, memorable history in 10 previous Game 7s
MIAMI — Yes, the Miami Heat have been here before.
Ten times to be exact.
Making Sunday’s 8:30 p.m. showdown at FTX Arena against the Boston Celtics in these Eastern Conference finals the 11th Game 7 in the franchise’s 34 seasons.
For many on the roster, though, it also will be something new, requiring perhaps some sage advice.
“Block out the noise as much as possible,” veteran power forward P.J. Tucker said, “and get ready to play a regular game like you’ve been playing.”
A look at the 10 previous times the Heat have been in this spot:
1997 East semifinals: Heat 101, Knicks 90. Tim Hardaway erupts for 38 points in his first career Game 7, with the Knicks’ Allan Houston and Chris Childs serving suspensions from the teams’ Game 5 melee. The victory completes a comeback from a 3-1 series deficit.
2000 East semifinals: Knicks 83, Heat 82. Patrick Ewing scores the winning basket with 1 minute, 30 seconds left, with the Heat’s Jamal Mashburn then bypassing a scoring opportunity to pass to Clarence Weatherspoon, whose miss seals the Heat’s loss.
2004 first round: Heat 85, Hornets 77. Current Heat assistant coach Caron Butler leads the way with 23 points as the Heat advance during Dwyane Wade’s rookie season.
2005 East finals: Pistons 88, Heat 82. With Wade limited by a rib injury, the Heat come up one game short of their first appearance in the NBA Finals.
2009 first round: Hawks 91, Heat 78. With Jermaine O’Neal sidelined by a migraine, Erik Spoelstra comes up just short in his first playoff series as coach.
2012 East finals: Heat 101, Celtics 88. Down 3-2, just like this time around against Boston, the Heat follow up LeBron’s James’ 45-point Game 5 with the first Big Three trip to the NBA Finals.
2013 East finals: Heat 99, Pacers 76. The Heat again leave then-Pacers coach Frank Vogel shaking his head, with James closing with 32.
2013 NBA Finals: Heat 95, Spurs 88. A game after Ray Allen’s miraculous 3-pointer keeps the Heat alive, the franchise’s third title is closed out in a rare anticlimactic Game 7.
2016 first round: Heat 106, Hornets 73. The rare Game 7 blowout, with Goran Dragic leading the way with 25 points, Purple Shirt Guy from Charlotte no longer courtside to taunt Wade.
2016 East semifinals: Raptors 116, Heat 89. Wade comes up one win shy from a playoff showdown against James’ Cavaliers, with current Heat guard Kyle Lowry leading the Raptors with 35 points.
Holding pattern
Spoelstra continued to hold out hope Saturday of a possible return of sixth man Tyler Herro for Sunday’s Game 7, with Herro having missed the past three with a groin strain.
“It’s wait and see,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat bypassing practice on Saturday’s travel day.
“We’ll see him in the morning, see what kind of progress he’s made, and then probably go through the same process before the game.”
Herro is listed as questionable, just as he was before the three games he has missed.
Also listed as questionable for Sunday by the Heat are Lowry (hamstring), Max Strus (hamstring), Tucker (knee) and Gabe Vincent (hamstring). Those four almost assuredly will play.
Listed as questionable by the Celtics are Marcus Smart (ankle) and Robert Williams (knee), with both having played through their ailments.
The Draymond angle
Spoelstra said he had no issue with Heat players taking umbrage with Warriors forward Draymond Green already declaring the Celtics as Golden State’s NBA Finals opponent even before the conclusion of the East finals.
“Each person can find different forms of motivation. We have a big, audacious goal,” he said. “That’s motivating enough. But if other things motivate guys, I don’t have a problem with that.”
Errors cited
The NBA on Saturday cited six officiating errors in the final two minutes of Friday night’s 111-103 Heat Game 6 victory in Boston:
▪ Two uncalled three-second violations on Heat center Bam Adebayo (one apiece on the defensive and offensive ends).
▪ Two fouls on Celtics guard Derrick White that should not have been called.
▪ An uncalled travel on Celtics forward Jayson Tatum,.
▪ An uncalled Celtics five-second inbounding violation.