Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Dull Gret; Pieter Bruegel The Elder; 1563

Sports are brutal. The Celtics had rallied from down 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals after coming in as major favorites, after coming back from down 3-2 in the prior series against the only top-4 seed in the conference still surviving (other than themselves). The Celtics were the first team forcing a Game 7 after being down 3-0 to have Game 7 at home. They were something like 8-point favorites to win the game and series.

And Jayson Tatum turned his ankle on the first possession of the game in a total fluke bad landing on a baseline drive.

Reggie Miller harped on it a lot through the first quarter, but it was totally justified as it clearly limited Tatum’s burst. Eventually, after a second half transition score by Tatum, he became a total shell. Miami recognized it and began attacking him mercilessly on the other end of the court, getting him into as much action as possible and driving past him to the cup.

Tatum’s ankle wasn’t the only reason the Heat beat the Celtics 103-84 to claim the Eastern crown.

The Heat have played some of their best defensive games of the season in this series, including Game 7. Boston had another nightmare shooting effort, and a lot of that was Miami forcing tougher threes than the C’s would like to shoot. The defensive activity from every Heat rotation player was outrageous. The zone continues to work in spurts — it works so well you wonder why we don’t see it a little more — and Miami recognized that the officials were not going to call an especially tight game, so they got physical with Boston in a way that most of the Celtics are simply not built to reciprocate. Bam Adebayo was amazing as a defensive anchor, and Caleb Martin, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry did great jobs on the perimeter. But also, Duncan Robinson blocked a Jaylen Brown isolation three? The effort was immaculate, up and down the board.

On the other end, as it has done all season and through the last several postseasons, Miami got by. Butler’s ease grew as the game wore on and he hit some big threes to set the tone and force Boston to come up higher on him, allowing him to drive to the cup. Martin was hot and finished the series as the steadiest Heat scorer. He finished just under 50% on six threes per game in the series. He finished the series with more made threes (22) than Brown and Tatum combined (18)! He finished just one vote behind Butler for the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy!

There was all that, and also Duncan Robinson snuck backdoor for lay-ups twice. The effort was immaculate, up and down the board.

Miami didn’t look like a team that had just blown three chances to finish the series, two of them at home. They looked like a team mad about how Game 6 ended on Derrick White’s last (tenth of a) second putback and ready to avenge it. They looked like what Erik Spoelstra sounded like on Saturday night. A reminder:

And that right there is Heat Culture. Honest self-reflection, pinpoint attention to detail, immaculate effort, no fear. Heat Culture is gang rebounding up 20 in the fourth quarter. Heat Culture is Haywood Highsmith picking a top-6 player’s pocket in the open court. Heat Culture is Gabe Vincent and Caleb Martin wearing ECF Champion hats. Heat Culture is Jimmy Butler making a promise after losing a Game 7 one year and making good on that promise the next year. Heat Culture is having Tyler Herro in street clothes and not making excuses. Heat Culture is Duncan Robinson missing two would-be go-ahead threes in Game 6 and trolling the crowd in the Garden in Game 7.

Heat Culture is an 11-9 record in the playoffs against the Tatum-Brown Celtics.

Heat Culture is making the Finals twice in four years in the Jimmy & Bam era.

Heat Culture is LOSING TO THE 41-41 ATLANTA HAWKS IN THE PLAY-IN TOURNAMENT, TRAILING THE 40-42 CHICAGO BULLS IN AN ELIMINATION GAME WITH LESS THAN FOUR MINUTES TO GO AND *STILL* MAKING THE NBA FINALS. (I will never get over this.)

Meanwhile, In Boston

Tatum said after the game that it’s “extremely important” that the Celtics extend Jaylen Brown’s contract. I agree. Brown has a ton of value despite a recurrence of his offensive constraints in Game 7. By signing Brown to a massive extension, they are not necessarily locking themselves into a one-track future with Tatum and Brown. Even if they were, there are worse things. Brown is young, great on both ends and still getting better, it would seem. The Celtics are literally a perennial contender. There are worse paths in which to be locked.

The bigger factor here is the de-facto hard cap in the new collective bargaining agreement that will come into play for the Celtics over the next few years, once Brown and Tatum’s extensions kick in. The biggest way in which it impacts the Celtics is that it makes a high-priced supporting cast untenable, as Ryan Bernardoni explains in detail. This is going to be a situation replayed across the NBA for any franchise with two All-NBA caliber players, so seeing how Brad Stevens and Co. deal with it in Boston will be fascinating. I presume they will try to negotiate with Brown off of the 35% but relent if he insists and if he wants to lock in with Boston. There’s no guarantee as to what Jaylen Brown wants, of course.

There’s also the question of Joe Mazzulla. Had the Celtics been swept, it stands to reason that Stevens might have had to reconsider his retirement from the sidelines. But with the C’s bringing it back to a Game 7, my hunch is that Mazzulla will be given a real opportunity to run the team with a full summer, camp and staff.

Everything else on this team, though, is a total question mark. The rest of the NBA is going to be sniffing around all of these role players all summer long.

In Other News

The heat death of the universe? We still have time.

In Other, Other News

This might be the best ever “Art But Make It Sports” drop. Much love to Boston Sports Guy, who is being a good sport about the photo.

A Brief Visit to the Coaching Carousel

Two huge coaching jobs were filled in the past couple of days.

The Bucks hired Adrian Griffin, who had been on Nick Nurse’s staff for the past five years in Toronto, as head coach to replace Mike Budenholzer. Before getting into coaching (he spent time under Scott Skiles, Tom Thibodeau and Billy Donovan in addition to Nurse) he was a journeyman NBA player through the ‘00s. His son, of course, is A.J. Griffin of the Hawks. There are reports that Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted to play for a former player and vouched for Griffin specifically.

Meanwhile, Griffin’s old boss Nick Nurse will reportedly be the new coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. This is the second wildest plausible outcome for Philly, only behind Mike D’Antoni returning to the head coaching ranks. We’ll see how adaptable Nurse, Joel Embiid and maybe James Harden are. There’s just a lot of potential in every which direction — good, bad, weird — here. I’m not sure we’re ready.

Openings remaining: Toronto, Phoenix, Detroit. Marc Stein has some reporting on what’s happening with those vacancies.

The NBA Finals!

Game 1 is Thursday. We’ll talk about it over the next two issues.

Be excellent to each other.