Heat's Jimmy Butler called Game 7 win over Celtics exactly one year ahead of victory

This was the third time in four years that the Celtics and Heat squared off in the conference finals, with Miami winning in 2020 in the NBA bubble and Boston winning in 2022. Both teams ultimately lost in the NBA Finals, to the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, respectively.

While last year's Eastern Conference Finals began and ended in South Beach and the 2023 edition had Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 in Beantown, there were still plenty of similarities between the two series.

After going down by as many as 13 points in Game 1, the Heat stormed back to earn the early edge in the best-of-seven set, likely leading many Celtics fans to experience déjà vu. The 2022 conference finals were significantly more back and forth, but this year saw Miami steal two games in Boston and earn a blowout win in Game 3 before dropping three straight heading into Monday's Game 7.

Jayson Tatum's ankle injury in the opening moments of Monday's contest didn't help the cause, but outside of Game 6 hero Derrick White, no Celtics players had a meaningful positive impact on the game. The Heat, meanwhile, got tons of contributions outside of Butler (who won the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP), most notably from Caleb Martin, who poured in a season-high 26 points.

With the win, Miami not only advanced to an NBA-most seventh finals in the last 17 years, but it avoided becoming the first team in league history to blow a 3-0 playoff series lead.

The eighth-seeded Heat have already taken out a No. 1 seed (Milwaukee Bucks), No. 2 seed (Celtics) and No. 5 seed (New York Knicks) this spring. Now they'll look to defeat another No. 1 seed in the NBA Finals in the Denver Nuggets.