As Jimmy Butler dribbled the ball up the floor in the dying seconds of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals last May, he glanced over at the Heat bench to coach Erik Spoelstra.
Exactly 363 days earlier, Butler had found himself in an eerily similar position: the ball in his hands, dribbling up the floor against the Celtics, Miami down two, and a chance to eliminate Boston at home.
On that earlier night—Game 7 of the 2022 East finals—Butler pulled up from the right wing in front of Celtics center Al Horford and fired a three that rimmed out. The top-seeded Heat lost, and the Celtics advanced to the Finals.
