06172023

Miami Heat Beat Boston Celtics in Game 7 to Advance to NBA Finals

“With this group, it’s steeled us and made us closer and made us tougher.”

They will need that toughness against the top-seeded Nuggets, who secured their first trip to the N.B.A. finals by completing a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals a week ago. The Heat are just the second eighth seed, after the 1998-99 Knicks, to reach the championship round under the current playoff format.

“Everybody’s confidence is so high,” said Heat forward Jimmy Butler, who was named the most valuable player of the series after scoring 28 points in Game 7. “We have belief that we can do something incredibly special. So we are going to hit the ground running when we get to Denver, and I like our chances.”

The Nuggets, who are rested and deep, figure to be the Heat’s toughest challenge to date. At Butler’s postgame news conference, he was asked how he and his teammates planned to slow Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets’ star center and a two-time M.V.P. Butler said he was giving himself until midnight — it was 11:42 p.m. at the time — before he began to think about the coming series.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve got two days to figure that out.”

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