The Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 100-96 in Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at FTX Arena in Miami on Sunday to win the series and reach the NBA Finals for the 22nd time in the franchise's history.

Having played 141 playoff games in his career, 35-year-old Al Horford will finally make his first appearance in the Finals as he lifted the East Finals Championship Bob Cousy Trophy to celebrate the hard-won victory.

Jayson Tatum, 24, was named the first East Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) and received the Larry Bird Trophy for the award after playing the Conference Finals for the third time in his career. Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, who stood next to him, have played Conference Finals four times.

Each of the above four Celtics played over 40 minutes in Sunday's game. Coach Ime Udoka gave Payton Pritchard a bit more than two minutes in the second quarter but stuck to seven-player rotation from the second half. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra did the same as Tyler Herro played less than seven minutes in the second quarter. Bam Adebayo rested no more than two minutes. Jimmy Butler stayed on the floor for every second of Game 7.

This was a win-or-go-home game for both sides, no one wanted to nor could afford to make any mistake. Both the Heat and Celtics chose to switch instead of trapping or launching help defense in most possessions. That explained the low field goal (FG) rates of the two sides – 41.2 percent for the Celtics and 42 percent for the Heat.

The Celtics invested the most in driving as much transition offense as possible from the beginning and that's how they established an early lead of 32-17 in the first quarter. But Butler stood out for the Heat again in the second quarter to shoot 5-for-5 from the field to get 18 points in the second quarter. He scored 24 points in the first half in Sunday's game, more than he did in the first half of Game 6 (21) on May 27.

However, Butler had six assists in the first half on May 27 but none on Sunday. The Celtics would rather make him work hard for every point than getting his teammates involved in offense. Adebayo almost became the only teammate of his to offer consistent help on the offensive front. The Heat, which averaged 25.5 assists, the league's eighth-most in regular season, only got 16 assists in Sunday's game.

Turning the game into an isolation contest was theoretically in favor of the Celtics because they have younger, healthier and more athletic Tatum and Brown. By contrast, Butler is 32 years old and has been carrying an injured right knee for a long time. Both his touch and strength dropped in the second half as the opponents had expected.

Nonetheless, the Heat dragged the game into clutch time in the end as Kyle Lowry, Victor Oladipo and Max Strus finally woke up in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter. The three drove an 11-0 run, cutting the deficit from 13 (98-85) to two points (98-96) after Strus drained his second and the team's sixth 3-pointer with 44 seconds to go.

In the following possession, the Celtics' offense failed for the fifth straight time in the hands of Smart who missed five open shots in a row. Butler had the rebound dribbled to the front court and then pulled up to shoot a quick 3-pointer.

The ball didn't fall into the net. Was that a reasonable shooting choice? Absolutely no, but Butler had a point taking that shot because they got a great momentum and were unlikely to have enough strength for overtime. The East Finals would have never gone to this point if it weren't for his historic performance in Game 6 and Game 7. Butler deserved more than anybody of the Heat to make that call and take the shot, whether he made it or not.

The 2021-22 season didn't go as the Heat had planned for many reasons. The injuries of Lowry, Butler and Herro, underperformance of Duncan Robinson and slow recovery of Oladipo all held the team back at certain points of the season. Yet they still overcame these and other hurdles to finish the regular season as the East leader and fought till the last moment in the Conference Finals.

Both the Heat and Butler have nothing to regret.