Heat Beat Celtics to Reach N.B.A. Finals

By HOWARD BECK

Published: June 9, 2012MIAMI — The rally was brash and ostentatious. Three towering figures rose above the fray, declaring their supremacy in bold, broad strokes. The Miami Heat were flexing and preening again, but with an authority and substance that no one, not even the Boston Celtics, could deny.LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — who united in one infamous, smoke-filled rally 23 months ago, making lofty promises that would define their character and their careers — staged a furious rally on the court late Saturday night, authoring a 101-88 Game 7 victory over the Celtics to clinch the Eastern Conference title and send the Heat back to the N.B.A. finals.

The Heat will play the Oklahoma City Thunder for the championship, in what promises to be an electric showdown between two of the league’s premier scorers, James and Kevin Durant. The series starts Tuesday in Oklahoma.

A year ago, the Heat’s title hopes were snuffed in the finals by the Dallas Mavericks, inviting mockery and scathing criticism, primarily of James. Every step they have taken since then has been directed at this moment.

“It’s been a journey,” said James, who led the Heat with 31 points and 12 rebounds. “It’s been a long ride.”

Wade spoke of redemption, a payoff that is now four victories away. The opportunity was nearly lost when Miami let a 2-0 advantage in this series become a 3-2 deficit. But James refused to let it go, closing out the series with 76 points and 27 rebounds over the final two games — a screaming rebuttal to anyone who still questioned his ability to perform under duress.

James was steady, efficient, smart and ultimately overpowering.

“He’s the best basketball player in the world,” Bosh said. “He just has to show up and do what he’s been working on and believe in himself, because we believe in him. If he does that, we all like where we stand when the smoke clears.”

James, Wade and Bosh scored all 28 of the Heat’s points in the fourth quarter, turning a 73-73 tie into a rout within minutes. They held the Celtics to 6 points in the final 8:49.

“Honestly, I just thought we had nothing left,” Coach Doc Rivers said.

James played all 48 minutes and saved his best for the finish, scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter. Wade scored 9 of his 23 points in the final period. Bosh, again playing off the bench, had 19 points, with 8 in the fourth. Bosh, who has never been known as a long-distance shooter, set a career high with three 3-pointers, two in the fourth quarter.

The Celtics simply could not keep pace. Paul Pierce’s fadeaways fell short. Ray Allen’s 3-point stroke faded. And the Celtics as we know them might soon fade into history.

Pierce, Allen and Kevin Garnett are heading for a likely breakup, their title hopes derailed for the second straight year by a younger, bouncier Big Three. Allen (37) and Garnett (36) will be free agents next month, and their futures are uncertain.

“I just want to stick with this group, if it’s a couple more days, a couple more weeks or whatever,” Rivers said.

Allen’s eyes welled up on the podium after the game as he pondered his future. He needs surgery for bone spurs in his ankle but said, “There’s still a lot of basketball left in my legs — I know that for sure.”

Rivers sounded wistful as he reflected on the five-year run of the Big Three, which started with a championship in 2008 and was plagued by injuries every year since.

“I wish we could have had healthy runs,” he said.

Few expected the Celtics to even get this far — not after losing 15 of their first 32 games this season, not after late-season injuries to Pierce (sprained knee) and Allen, and certainly not after losing the first two games of this series. They lost a key player, Jeff Green, before the season, and another, Avery Bradley, during this playoff run.

“I can’t be any prouder of the guys who came and put the work in every day,” said Pierce, who finished with 19 points.

Pierce, Garnett and Allen had played six previous Game 7s, winning four of them. James had played in two previous Game 7s — both during his Cleveland tenure — and lost both, including one in Boston in 2008.

This Game 7 had the potential to define an era for two franchises.

“These are the moments that the players will remember when they rest their head on their pillows 20 years from now,” Miami Coach Erik Spoelstra said before tipoff.