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NBA Playoffs 2012, Heat Vs. Celtics: Game 7 Reaction

Reaction from Game 7 between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics.

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The Miami Heat are heading back to the NBA Finals after a hard-fought 101-88 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals Saturday night. The win came thanks in large part to the play of LeBron James, who scored a game-high 31 points including 11 in the fourth quarter.

But the credit should not just go to the "Big Three" as the writers over at Peninsula Is Mightier say. The role players also came up big when needed to help send the Heat back to the Finals.

"Pundits will focus on the fourth quarter, but the Heat also received some quality contributions from Mario Chalmers and Shane Battier. Batttier made four 3s -- all in the first three quarters -- to keep Miami in the game despite playing a subpar first half. And after struggling in the first half, Chalmers got into the lane on a couple of possessions during a nip-and-tuck third quarter for easy layups. Udonis Haslem, who turned 32 Saturday, chipped in with seven points and six boards, making a couple short hooks on broken Heat possessions."

The Heat will continue to look for more complete team efforts in the NBA Finals, which get underway Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.

For more on the MIami Heat, head over to Peninsula Is Mightier.

Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.