Heartbreaker Heat loss has Miami facing road Game 7 & biggest playoff collapse in NBA history | Opinion

In about the time it takes to utter the word “heartache,” the Miami Heat on Saturday night went from heading to the NBA Finals to heading back up to Boston for an all-or-nothing Game 7.

Oh my, but what the Heat has done to itself in the collapse of the past three games!

And the stunning pain of Saturday night — losing with 0.2 seconds left in regulation on a put-in layup by Derrick White -- accentuated all of the hurt. The winning shot would not have been in time had the referees, on review, added 0.9 seconds to Boston’s final possession.

A week ago Miami was the darling of the NBA, Cinderella in sneakers, waltzing into the NBA Finals as a delightful, thoroughly unexpected championship contender.

Now the Heat prepares for a flight to Boston and an ultimatum of a Game 7 there — a must-win on the road to avoid the single-greatest playoff collapse in NBA history.

Saturday night’s 104-103 Game 6 home loss by Miami put the Heat in that predicament.

Miami led 103-102 with three seconds left after a 15-4 late run — 13 of those points by Jimmy Butler.

It wasn’t enough.

“It’s a shame. But this is the way this season has been. We’ve done it ugly all year,” said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. “I don’t know how we’re going to get this done, but we’re going up there to get this done.”

Miami could not overcome the ill-timed poor shooting night by Jimmy Butler — who despite his late heroics shot 5-for-21 — and Bam Adebayo, who was 4-for-16.

“I gotta figure out how I can make the basketball go in,” said a frustrated Adebayo.

Butler, to his credit, accepted blame.

“If I’m better from the jump start,” he said, “if I’m not 5-for-21 I’m wearing a different hat up here and it’s a different story.”

He also said, “We’re going to go in there and we’re going to win [Game 7].” Jimmy is good at guaranteeing stuff.

By contrast of his and Adebayo’s off-nights, Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 57 points.

Unlucky as the last-second loss was, it is hard to argue Miami deserved to win.

The Heat shot a horrific 16 for 52 in the paint, and only a 14-7 edge in three-point baskets kept the Heat in the game. Well, that and the Undrafted Four -- Caleb Martin, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson -- combining for 59 points. The Heat was shooting a sub-awful 31.9 percent entering the fourth quarter.

Spoelstra got testy when has about Butler and Adebayo’s offensive inefficiency.

“I don’t give a dam how they shot,” he said.

He should. Playoff Jimmy was quiet until a late surge got him to the free-throw line a bunch. Bam was missing shots all night as Boston owned the paint.

But of course Miami blew a third straight closeout game Saturday.

Of course a team once sailing with a 3-0 series lead is now headed on the road for a Game 7 on Monday night.

How could this Heat season have had it any differently?

What, you expected smooth or easy?

From this bizarre, disappointing season rife with injuries? This season that was a late scramble just to sneak into the playoffs at all. This season that saw a play-in game loss, at home, badly, to Atlanta.

This has been a months-long gruel of a climb, so why would it end short of an all-or-nothing Game 7 for the right to face Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals.

“Everything we do is the hard way,” as coach Erik Spoelstra put it.

Hard just got harder.

This is the historic ignominy Miami now confronts.

An NBA team up 3-0 in the playoffs (like Miami was) has never lost. Ever. Not once.

A team up 3-1 (like Miami) has won 95.2 percent of the time.

A team up 3-2 (like Miami) has won 84.7 percent of the time.

But a team that loses a third straight closeout game to find themselves at 3-3? Like Miami? That team is 21-58 on advancing , or 26.6. percent, when Game 7 is on the road.

TNT’s Charles Barkley didn’t equivocate in the pregame broadcast: “They got to win this game tonight,” he said of the Heat. “If they don’t win this game, they’re going to go up there [for Game 7] and get an ass whipping.”

“We can and will win this series,” Butler had said after Thursday’s loss in Boston.

They’d better, or this Heat team will be associated with an historic collapse like none other, ever.

You looking for hope, Heat fans? Boston has not been a strong playoff home team for awhile. The Celtics are 4-5 at home this postseason and 16-19 in Boston the past five years in the playoffs.

Offsetting, that, though: Celtics momentum, with three straight elimination-game victories to get to the doorstep of making the NBA history Miami is trying to avoid..

Adebayo was asked how a team can overcome the emotional hurt of losing like the Heat did Saturday. He said wehat he had to, all he could:

“Go into Boston and get you one.”